The Cricketers — Restaurant in Colchester

Updated and added stars* Came here twice in the just few weeks, once for a quick drink in the lovely beer garden and again yesterday for lunch. Both occasions were as one would expect as an establishment such as this. The café latte was perfect as was the lunch we had. I'd chosen the chicken club sandwich which not only can I very highly recommend but filled me up too. It was very nicely presented and tasted fantastic. Staff were polite and professional even though it was very busy we didn't have to wait too long. Well done again

We have eaten at the Cricketers on many occasions over the last few years and never had a bad meal or experience. That changed at lunchtime today. We booked a table easily using the phone to book and the online form to cover track and trace was easily completed. We were warmly greeted by staff in face masks however the garden entrance hand sanitizer was empty so not a great anti covid start. We chose our table and sat down to look over the menu. Their lunch menu has shrunk quite a lot and unless you're having a bigger meal then your choices are very limited. You can find the menu online on their website. 4 of us chose 4 different items. Chilli chicken wrap which was very well presented and was assured tasted just as nice. I chose the sausage sandwich which was just like a sausage and onion sandwich only a lot drier. The fries were also very dry and crunchy. The prawn sandwich was well presented but had very little taste. The fries from the same batch were Luke warm and crunchy. If I'd had to stab a guess I would surmise the fries had sat under a heat lamp or counter prior to serving as was my sandwich. The gammon steak was tasty however the chips that came with it tasted of fish! I had a side of onion rings and these were very greasy. Now I won't take the stand of 'never ever will eat here again ' because I will. I just know what to do. I usually complain if a meal is substandard and having been in the hospitality business since 1984 I know a good meal from a bad one and the reasons why. But as I was with the in laws kept my opinion muted. I would still recommend this place for a good meal especially on a nice sunny afternoon to sit in the spacious beer garden. All the staff were polite, covid aware when seeing them cleaning away tables and sanitizing them. Give it a go but check the menu before you book in case your taste isn't...

We turned up at the pub on a Wednesday night, in the hope of having a quiet meal to celebrate our recent wedding anniversary. We were astonished to see a packed car park, but thought we would try and see if we could get a table. Inside, the public bar area, was indeed packed to capacity and so we resigned ourselves to having a quick drink before moving on. We commented to the barman that we were surprised to see the pub that busy on a Wednesday evening, he said that it was a quiz night and that they were always popular, being held every other week. He asked if we had wanted to eat and then suggested a table in the dining room. Once we were sat down at a lovely table with very comfortable dining chairs, one of the extremely pleasant waitresses handed us a menu. It wasn't an extensive menu, but compact and comprehensive, I was very impressed with this. It is much better to do a few things very well, rather than a lot not so well. My husband, being still stuck in the 70's had a prawn cocktail and a sirloin steak and I plumped for a tomato and mozzarella salad, followed by a ribeye steak, but they had sold out of ribeye, so I had a sirloin too. Our starters when they came looked and tasted absolutely delicious, we really enjoyed them. While we were eating the quiz started in the main bar, but tucked away in restaurant, we could hardly hear it at all. The only bad thing about our evening happened next, one waitress cleared our plates and before she had crossed the room another waitress was approaching with our main courses. I for one, like to have at least a 5 minute rest between courses and don't mind at all waiting much longer. However, our steaks were very well cooked, mine a medium and my husbands a medium rare, they were delicious and beautifully tender, as was the rest of the meal. We sadly couldn't find room for a desert, so cannot pass judgement on that. All in all, a top class meal, in a lovely relaxed restaurant, with very pleasant and attentive staff, can't wait...

It’s always been good in here but not any more. Four of us visited 9/6. Ordered a pot of tea. What came up was a pot of tea and no milk or sugar. We asked for it and it came. Ordered glass of tap water without ice. We got a glass of water with ice. Main course. The food was delivered and we had no cutlery. The cutlery came after the meal. When we ordered the meals, we swapped the chips for new potatoes and one of the meals came with new potatoes. The potatoes were hard and not properly cooked. All three of us sent the potatoes back and they swapped them for chips. Half way through our meal we got one single bowl of chips between three of us. We queried it and they said they could bring us more. By this time it was too late and we’d lost interest so we told them just not to bother anymore. The crab meal came with bread. There was no butter. We asked where it was and also said we should have had butter with the now dry inedible potatoes. He agreed we should have had butter; then some rock-hard individual portions of butter were put on the table. We asked what had go downhill here and he blamed it on “new chefs” and the fact that someone (a male employee???) was away. Hmm-not good enough really. Your chefs should have been up to speed. All in all, a poor experience from a local pub that has always done good food, but I’ve heard it’s been going downhill for some time now. Back to the Queens Head in West Bergholt. Their food is always spot on and far superior and cheaper. Won’t be visiting again I’m anfraid until it’s sorted out, even though we live around the corner. We were given 20% discount. It wasn’t even...