The Duke of York — Restaurant in Basildon

Surprised my partner with a family dinner here for his birthday, and am so glad I did.

When we arrived, we were shown to our table that had ample space for our party of 2 adults and two children.

We were offered children's menus. The children were happy to have options for starters, which they don't always get on a kids menu.

We attended on Thursday, which was 241 steak and grill night.

We were offered drinks. The children asked for orange juice with lemonade. When I asked the price, I heard the children's drink was £1.60. The drinks that arrived were huge. When we received the bill where we were charged £2.50 for each drink.

My partner went for a raspberry rum and lemonade. I had a large merlot. We were both happy with our drinks.

My partner had the prawn and crayfish cocktail. He thoroughly enjoyed it. The children went for garlic bread and spring rolls. The garlic bread was good quality with minced garlic, and the spring rolls looked perfectly crisp.

Both dishes got the thumbs up.

For mains, the children went for the fish gougons with chips and scampi and chips. Again, the food looked fresh and crispy.

Both adults went for the mixed grill, which was incredibly tasty and more enjoyable, knowing we were only paying for one dish.

Everything on the plate was flavoursome. We had to ask for extra nbq sauce for the ribs, but we both thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

I ordered peppercorn sauce for the 4 oz steak, not realising it was an extra cost, but the gravy boat housed a very generous portion that was very tasty.

For afters, Mr. picked the baked strawberry and white chocolate cheesecake. I went for the pineapple upside down cake.

The cheesecake was phenomenal. The pineapple upside-down cake was not quite as tasty and looked more like a rum cake than the cake I used to get at school with custard.

It was a nice cake. Would have liked the option of custard instead of ice cream, but it was a good desert.

The cheesecake was next level.

Service was pleasant. It was a little slow at times but it appeared only 2 staff were on the floor and the restaurant was quite busy.

I asked for the bill and eventually had to go ask at the bar. I received an apology because the server forgot.

We were overcharged for one of the children's starters, but it was quickly corrected.

All in all, it was a lovely night out.

The venue was nicely decorated and very clean. Staff were courteous.

We will...

Went here for one of my parents 'significant' birthdays for a 5.30pm sitting.

The pub was fairly quiet but understandable given the time of day. It would be nice if they would serve a modern IPA, the one they had on tap looked more like a stout. A reasonable wine selection.

Service was very 'relaxed' (putting it politely) and I thought we were a little 'out of sight and out of mind', the staff were very responsive when I left my seat to go up to the bar where they were just of the time to eg ask for x / y / z, but it was a bit frustrating that I had to do this at least three times. I was originally waiting patiently to see if there was any member of staff nearby at our table but no one really was ever over where we were. Basically they came down to serve food and to ask for food orders, clean away the plates, and that was it.

Whilst my parents were very happy with their meal I was not very impressed with the duck as it was in a jus which was so overpowering everything else on the plate only tasted of the jus. It was served with fondant potatoe which was quite hard in the middle and had the appearance of a giant roast potato. My starter of calamari was bland, as were the onion rings served with the main.

For my daughter's calamari starter the first she ate was actually an onion ring, an innocent mistake of course but how did that happen in the kitchen??

The time spent before our initial order, waiting for our first round of drinks, and in between courses was a lot longer than you might expect in a restaurant.

My wife was not massively impressed with her main course either. Kids enjoyed theirs though.

As it was a significant birthday I stayed quiet the whole time, but I just wasn't that impressed with the whole experience and won't...

Last night myself and my husband booked a meal at the Duke of York . We had a very bad experience over a year ago and ended up with not paying and a voucher for 6 to eat for free but decided in our wisdom to give it another chance . On arrival at just before 7pm the pub was packed , we explained our meal was booked for 7.30pm but would like to have few cocktails beforehand. We were shown straight to our table . The waiter came back after 10 mins and took our first cocktail order and our whole food order . We were served our starters at 7.25 . We then ordered another couple of cocktails . We then did not see a waiter for 45 mins . I then went to the bar at 8.15 and said " I've had to come and get my own wine as we have been waiting so long " the barman apologised and handed me the wine . We sat for another 20 mins still no sign of our main meals over an hour later do decided to leave. My husband went to the bar to explain about the poor service, he was asked only to pay for the cocktails apologised for our experience as they were so very busy . The pub had a party booked at the back with over 60 people attending, a restaurant full of people, people walking in off the Street drinking at the bar , cocktails on 2 for 1 which the bar staff were trying to cope with and it was all too much. There were not enough bar staff or waiting staff working to cope and after speaking to the staff who apologised for our experience confirmed that they were understaffed and under pressure. The Duke of York is our local but time and time again we have been let down by bad service and food. We do not go out to have a bad experience but you ruined our evening of celebrations and went home with empty stomachs. I will not...