The Playhouse - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Colchester

The location, value for money and array of drinks and food choices are good but the quality of food, service from the staff and general dinginess of this branch leaves a lot to be desired, especially compared some other Wetherspoon locations.

Our party left the table momentarily to find our drinks had been cleared. Understandable, it was busy but the staff member told us our table hadn’t been cleared and that someone took the drinks (an empty glass was gone, who would steal this?) The was escalated to management who reviewed the situation to say that we were right and our table had indeed been cleared but because we left the drinks it was our responsibility and we wouldn’t be compensated. I find this appalling as in any other establishment if a table had been cleared accidentally a replacement or reimbursement would happen almost immediately and apology issued but the response we got was a sarcastic “We clear hundreds of tables every night, maybe leave someone at the table next time”

Well Sir, MAYBE I’ll just vape inside like all the kids at the back were instead. Then our drinks would have been safeguarded from the buzzard-like collection staff who eagerly await the opportunity to clear half finished items then tell us they haven’t in some sort of bizarre psychological game, but then we would be facing a different issue entirely, wouldn’t we?

I probably will return in the future but not so willingly and will try to avoid...

On a rainy autumnal day, I was cycling past on my way to a recommended local cafe when I spied this place. 'Looks a jolly interesting building', I mused. And so it proved to be. There's so much of the original that has been retsined that, like many of 'Spoons properties, it just oozes character. What Tim and his team have done so well, is to create a chain that appeals to all ages. Very, very clever. With a helpful member of staff showing me a little space inside to keep my bike safe, I settled into a nearby table to peruse the menu. With my Wetherspoons app, I ordered from the comfort of my seat. On my last visit to one of their many venues, all the gourmet burgers were sold out, so I chose 'The Big Smoke', which included pulled beef brisket, maple cured bacon, onion rings and chips. Very tasty too. The deal included a very pleasant 500 ml bottle of 0.5% Erdinger Weissbier, which, on its own, would have cost £2.63. Amazingly, the total bill was just £10.19. My only slight criticism was that when the server brought the meal, which arrived within 15 minutes of the order being placed (The drink was there within 2 minutes), when I asked for the condiments, there was no offer to bring them, but I was pointed in the direction of a table nearby. Well, what did you expect for a tenner?...

The building is an excellent conversion of what was a Bingo Hall before Wetherspoons took it over. Prior to that it was one of two town cinemas and, before my time, a theatre. Inside, up in the stalls, manikins and cardboard cut-outs of celebrities look down on customers. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to see the ceiling or manikins as scaffolding covers the whole of the roof area. It has been in position for several months. Eighteen pumps are given over to real ale and the ales are rotated sufficiently frequently for the regular customer in pre-Covid times to experience 3 or 4 new ales each week. Now, one has to be satisfied with a much more restricted range.

For me, the best value day is ‘Curry Club Thursday’. There is a good choice of curries and with a pint, the price is below £8.00. Sadly, the electronic ordering system is unreliable, so without the opportunity to visit the bar, it is very much 'hit or miss' whether one gets served within a reasonable time frame. The app is also updated only sporadically, so it is unpredictable whether a particular beer can be ordered or not. Indeed, despite staff trying hard to please, the system has not yet managed to improve sufficiently to rise to the the challenge of Covid. It is all a...