Ego at Running Mare, Chelmsford — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Swerve! Sundays are no joke in this place.

Positives: Great menu, lovely interior of restaurant with tables well spaced and it's clean inside, good desserts

Negatives: Slowest service ever, Sunday roasts are average at best (very little meat, dry yorkshires, no idea what had happened to the spuds) some staff come across quite standoffish, do not adhere to customer requests (asked for a candle on sisters dessert for her bday, they 'forgot'), misleading pricing on menu (see below)

OK so I reluctantly leave this review as I know there will be people working hard to make this restaurant great. Unfortunately, that has not been achieved in my opinion.

We went for my sisters birthday on a Sunday lunchtime, 7 of us. The restaurant was very busy which was a good sign I thought. Wrong. The consequence of that was that we waited 20 min to order our food, over 50 min to be served the food, and a further 15 min and 2 reminders to get the bill!

The Sunday roasts are on a menu offering 2 courses for £20.95 - this isn't quite the case though as the lamb and the trio of roasts carry an additional £4 charge, which is does state on the menu next to these options, bit they're not £20.95 then are they?! So why are they on this menu?! Misleading at best.

The actual food was disappointing to say the least. The beef was by far and away the best, but there were just 2 small slices with this roast which isn't enough in my view. The lamb was good though. Chicken was a bit thin on the ground in terms of partition size too. The overall meal looked robust on the plate though, padded out with lots of roasties (no idea what had been done to these but I wasn't keen) plus additional veg. The yorkshires were dry. I'd ordered the trio of roasts and wish I hadn't- the pork was beyond dry and hard, the chicken was dry too. The beef was lovely though.

After another lengthy wait we were given dessert menus and then another considerable wait before we could order these too. They came quick enough though which was a nice experience for once!

We had to ask for the bill twice to finally get out of there, because the waitress again forgot.

I'd alerted the waitress to the celebratory nature of our visit but apparently they forgot and when I mentioned this to 2 separate staff members, they could not have cared less. I get that they were super busy, but as a customer, this wasn't a great experience 😕

Overall: Very poor service, incredibly slow, food mediocre at best (roasts) but desserts good, staff a little unfriendly. I will not...

I was a lady alone (friends name above not mine Lisa) with my Assistance Dog I came in for Lunch Saturday 30th after 12 noon. I hadn't booked, I tried but was slow online. I was greeted by John very well and was told the dog friendly area is to the right, even with an Assistance dog whom should have most access. I sat at my table, I was treating myself and usually enjoy my time eating out with my pup, I was not told or don't recall hearing it was a 20 min wait. I asked John and Ann Marie if there was another table as it was really quite loud for me. (Having an Assistance dog should have indicated awareness to noise or some issue). I sat as I was told, I ordered my glass of Chardonnay and ordered my Lemon Milanese. I enjoyed my meal, ambiance, service and John said he was glad he hadn't cancelled any staff. I ordered a Eton Mess and Water and my head began to ring due to the noise as previously mentioned, I waited for 20 mins reminded Ann Marie of the water and ordered the bill, I was ready to leave by then. I reminded her I hadn't received my Eton Mess even though I asked for the bill, she confirmed this, only my water came. I thought they forgot, no-one reiterated it would be 20 mins or more for the dessert, the restaurant was getting empty at 230pm. I put my jacket on, left the money, minus the Eton Mess. My hand was on the exit door and Ann Marie came rushing with the Eton Mess. An awkward moment for anyone & rather spoilt my meal because then her voice raised & people behind her turned to hear what was going on. I was embarrassed, she stated 20 mins was told to me, I said I didn't hear as it was loud and it wasn't a good moment for me. Embarrassing sadly, pity coz my heads still ringing at 4pm and also I usually tip well, I have a Degree in Hospitality Management I get it, I will return and thought the overall Hospitality was very professional perhaps just some awareness and training on people with mental health conditions, would be useful as you cannot see all...

I visited today with my little girl and parents at 4PM. The member of staff who sat us down was very polite and gave a great first impression, our waitress who took our drinks was again incredibly polite and took her time with us helping with any queries we had about the menu. There was a wait on the drinks and our starters however all of our dishes tasted fantastic and the cocktails were on point, having managed both restaurants and bars myself the quality of the drinks were impeccable.

My only fault was that we had a rather long wait for our mains, so much so after a while we asked a passing waitress who told us our table had only been cleared and our food ‘mains’d away’ 15/20 minutes ago, she went off to check on our food, after coming back she said it would only be a few more minutes. 10 more minutes had passed and my daughter was getting restless so we asked to speak to the manager who was more than accommodating for our issues, we told him how we’ll have to leave the mains due to how long we’d waited. He was understanding, courteous and professional. He authorised a very generous ‘comp’ for us and remained welcoming throughout our chat.

Yeah sure our mains didn’t arrive in a time that worked for us but everyone is entitled to have a slow day from time to time, the food we did have was delicious, the staff were great and they overcame our complaint in a fantastic manner. I can’t wait to go back and give myself a bit more time to enjoy the great food & drinks and quality service that was clearly there!

I didn’t want to be that guy who slanders a place for a one off experience, it’s a difficult enough job as it is running a restaurant and from what I did get to experience they have all the qualities of a fantastic restaurant that I’ll...