The Restaurant @ Suffolk Food Hall — Restaurant in Babergh

We thought we would revisit the restaurant after its refurb. Our previous experiences had been underwhelming, but we wanted to give the place another chance. It did not go well and we won't be returning.

The place looks lovely post refurb and nothing can ever beat the views across the river and of the bridge. That is where the praise has to stop, sadly.

The food was dreadful. We had burgers, and fish and chips. The burgers were supposed to come with "smoked cheese, barbecue sauce and crispy onions". The cheese was definitely not smoked cheese, the amount of sauce was minimal and there were no crispy onions. The burger was bland. The brioche bun was over-toasted (ie: burnt). The shoestring fries were just about cooked. The fish and chips: cold chips, certainly not triple cooked as advertised, lack of seasoning. There was a chef at the pass, plus someone expediting, but there seemed to be no quality control.

Having requested the bill twice, after twenty minutes one of our group approached a member of the bar staff to collect it personally (she was beyond helpful and apologetic for the poor service). However, the wait was spent watching staff avoiding clearing up a smashed glass. The manager clearly had very little authority over the servers (who promptly disappeared to the other end of the restaurant), and the presence of a table of families with young children seemed to do nothing to add to the sense of urgency. Delivering afternoon teas seemed to be more important.

Such a shame as we so wanted to make this a regular visit. Would be better to head next door to the shop, pick up a picnic and enjoy the...

Disappointing!

My parents took me here for my birthday surprise and we were all very excited before we arrived. However, sadly, we all left feeling quite disappointed.

We had afternoon tea, which, when arrived was very tasty. The service, however, was unacceptable. We wanted a drink whilst waiting and weren't even asked for a drinks order for about 20 after we sat down.

We waited a further 40 mins or so for the afternoon tea to come out, and at no point before this were we asked if we wanted tea or coffee with our food.... which surely is one of the main parts of an afternoon tea! When the food arrived, we asked about drinks and the server said we should have been asked about these already! We ordered 3 teas and 10 mins later, they had still not arrived so we had to chase this again. By the time they arrived, we had almost finished eating.

None of us were given any jam for the scones and only realised when we saw others with it, which was too late as some of us had already eaten the scones. We mentioned this to a server who said "all the ones I served had jam. Did I serve you?", to which we said no. He repeated "oh, well all the ones I served had jam. You should have asked me". Totally not the point and I really did not appreciate this response!

Overall, very very slow service and servers seem unbothered and nonchalant about attention to detail/providing a good experience for customers! Not sure I'll...

If you're looking for a greasy spoon for a quick breakfast, this place isn't for you! If you want something a little more special, then it definitely is. Hubby and I went for breakfast on his birthday. Menu is good... plenty of choice with pescetarian, veggie and vegan options available. Hubby had the full English and I had Eggs Royale and both were delicious. You have the option of switching items on the full English ('meat for meat' and 'veg for veg') so if black pudding's not your thing, you can switch it for extra bacon or another sausage and if you don't like tomatoes, you can opt for more beans or another egg. We also had fresh orange juice and coffees which were, again, full of flavour. The kitchen is open to view and both it and the restaurant were spotless. The staff were efficient and very friendly and the view of the river and the Orwell Bridge is amazing. There's also notes and pictures around giving a little history about the place and the locals. Lovely shop to browse with fresh local ingredients, things for the garden, a smaller coffee shop and a great play area for small children. Highly recommend. We'll be back :) Only reason I knocked a star off is because it might be a little on the expensive side if you are a family of 4 or 5 (about £18 a head for breakfast, juice and coffee) but for a birthday or occasional treat, worth...