The Kings Head, Epping

This is an attractive pub with a comfortable ambience and pleasant waitresses and last year we had a couple of good meals here, but unfortunately the food is not what it used to be asit seems the kitchen has had a new cook for 4 months.
First we had to send back the bread and balsamico; a small piece of stale french bread partly reheated plus cold flatbread,(useless for dipping into anything) and a roll straight out of the freezer, hard and solid and impossible to tear apart!.( All this before the main meal !)
My wife's duck was awful; reheated from probably days before, plus what seemed like leftover vegetables from lunchtime, all very grey, tasteless and unpleasant. My lamb shank was 50% bone and swimming in a vegetable soup, beneath which were dauphinoise potatoes slowly disintegrating and floating away in the liquid. It used to be a good place to eat but now the "King's Head (or the cook's) needs chopping. Not a recommended Vintage.

15 Sep 2011 15:56

The Ancient Mariner, Nether Stowey

From these reviews it looks a really good place to go but it seems the pub is under new ownership and things must have changed. We stayed for a week in the village and called in one evening hoping for a meal. We were 'greeted' by a very tense lady behind the bar who said they were not taking food orders for 20 minutes as they had table of several people in the restaurant section. After half an hour we were allowed to order and asked how long the meal would be.Very soon after this enquiry a furious little man marched out of the kitchen shouting at us and the other bar customers that... ' if people want a quick meal they should go to a place that heats frozen food up in a microwave'! We left. Nice looking pub, good beer, pity about the management!
'If you can't stand the heat......'.

30 Aug 2011 12:11