Red Lion — Restaurant in Basildon

Having been before we should of learned from last time when the food was disappointing. But we fancied a nice lunch out today and instead got disappointment on a plate. The burger was overcooked within an inch of charcoal with a bun that looked like it had been fetched from down the side of the counter... nice and stale.

Overcooked fish, no bread or tartare (as it said it came with) had to ask instead.

The staff just hide out the back and customers seem to be far from their mind.

It's a real shame when people are wanting to have their local pubs feel like pubs as much as possible the disappointing service and food means that I wouldn't be surprised if this pub will be struggling in the near future.

Their saving grace? Cracking Diet...

Three meals ordered, 2 x adult 1 x child. Children's s menu stated 3 filet of fish fingers with chips and beans. What arrived was two massively overcooked fish fingers with some beans and a few chips. My scampi was also overcooked and I had a total of 7 chips!!! With cold peas. The other adults fish and chips was equally poor. The bread was stale. The condiments were delivered in a metal basket but didn't fit so were teetering on the verge of falling out. In fact it arrived with only mayo and hp brown sauce and we has to ask twice for ketchup as apparently 'they couldn't find it'. The staff, while pleasant enough, were extremely scruffy. The diet coke...

I have to say the welcome we received was warm & friendly a proper pub. Nothing was too much trouble, and the service & cleanliness was excellent. I met two friends I hadn't seen for ages over a 5-hour period and the staff looked after & interacted with us especially with the banter. The other customers were also friendly and on many occasions all customers were bantering with each other but not loud or boisterous just laughing & joking around the pool table area. I don’t write many reviews these days but made me feel like I was in a relaxed local pub back in the day. Whenever I’m in Billericay this will be my pub of...