Mimosa Colchester — Restaurant in Colchester

Poor quality food- would avoid!

Arrived and was seated promptly, nice table and attentive staff, we ordered the tapas selection and a sirloin for my wife / ribeye for me both medium rare, onion rings and Caesar salad as sides, the tapas arrived in 3 little ramekin size dishes nothing was seasoned at all, meatballs where ok, chicken and chorizo was an extremely over cooked stew with the chorizo being the deli sliced variety and the chickens being so over cooked it was like pulled chicken that has probably been festering pre made in the back of the fridge, final tapas was a tortilla which was so dry and over cooked the 3 little squares had curled up and was slightly green - again no seasoning what so ever. My wife had ordered a cocktail which was really nice, my shandy on the other hand was half Peroni and half soda water or carbonated water - probably the post mix machine not working. It was replaced and I was told ‘perhaps it was because of the Peroni as it’s a lager’ and that they had tasted it and deemed it fine, replacement was sent which wasn’t great but a little better - I ended up just drinking about 1/3 of the drink. Main courses arrived promptly and there was a visible difference in size between the 10oz ribeye and the 10oz sirloin, the ribeye was about 2/3 of the size and even with shrinkage not acceptable. The dishes looked totally bare on small triangle plates with a small bucket of chips which were seasoned and cooked ok half an on ripe plum tomato which was more or less raw with no seasoning, olive oil etc for flavour. My wife had ordered the peppercorn sauce as an extra at £3 which came out bizarly in a tiny shallow dish ( like a small crème brûlée dish) the sauce was clearly bought in and straight out of a packet like savoury custard and warmed in the little dish, possibly the worst peppercorn sauce I have tasted. No other garnish what so ever for what was a £30+ main course onion rings were homemade and very good. The Caesar sales or ‘mini Caesar salad’ was just a handful of leaves with 7 croutons on top with a few shavings of Parmesan and a squeeze of what I assume to be ready made Caesar dressing on the top, not a mixed well dressed salad at all, once this was tipped on a side plate it literally looked depressing and at £4 for what probably costs 0.50p food cost an actual joke. Everything is an add on, you want a sauce it’s an add on, garnish it’s an add on, I asked if the steak came with any compound butter and was told I could have some garlic butter on the side, we started to eat the steaks and I had put the garlic butter on it and the steak was so cold the butter didn’t even melt, not even slightly. My steak was under seasoned except for a token sprinkle or garnish of sea salt on top) but no seasoning on the steaks whilst being cooked. My tiny rib eye steak was rare but tender enough, my wife’s sirloin was blue and actually stone cold which she had to return- when it was returned it had clearly been in the microwave and was so tough she had to leave it. We was asked for some feedback which we gave and we was told “no one has ever complained” which of you read the reviews is clearly not true. We was offered complimentary drinks and alternative main courses but by then we had had enough and if you can’t season food correctly I couldn’t face another badly cooked in seasoned dish - in what world would we want more poor food? The restaurant manager did speak to us and again said no one had complained before, we was offered desserts but had seen enough and I can only imagine how bad they would have been. In departing one look in the kitchen tells you all you need to know, 3 young ‘chefs’ which clearly isn’t enough for the size of the restaurant, the chefs need to be trained properly as they clearly lack basic knowledge of how to cook. it’s a shame because I’m sure the restaurant and cocktails look good on Instagram but the food is awful, the chefs need to be trained how to cook and season food properly and how to ensure food is at the correct temperature-...

Yesterday I had booked for 4 of the girls to go to Mimosa like we have many times. There’s been a change in management since we last went. We arrived and the female manager with brown hair and glasses who we assumed to be the manager had a very condescending attitude. This was intimidating my friends and I are in the age range of 25-28 and she spoke to us like children.

We ordered simple things 1 x fish and chips 2 x Burgers & a Ribeye steak and a few side’s from ordering our food to arriving at our table took an hour and 15 minutes, the restaurant was not even a quarter full.

Our food was cold and half of the sides we had asked for were missing, I went to talk to the manager who completely dismissed the fact that we had waited so long and the food was cold with missing items ordered, she didn’t try to rectify this by any means or offer any solution.

I must say the cocktails served by the Bar team were amazing and made with care

Again this was my birthday meal, I was wearing a birthday badge and my friend had given them my Birthday cake to bring out.

I went back to the table and waited another 5 minutes for the food we had missed to come. It didn’t I gave the waiter my food at this point as it was freezing, the girls had finished their meal (most of the food had been left bar the ribeye) and told the waiter I no longer wanted it.

The waiter was lovely, I can’t remember his name but he was a young guy with black hair and glasses. I had tears in my eyes and just wanted to get out of the restaurant to make the most of the rest of my birthday night, we had asked for the bill 3 times & repeatedly had to ask for the service charge and burger I gave back to be taken off.

The food was being served without the hot pass on, (we could see into the kitchen where we were sat) guests were complaining about their food on the table behind us, The difference was the manager went over to them I can only assume this is because they were older ladies. She gave them the respect all of the customers deserve regardless of age and status.

I worked in Mimosa previously when under Diego as director and Catalin and James as managers. I’m an avid fan of the owner's venues in and around Colchester I.E pavilion, Hudson.

We usually get the Tomahawk and I’m so glad we didn’t pay £90 for food that seemed like it was made hours ago and left out to go cold.

At this point, my friend asked for my birthday cake back as we were going to go somewhere else to get food. The manager laughed at her, gave her the cake & rolled her eyes.

I have never experienced such disrespect, disregard and Ageism on my birthday from my favourite restaurant !!

I will not be returning. The service and the whole night was horrible, no one should cry at a restaurant on their birthday.

I hope the owner reads this and thinks about who he trusts being the face of his business.

I would come to Mimosa for all occasions and talk about this restaurant with such high regard I am so upset that I can no...

What a fall from grace! We went for a nice family having not been for a couple of years and I have to say it was a disappointing experience. To begin with it looked like it was closed initially-having waited at the front desk for a couple of minutes we went to the middle bar to look for someone as there wasn’t anyone to greet us and the front bar was closed. It took a good couple of minutes further for the staff member to notice me standing there. The first waiter we had (Rishi) was amazing-very friendly and polite but then we got two different waitresses after who were polite but seemed uncaring. One was wearing an un-ironed oversized shirt which I personally don’t think looks smart especially half tucked/untucked-even if this was meant to look fashionable it didn’t it just looked messy. The restaurant was almost empty too! A few years ago it would have been busy so in my opinion I thinks it’s because they’ve let standards slip and people no longer see the value-I certainly didn’t. The starters were lovely and deserts. The main was disappointing though-I’m happy to pay £40 for a nice steak (which it was) but the presentation looked cheap and I would have expected a bit of salad garnish perhaps. The sauce was stone cold and congealed which was disgusting so I had to take it back up to the bar as I wasn’t going to wait for my food to get even colder before I got attention from a waiter/waitress. The replacement sauce was weak too-tasted more like watery Bisto. Totally ruined my main course and all we were offered was a free dessert (£10 compared to a £40 main). Looks as though they’ve cut back on staff due to cost which I understand to a certain degree but not when I personally am paying £200 for a meal out! Considering it was was empty the service should have been more attentive and I don’t like having different service staff throughout your meal because you get forgotten which is exactly what happened. We were really disappointed with our experience and probably won’t go back there again now which is obviously what others have also thought as it was dead for a Saturday night! Awful 80s music too. Elysium Group…looks nice but your standards have slipped dramatically…sad times when competition is high-I’ve been to better restaurants in Colchester and paid a fraction of the price for a meal. Just look at the photo and ask yourself if that looks like a £40...