The Ship Inn — Restaurant in Colchester

After decades of working and eating in restaurants I have to hand it to The Ship Inn for worst first impressions. After accepting our booking at 8 the gentleman informed us that the table might not be ready when we arrived as it was booked for 6. We said no worries, as we could just wait in the bar and all was well. We arrived a little late as we are not familiar with the area and genuinely believed there would be no rush as the table may not be ready. By late, I mean 11 minutes late. When we arrived we were informed the kitchen had closed. We were absolutely dumbfounded. The man who took our booking was brought out looking quite flustered and he very brashly told us that of course he had warned us about the kitchen closing and because we were late they had packed away. As someone who has worked in restaurants since I was 16 (and eating out like a normal person) I have never EVER seen a kitchen shut when a booking was due to arrive. Had we been informed the kitchen would be shutting - rather than we might have to wait for the table to even be ready - then we would have been bright and early as we usually are. Instead of trying to work with us, The Ship Inn continued to lie and assert that we were informed that this would happen. The three of us that made the booking in person were all in agreement that this was never communicated. The man disappeared into the kitchen and we could hear shouting and swearing from the kitchen which made us even more uncomfortable than we already were. The man emerged and said we could have plates of ‘picky bits’ which I suppose was at least an attempt to salvage his mess, but by then it really was a horrid situation. This booking was for my mums hen do and we took the recommendation from the Airbnb we are staying at so we really were looking forward to a nice meal, plenty of drinks and easily spending £2-300. And before you wonder, my mum is 55 so we hardly showed up with blow up dolls etc it’s a very classy and calm affair! Ultimately, this could have completely ruined the evening and whilst I accept we were late, we were by no means MIA. Had the man taking our booking taken my phone number - which he did not - surely a simple call could’ve avoided this.

It is my sincere feeling that the kitchen wanted an early night and did not want our business. I have never been turned away from a restaurant and to top it off be called a liar. I will tell anyone to avoid The Ship and we will be passing this on in our feedback to our Airbnb host, as I doubt they will want to continue to list this place as ‘welcoming’; it’s about as welcoming as...

Came here today and disappointed is an understatement. The food was absolutely dreadful. Inedible. Myself and partner had the vegetarian roast, it was the blandest dinner I've ever eaten. Yorkshires are no longer made from scratch but taste and look like Aunt Bessie's. The gravy was basically hot water, mixed with granules, no flavour. Potatoes had a weird metal/oily taste to them. The average selection of vegetables had been boiled to oblivion... Even the stuffing! looked like it had all been microwaved. They do not cater for vegetarians or vegans. They are not "up-to-date" or "moving" with the times. They've chucked in a bit of gluten free to placate a very small quantity, otherwise what a poor and limited menu. Adult burger meal had dodgey bacon in it and he left over half of it. Pork roast was really tough, our 86yr old grandad could hardly get his cutlery through it. Tough as old boots. My son said his sausages were really chewy. Non-alcoholic peroni beer was disgusting and my partner has had many before, even I had a sip and recoiled. The service from the waitresses was stressful, rushing round, abrupt, and you could feel their stress levels, even though it didn't seem that busy, with empty tables. Tone of voice sounded irritated at times, when we were explaining what we wanted or if a child had changed their mind, like we were an inconvenience. What was most surprising was the sheer amount of food left, but not once did the waitress acknowledge or address and ask why?!?!?! I left my entire roast dinner after only a few mouthfuls, as did many of the other plates. It was like they didn't care if you enjoyed it or not. Not bothered about feedback. We looked and had dessert because we were all absolutely starving, but even that was just mediocre sugar, pre-made/packaged desserts with Luke warm custard. Were told chocolate cake was really good. No it wasn't. Tasted like a boxed Betty Crocker. We spent well over £100 today and no way were we going to leave a tip. My partner and his family have been going to the ship for nearly 20yrs but we've decided as a family, we will no longer be going back and won't be returning. It's really gone downhill....

We travelled from Buckinghamshire to Great Totham to take our Sister to the ship for Sunday lunch. We were looking forward to it greatly and it was a very very disappointing experience. When we arrived we were seen by a 16 year old girl who asked for our drinks order . She did not know what a Campari and soda was or what a spritzer was . Not her fault a management fault . We ordered the traditional roast beef and roast chicken meal .The roast beef looked like it had come out of a packet and was very tough . The chicken was served chopped up in pieces as you would prepare for a cat or dog . The roast potatoes were under cooked and some of the vegetables were very poor . . We were booked for the first sitting at midday so you would think the food would be fresh and well cooked. We complained to the waitress and decided to leave snd pay the bill . We went to the bar and informed the Manager of our poor meal and he said that the policy of the pub was that we should have returned the food and it would have been replaced and that he would still charge us the full price of the meal. .we were not made aware of this policy. Yes we should have sent it back and left . He made some pathetic excuses for the state of the chicken . Naturally we will never ever return or recommend the Pub to anyone . Our Sunday was ruined by bad food and bad...