Colchester
Cloisters, GreyFriars

Cloisters, GreyFriars

High Street Colchester, Essex CO1 1UG, United Kingdom

Fish • Soup • British • European


"during a stay at the hotel as a couple to dinner. it was initially disappointed that despite the reservation in advance the restaurant did not let it know that the road would be closed for Christmas lights if we wanted to arrive. finding the restaurant in the building was not difficult, but there was no sign. follow a further quick disappointment that a third of the main meals were not available that in the evening no vegetarian option and only a red meat option. in the course of our meal only two other covers were served. we had set ourselves about 5 minutes before the staff spoke to the surrounding music. this led to a real lack of atmosphere. I had braided with a pickled brombeer venison. a poor court. the venison was overdonated and under-seasoned, recalling cat food. the pickled brombeere was not sour and could not cut through the bitter mushy meat. the radishes was watery. the twill rings, although incredibly thin and small, have a good taste and texture. I wouldn't recommend it. my partner had the ham-hock-terrine. this dish was very fresh and alive. a balanced dish, although it is lacking in each taste to increase it to a large dish. as a main course I had the one available red meat, braided ox cheek with mark. the jus were rich and fleshy and the narrow was well seasoned. the ochse was better than the venison that had been cooked on the same wise, although still a little overdue for my taste. the cream-colored kartoffels had good consistency and taste. a hearty court for a winter evening. my partner had the maple glazed pork beak with apple and apple. the star of the evening. a good sized pork chop, well trimmed, but with enough fat for taste. glaze was strongly flavored, but not exaggerated. good light contact on the apfel and glazing elements that could have been oversweet (especially with the maple) would recommend. dessert was sticky fabric pudding and a cheeseboard. both were good enough, though a few crackers hadn't fired on the cheeseboard. Overall, I feel that this is a restaurant that tries to be finer than it is in the position to be. if it is a little deeper, there is the potential for a very nice restaurant, but unfortunately it has not made this brand in this current condition."

The Cricketers

The Cricketers

Spring Lane, Colchester, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • Vegan • British


"updated and added stars came twice in the few weeks here, once for a quick drink in the beautiful beer garden and yesterday again to lunch. both of them were as one would expect as a facility as they were. the caffe latte was perfect as the lunch we had. I chose the chicken club sandwich that I can not only recommend very much, but also fill me up. it was very beautifully presented and tasted fantastic. the staff was polite and professional, although it was very busy, we didn't have to wait too long. well done again we have eaten at the cricketers often in the last few years and never had a bad meal or experience. that changed today to midday. we have a table easy to book with the phone and the online form to cover track and trace has been easily completed. we were warmly welcomed by employees in face masks, but the garden entrance hand sanitizer was empty, so not a big anti-covid start. we chose our table and sat down to watch over the menu. their lunch menu has shrunk quite a lot and if they are a bigger meal then their choices are very limited. you can find the menu online on your website. 4 of us chose 4 different items. chilli chicken wrap, which was very well presented and was sure tasted as beautiful. I chose the sausage sandwich, which was just a lot more dry like a sausage sandwich and a wobble sandwich. the fries were also very dry and crisp. the prawn sandwich was well presented, but had very little taste. the frits from the same batch were luke warm and crisp. if I were to delete a guess, I would surpass the pommes under a heat lamp or a counter switch before I would serve as my sandwich. the gammonsteak was delicious, but the chips that came with it tasted of fish! I had a side of tweebel rings and they were very fat. now I'm not going to stand 'never eat here again' because I want. I just know what to do. I complain in the rule when a meal is under the standard and since 1984 was in the gas industry, I know a good meal from a bad and the reasons why. but as I was sitting with the ones, my opinion was mute. I would recommend this place for a good meal especially on a beautiful sunny afternoon sitting in the spacious beer garden. the whole staff was polite, covided conscious when they see how they clean up the tables and sanitate them. give it go, but check the menu before booking if your taste is not your choice."

The Black Buoy

The Black Buoy

Black Buoy Hill, CO7 9BS, Colchester, United Kingdom

Pub • Vegan • British • Vegetarian


"Me and my partner have often been visiting this pub in lovely Wivenhoe village over the last 3 years. Unfortunately every year since and every time the food gets worse incrementally and I don't know of this is consistent with the change of kitchen staff. The local ale and beer selection has been lovely and the beer fest they often host in the back garden also has a great beer selection. However this last visit was really bad. We booked a table for Sunday roast and we were sat in direct view of serving staff and got ignored for the first half an hour despite it being early on Sunday and barely having any tables to serve. It wasn't until my partner had to make staff aware that we were sat there. No proper greeting like older times and no cutlery or general hospitality provided. We kind of brushed it off as we taught its younger, teenage servers who looked inexperienced. The wait for the food was quite long and the roast was extremely mediocre despite the recent price hike which is not just (cost of living) related and shouldn't be in my opinion as competing country pubs have similar prices and majorly better food quality and portion size. Small portion of meat, beef was sinuie and very tough. It was difficult to cut and chew despite it being on the rare side which should make it more tender. The vegetables used to come separate, unlike this time around where we were served poorly overcooked small portion of fine julienne carrots and horribly overcooked frozen broccoli florets. Gravy was really scarce and barely dowsing the plate, Yorkshire pudding was flat and tasted like it was frozen and microwaved, also cold. The wine offer we chose was a bottle of red not opened infront of us. The server seemed to be in a rush and didn't even wait until our order was finished and just rudely turned around. The specials board dessert for the day (apple crumble) had ran out which is a bad impression of kitchen management as it was really early on in the day in terms of Sunday roast food service which lasts till 5pm and this was a 2pm booking. We ordered the other special dessert for the day (creme brulee) which was runny, watery and sugar loaded which was a bit sickly. The shortbread it came with was fresh out of the oven but the dough inside was undercooked/raw and again way too sugary. The tables around us seemed to be finished with most of their plates still full which was also not a good impression. We got asked if the food was okay multiple times by the same server which was also excessive and annoying. I wouldn't come back here again personally as there is much better competition around this area and even affordable good food/michellin star pubs. I would advise people to avoid the mediocre food, rather maybe have a drink if the bar staff could actually come around ti ever taking your order. Shame really, they should realise that a lot of people can cook a roast better at home it's not something you can avoid criticism about as it's a Great British Classic."