Galvin Green Man — Restaurant in Chelmsford

I would have given this 4 stars if it were not for the sub par service.

4 of us dined Friday 6th December at 8.30pm.

Everything started off great - we ordered bread & olives and drinks while we perused the menus (the bread alone was worthy of 5 stars is was that good).

2 of us opted for the festive menu that was 3 courses for 27.50, whilst our other friends went a la carte.

I went for the duck & pigeon terrine, whilst others opted for soup and the Scotch egg. I was happy with my starter. Good texture and flavor combination, the plum chutney had the perfect amount of sharp/sweetness. Others were very impressed with their soups.

All going well so far. Why the 3 stars you ask?

Basically it's about now the wheels fell off so to speak.

We now played the waiting game for mains. I can't say I had a stopwatch going, but it was a very long time, and at this point we were all looking around for our server, any server actually.

I finally got the attention of a server from another table to get us some drinks. All our glasses were empty. There then seemed to be a flurry of activity amongst a couple of the servers - their body language and facial expressions said it all. I'm pretty certain they had forgotten to fire up our mains.

The larger table behind us (who sat down long after we did) had had their mains and plates cleared. They were on dessert and we were still waiting.

Finally our mains arrived - I had opted for the pheasant, which was cooked perfectly, however I wasn't a fan of the choucroute, which is basically dressed cabbage. Tasted a lot like sauerkraut - maybe the portions were off on the plate as there was hardly any swede puree on my plate. Balance was off for me.

The biggest disappointment of the mains was the halibut. Overcooked. Halibut is one of the hardest fishes to cook. Very unforgiving. 30 seconds and it's over done. Restaurants should not put this on their menu unless they can nail the cook.

The highlight of the mains was the pork cheek. Lovely flavor and faultless texture.

Once our mains were done and plates cleared, we again had to go searching for someone to take our dessert order. Finally I had to get up and go grab someone.

We ordered the Christmas pudding and the creme brulee. Both were decent, not amazing, but probably 4 stars.

We finally ordered our bill, which for 4 people came in at a little over 2 bills - there was a nice gift of 25% off the Galvin group of restaurants for January.

One of our guests summed up the experience perfectly, "they are basically just a pub that...

From the other reviews it sounds like the food at the Galvin Green Man is lovely. It’s just a shame we never got to taste it after they cancelled our reservation for our wedding reception four days before the wedding took place!

They rang my now husband but I had to ring back to get the deposit refunded.

The bloke over the phone said to me they had been closed Mondays and Tuesdays for quite some time because of staff shortages. Our booking was for a Monday. Why no-one bothered to tell us this when we made the booking or when we paid the deposit two months beforehand and in the 20 or so emails that followed is beyond me. You would think to mention there is a possibility that they may not be open when booking something as major as a wedding reception. Had we known this we would never have made the booking.

He went onto say they had hoped to be open by our booking date and they couldn’t be all the while sounding like he was laughing. I’m glad he was finding it funny. I was less than amused and panicking on the other end of the line wondering how on Earth I was going to find another venue at the 11th hour, rearrange our transport and inform all our guests most of whom were travelling a considerable distance. All because they were “hoping” to be open but rather conveniently didn’t think to mention there was a high chance that they wouldn’t be.

Given we had already had to rearrange our day and change our plans from earlier in the year (like many other couples in the pandemic) it made a stressful time even more so having got this news out of the blue. Even a week before I was getting emails to confirm us having a drink in pub before sitting down to dinner and responses like see you on the day. So I just wanted to post this review in case you are planning a major life event and thinking of the Galvin Green Man as your venue. Just be cautious that they may cancel your booking at the last minute.

It was hugely stressful and disappointing as we’d had table arrangements, decorations, wedding favours, placecards, cars hired etc. a huge expense and knock-on consequences for our whole day which could have been avoided if they had just been upfront and honest...

Booked dinner for a Friday and had a lovely, friendly welcome on arrival. As we arrived a little earlier than we had booked we both opted for a pre-dinner cocktail in the bar. As the cocktail list did not have one we fancied I asked the barman if he could make us up a Manhattan (always dubious about asking for a cocktail not listed) and he duly served up a perfect mix. We were sat on a very nice table and asked if we wanted water...which we ordered (tap). The menu was quite limited but there were some very interesting options. A very pleasant waitress took our order and we both selected as a starter an imaginative lobster bisque. Only issue was that the waitress misheard (the restaurant was a little noisy) and though my wife received the dish ordered, mine was incorrect. This is where this restaurant excelled. Firstly an immediate apology was made, both dishes were removed and we were informed it would be a short wait for them to be cooked and would we like some complementary bread and olives whilst we wait. Very professional! Both starter dishes were fantastic with some quite amazing flavours. For mains, my wife had chicken with wild mushrooms, which again had flavours just exploding in the mouth and I had hake with Jersey Royals and tomatoes. In truth, the hake flavour/taste was for my taste a little underwhelming though cooked very well. We both shared a cherry clofoutis and cherry cream for dessert, which we felt was a little to sweet and over powered the cherry taste. We each had a glass of Chardonnay and a pinot noir...both excellent. Overall, we had a superb meal, served by some very friendly, professional staff. We were not rushed between courses and there was no constant visits to the table by the waiting staff to try and build up the drinks bill....which has become a major irritation to restaurant diners everywhere over the past couple of years. Definitely will visit again soon

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