Shaw Farm — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Just come back from what should have been a nice night out to celebrate my mums 75th birthday. 9 members in the party. Unfortunately the meal ended up being an expensive and long drawn out affair for mediocre food. 2 and a half hours to serve starters and main meals. The staff forgot about bringing my son’s dessert so after waiting a while for that to not arrive we got the bill.

A vegetarian haloumi kebab that had to be sent back to get it to warm. The cheese was cut into such large chunks that the centre was wet whilst the outer surface was marginally cooked. Despite being grilled with onions and peppers the haloumi had no flavour whatsoever. Maybe the haloumi lacked flavour due to the dish being undercooked with some of the onions still being raw, and with the whole dish laying in a pool of liquid.

My son’s fish and chips had large flakes of salt over the top of the batter which needed to be shaken off to avoid overpowering the food. Sadly, between the crispy batter and the fish there seemed to be a layer of butter like coating.

It takes great skill to be able to triple cook chips and somehow manage to serve them as flavourless and just warm. Maybe the potatoes used need to be reviewed and the method of secondary cooking.

The pizzas were of good size and flavours but sadly The rest of the dishes were all luke warm. Maybe if multiple staff were assigned to take plates from service to table the food would reach the table in a more timely and warmed state.

Owners and menu may have changed but the food quality and lack of atmosphere has not. This is a restaurant that we will not be in a rush to go back to.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately what you staff have reported to you, that they did, is not the case

I appreciate you saying that it was a busy service but your team know how many covers are available and have details of restaurant bookings. Therefore there should not be significant surprises in customer demand if the shift has been staffed accordingly.

The haloumi skewer was not replaced as you state but was just heated up a bit more. If the dish was replaced in its entirety then a member of staff must have taken a bite from the haloumi in the same way I did and also removed the singular slice of pepper that formed the ‘haloumi, pepper and onion skewer’. Also, the dish was returned back within 5 minutes so not sufficient time to make a fresh dish. Nevertheless the cheese was still poor and I let my wife also try it. The onions that were left on the plate were the ones bordering on raw.

Staff did not make further checks to our table. If they had then they would have been informed of the meals not being as they should.

If the description of the fish and chips stated that the fish would be covered in a fluffy of salt shavings then a request to serve without could be made. Your suggestion that the dish could have been modified is applicable if a prior warning was given. Salt over battered fish is not a usual one when the batter cannot take in the seasoning. Perhaps salt on the chips would be a better use.

My mother make comment to one of the waitress’s to say the food was not hot and was told “I’m guessing it might be down to where the food is made and then served in a different place. I’ll pass the comment on” Had my mums comment been passed on then no attempt was made to make amends.

If you provide your name then we can discuss further the issues...

Had really high hopes for this pub but sadly the service let it down.

The food quality was pretty good but still very pricey for a bistro pub chain. It cost us £110 for lunch on a Monday for 2 adults and 2 children. This included 1 starter for the kids, a sharing starter for the adults, a main for each of us (not expensive steaks or anything, normal mains), 1 kids and 1 adult dessert, 2 medium glasses of wine and 4 soft drinks.

The price would not have been as high if the staff were not incompetent and gave us the lunchtime deal menu at the start of the meal!

We only found out about the lunchtime deal menu when we came to order our desserts and they brought us this menu. We never received it at the beginning of the meal so we didn't even know it was an option. We missed out on a big saving!

We did bring this to the staffs attention and they did absolutely nothing to even try to compensate their mistake. So we paid through the nose for a pub lunch.

I even signed up to their app which is advertised in the pub as it says you receive £10 off your first order over £40. Once signed up, it states you cannot use the code for 6 hours after you've signed up so I literally signed up for no reason at all. Seems like a scam really.

The bad experience doesn't stop there either. Once sat down and our drinks/food orders were taken, we noticed 2 other tables were sat after us and their orders taken after ours and they received their drinks before us. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and left it another 5 minutes or so but no drinks came. I went up to the bar, explained the situation and the bartender literally said they had missed the ticket because they were too busy serving other guests at the bar first. But they managed to sort the other tables drinks out that were ordered after ours. So essentially incompetence again, fulfilling ticket orders out of sequence. Very poor.

The atmosphere of the pub is nice, genuinely found it cosy and comfortable. Had no issues parking and the toilet facilities were clean. However the men's cubicles were so small that you literally have to straddle the toilet in order to close the door behind you, which is gross.

For the food, the sticky platter sharing starter is not worth the money. The chicken parmigiana main is pretty good, I really enjoyed that. The fish and chips were also good, my other half said it was some of the best chips she had eaten. The kids portions were a decent size and both of our kids ate pretty much everything.

In conclusion, the setting is nice. The food is not bad at all but the price and service let it down massively. I don't think we will rush back...

I was excited to try this place for a Sunday dinner with my family. We placed our starter orders to be told the calamari wasn’t available - my husband ordered something else instead and the kids decided to skip the starter as nothing else appealed to them. We ordered 4 roast beefs (1 was a children’s portion) The starter arrived and my husband mentioned to the sever that we were happy to have our mains so the children weren’t waiting too long - well some 40 minutes later these turned up! Having arrived at 4.55pm mains arrived at 5.50pm. The roasts were ok, nothing special - no salt or pepper was brought to the table or offered. We had to ask - this was a bit of a running theme The children’s portion was almost identical in portion size to an adults roast dinner minus the carrots. The potatoes felt as if there were frozen - hard to cut into. The food was bland in my opinion it just lacked any excitement or real flavour. The presentation however was very nice Deserts - we ordered for the children and I ordered a hot drink and mini pudding. The children’s arrived, my pudding never did! My tea was brought to me along with sugar - no milk or spoon. Again no serve was around so after waiting some time my husband approached the bar to ask for milk for the tea which by then was luke warm. I understand businesses have struggled due to Covid and so there maybe not as many stuff available however there was few people in there eating or drinking so it wasn’t due to being over busy. Just more lack of attention and due care. My husband had ordered a Irish coffee this arrived and was undrinkable due to it tasting mostly of sugar. This along with my pudding which never arrived was taken off the bill I’m so gutted that I’m not able to leave a more positive review as I had high hopes but was left disappointed. I really hope that things will improve as it’s a lovely pub and serving local people we want nice places to eat. The potential is there but the service and catering needs to improve massively to compete with other local eatery’s near by. Had today’s meal and service lived up to expectations we would of been back regularly. With a bill in excess of £90 the food and service should of...