Beer Battered Fish
The Bull at Blackmore End

The Bull at Blackmore End

The Bull at Blackmore End Braintree, Essex CM7 4DD, United Kingdom

Beer • Pubs • English • American


"Disappointing experience! Invited friends there who had not been before wanted them to like it, BUT ... On the menu was Cromer Crab on main menu at £13.95, but a special on the night at much less. Also chilli crab cakes as a special . The two ladies ordered the dressed crab salad. When servered, the crab meat was BLACK, smelled decidedly off and tasted foul! The new potatoes were cold. No self respecting chef would have served the dish in this condition! The waitress kindly offered to exchange the two crab dishes for some other dish, thereby delaying the whole meal for the four of us. We were told the cost of the two crab salads would be taken off our bill really! Admittedly, the replacement steak was good but my wife 's replacement fish and chips was poor. Again, the fish was not fresh and was undercooked no doubt in haste! The chips were cold and tasted stale (as did mine with the Bull burger)! Our bill was approx £100 a significant amount for a disappointing eating experience. On the positive side, the place itself is lovely and the staff very helpful with good service. We suspect that the crab, and fish, had been in stock for some while and was being off loaded as specials , the chilli in the crab cake there to mask the off taste. This is dangerous practice with crab in particular. The problem is probably in the kitchen and needs addressing urgently."

Fredrick's

Fredrick's

Shoppenhangers Road, Maidenhead, United Kingdom

Cafés • Mexican • British • Seafood


"I must say, I was so disappointed with my visit to Fredricks. My friend and I went for afternoon tea and were really looking forward to it. But we both found the experience really disappointing. Firstly the afternoon tea cakes looked nothing like the advert, nowhere near as fancy. The scones were lovely but we only had about a couple of tablespoons of cream between the two of us which wasn’t enough! The chap who initially gave us our tea was lovely but then once he had gone we didn’t see a soul. There was no one coming to check if we were ok or needed refills. I ended up drinking cold tea and my friend who had a coffee had nothing once that was finished. It wasn’t until we were practically finished that someone else came to have afternoon tea that we could actually grab someone to ask them for a refill! The ambiance of the afternoon tea was awful. Initially there was lovely music in the background but after about 15 mins it was turned off and we were left in silence. All we could hear were staff in the next room shouting to each other about something or other. There was no atmosphere at all and we actually felt like we shouldn’t be there! I’ve been to a number of afternoon teas and this was by far the worst one I have had. However this was my friends first afternoon tea and we thought that Fredricks would be fabulous for a first time tea..... but she was so disappointed! I felt really bad for her! : I don’t think I would come again."