The Fowler's Farm — Restaurant in Braintree

Fowlers farm has become a wonderful parody of another brand from a shared owner. In a passing glance you could be in a Premium Country Pub, gone are those, all too familiar rustic pub touches that define a traditional “Vintage Inn”. Here comes the brighter and somewhat more modern dreamscape of a new era! Do I dislike the new Fowlers Farm? Well, no. Actually, it suits the pub. It is warm, inviting and well kept. At this point we shall for the sake of the bigger picture, ignore the deceased yukka that once lived (not for a shortage of water) by our corner bound table and concentrate our review on the rest of the clean and seemingly well managed business.

Fowlers Farm seems to be in a state of endless refurbishment. A scaffold adorns the frontage as I assume the owners take what was a tired and one can only assume dangerous building back to being the Galley’s Corner stalwart. Inside though, you may be missing a song. It is smart to a “t”. The colours and design are on point and reflect the professional design investment that large corporations can employ. These are aesthetic demons that help companies define the best trends and the most fabulous fashioned approaches to guest driven businesses. All in all, Fowlers is a great looking venue, from the private dining room (if a little cramped) to the comfortable tub seats with luxuriously printed backs and defined element of premiality (a word I made up for this very review!). The lighting and soft edges are beautiful in all aspects of the pub. As I said this is a wonderfully premium, country pub… Even as a Vintage Inn!

In a traditional M&B style, there are bodies around. I have no doubt that come January there will not be that plethora of humanity to assist. However, like the work force Fowlers Farm represent, we will “make hay while the sun shines” and “give berth when the ships sail”. Today, there was plentiful assistance for the amount of guests en situ. Though, it is not the amount of bodies that causes the blip in this otherwise perfect picture. It is the service quality. Fowlers is not a Toby Carvery. It does not have the luxury of being high value with low service expectations. Fowlers is not cheap like the proverbial budgie. It is not good enough to follow the script but to forget the lines. During our visit we were offered three ways to order. At the bar, at the table (waited on) or via the App. We shall call this “traditional”, “serviced” & “COVID modern”. Traditional is fine with me and we may have taken this offer but with a perception of quality and a sprinkling of pricing, comes expectation. Serviced seemed appropriate but realistically, with a wait of 12-15 mins after seating (hello ex-yukka) before an attempt was made, time knocked this choice off the cards too. We took the COVID modern approach. Arguably this style may not even be required in a business of this model (at least not inside) but I suspect it facilitates those moments when the owners feel it is time to reign in the labour spend. January / February anyone?? It became a necessity for us on this occasion! So now I have almost confused myself! Is it, or is it not required?? Seemingly it is. Nobody came to see us again.

The food was good, it represented the higher price you pay very well. The choices were tasty and it provided well thought out (and on this occasion) somewhat experimental elements throughout. The food was not delivered at pace, arriving within 30mins (straight to mains). It was hot but not “hot, hot!” Although, I would argue that too hot and you miss the flavours, too cold and they have missed the objective. Summarily, the food was not cold and we ate all of it. We visited around 3ish. I would like to see Fowlers under pressure. Is it consistent? Does the menu lend well to heavy trade and continue quality? However, today we enjoyed the fayre.

Fowlers is an opportunity to go out for good money. Give it a go, choose your moments, book in advance and tip as appropriate. My advice to the pub, great first impressions, do not foray into the forgettable for the...

I met with my university friends at Fowlers Farm. It was somewhere in the middle for us all to drive to and reviews online said they catered for GF which was important to us. We booked in advance and we could even bring a dog inside to eat. The food was delicious and reasonably priced; we even got a dessert (fruit crumble which is rare when you're a coeliac.) We asked the barmaid if we could pay as you go but she set up a tab. We continued to have some non alcoholic drinks. When we went to the bar, while being served by a male barman, the barmaid asked us to get out of the way, despite us being half way through getting our drinks. I thought this was a bit rude; I'd heard her being a short to people while serving drinks throughout the evening. At half 8 on the Saturday night we were still there and having a nice time, laughing and the same barmaid shouted across the bar at us telling us to be quiet. I really didn't appreciate being shouted at across a pub. It totally ruined our girly catch up, it was embarrassing and we didn't feel like we could laugh anymore. Instead of ordering more drinks we left. I wouldn't have minded so much if she'd popped over and said 'sorry girls, I'm glad you're having a nice time but could you keep it down a little.' I do think you have the right to laugh on a Saturday evening with your friends in a pub but we would have happily obliged. She didn't behave in the same way towards the loud men who were laughing and swearing. The food is great, most of the staff were great. This one particular barmaid embarrassed us and will be the reason we...

Booked a table for 5:30pm, we already knew that two out of the four of us was going to order a roast dinner, that is why we chose the restaurant. We placed our drinks order within 10 minutes of arriving and our food order for starters and mains within 25 minutes of arriving. Our starters arrived after 20 minutes of placing the food order. After 25 minutes of finishing our starters, we were waiting for our main meal and were told they had “run out” of roast dinners even though we had placed the order 45 minutes previously. We were asked to choose something else from the menu. There wasn’t anything else on there that we wanted. We were going to pay and leave but saw another 4 roast dinners being delivered to another table that arrived a long time after us. When we spoke to staff and questioned how this table had their dinner when they ordered after us we were told because we had a starter and they only had a main, their dinner took priority on their ordering system! We sat for another 15 minutes and saw another 6 roast dinners being delivered to another table that arrived after us. We left having been in the restaurant for an hour and a half without having a main meal and a half hearted apology. We were not charged for our drinks and starters. (they were not hot when they arrived). What should have been a lovely family meal was ruined. Had they told us when we placed our order they had run out of roast dinners, we would still have had time to find another restaurant. I think I’ve been generous with the 1 star review, a completely...