The Hive — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Visited 12 months ago, after finding this place online, for breakfast WITH my wife. On entry, there is a sign about potential for delays due to small kitchen etc. which we noted. Seated quickly, room of about 8 tables with one occupied by an elderly couple and the other by a group of 6. Food and drink order taken quickly, coffees, veggie breakfast, and a bacon sandwich, but no mention of potential wait for food. Coffee arrived quickly, which were nice and hot. Soon followed by bacon sarnie (also nice and hot) but no sign of veggie breakfast. Appx 10 mins later, six full english plates arrived at the other groups table whilst my wife's bacon sarnie went cold. Mrs wouldn't eat hers until mine arrived as we visited to eat TOGETHER. Not watching each other separately eat. Another 7-10 minutes passed before my plate of food arrived, which was lovely. At no stage were we asked if everything was OK or apologised to for the wait in my food arriving First principle of eating out... Punters expect to eat their food at the same time as each other. Not one person's arriving a full 15 minutes after the others If it wasn't for that, it would've been 5☆ all around Will try again but will make a point of asking for food to arrive at the same time for all.

UPDATE 12 months later! Tried again. This time, my eggs benedict arrived a full 10 minutes before my wife's sausage sandwich. Photo shows how much I'd eaten as the sandwich arrived. How can an establishment not manage to deliver two people's food at the same time? Particularly when a group of 4 sat next to us had 4 plates of food turn up at the same time. As last time, no apology for it being late, no checks if we enjoyed our food, nothing. Downgraded service to zero Food was...

A smart cafe, decorated with a selection of museum artifacts and local paintings. It's very nice inside and also the outside seating area is great in warm weather. It was good to find nice food at a sensible price on offer. The chips were very tasty and my salt beef baguette was excellent. Sunday lunch time was busy, but the food was still good.

While it was great to see so many people enjoying a nice lunch, the staff and kitchen were operating at or beyond their capacity. It took a long time to get served after we were seated. My son is into timing things at the moment, he said our food then took 39 minutes to arrive after they took the order. The board says 20-25 minutes, which is probably on a less busy weekday. I'm happy that we stuck it out, but other people were leaving without ordering. I'm sure that's not an issue on any other day.

The kids meals were basic but good value. One kids meal had a single small sausage and chips, wheras the other had 5 or 6...

Very disappointing.....very young waiting staff, our waitress didnt understand orange & lemonade (mixed together) so hubby got a bottle of lemonade and a carton of juice..... we placed our order and was told there wld be a 20 min delay, thats fine we were in no rush-after 30mins nothing but was then told it would be 45mins still nothing (even thou we asked a couple of times) staff were so young u really felt for them! Over an hour later, we had 2 breakfast come out cold eggs and what looked like a microwave sausage, 15 mins after poached eggs came out, another 15 mins I recieved my jacket potato.... my hubby still waiting for toast to go with his breakfast! Everyone was complaining, poor service, lack of adult support for staff, substandard food... Extremely disappointing for a 1st visit..even complaining to the manager who really didnt seem bothered...we will not be returning or...