Queenies — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Having previously been and very much enjoyed the milkshakes and on one occasion the steak sandwich too, I was excited to be in Chelmsford again today to pop back in for some food. Unfortunately today was no comparison to previous visits.

I already knew what I wanted, but when the waitress brought the menu over she rushed off before I could order. It was then over 10 minutes until she returned to take my order. She did apologise for the delay, I don’t work in the industry but it certainly wasn’t busy in there so I’m not sure why there was a delay. The food arrived in a good time, however it was very disappointing today. I ordered the ultimate breakfast (without the mushrooms). I’m not sure what the eggs were, something between an omelette and scrambled eggs, but they were very undercooked. I left them for the staff to see. Everything else was just about warm. Sausage was only browned on half of one side. One single tiny room temperature “potato cake”. I was very hungry and it was raining outside so I ate what was edible. The waitress came over at the end to ask if everything was alright. I mentioned the eggs which were still on my plate, she asked me what I would like her to do, but at this point there was nothing to be done as I had already finished. As she moved to another table, they were requesting food be taken back to be cooked further.. Went to pay at the counter, was asked again how my food was, gave the same report again, was apologised to again. Was charged full price. Paid and left. Poor show today and the 2 staff at front of house didn’t really seem bothered at all.

I even got a smiley face drawn on my receipt after all that...

Had I not previously visited then this would be a 1 star review, but as said, previous visits have been very good.

I thought I had a “go to” place in Chelmsford but will try...

Unfortunately we had a very bad experience at Queenies. My friends and I had booked a table only to be told after sitting (and only half of us ordering drinks) that they were too busy so we're putting a hold on both food and drinks orders for an unknown amount of time - the other half of the table were not allowed to order drinks either. We had an extremely long wait before taking our food order (40mins) and then another long wait for the actual food to arrive which all came out separately -two of us had almost finished eating before the rest of the meals came out. Then we were given 3 forks and one knife for 6 of us! We had to ask three times for more cutlery. They asked if we wanted sauces but we weren't given the mayo until we had almost finished so it was pointless even bringing it by that point (and this was after we asked again for it).

Allergen wise, the place was shocking. I do not eat meat, yet found a bit bacon or ham in my meal. I fed back to the chef but wasn't given an apology. One member of our party was vegan - the menu has zero vegan options. She had to ask 4 times for the menu items to be checked after they tried to substitute her with a vegetarian sausage (which was not vegan). The bill was also incorrect. The food was actually nice when it arrived, hence the two stars. Everything else was sadly a shambles and we won't...

Today was the first day we visited Queenies and although it started a bit in an unconventional way, I could definitely say this is my new favourite place. When we arrived at 9ish they had a power cut, we went in anyway, told them I'm not bothered to wait, had some water and an apple juice but then decided to go,run some errands, and come back later. They didn't charge us for the drinks and I can say they won us as customers for life with this very simple gesture. We went back around 12 and they were already full, had to wait a bit to be seated but that didn't bother us. We were starving and ordered quite a big breakfast/lunch and I can say this was the best food I have had in UK in a while. Hollandaise eggs, eggs and avocado on toast, grilled cheese sandwich, fries and pancakes. They were all spot on, served pretty fast seeing that the place was full, hot, delicious food. The staff was so nice and kept asking if we need anything else, if everything was fine,if it was worth the wait. Loved the atmosphere, loved the food , especially the fries, there's not many places where you can have a good portion of fries that are not frozen and the pancakes,oh my God, the pancakes were soooo goood and the music was so nice. See you again...