Maybush Inn — Restaurant in East Suffolk

There's no doubt that the Maybush Inn at Waldringfield, NOT Woodbridge as Trip Advisor says, is in one of the very best positions on the River Deben. I'd actually been here many years ago with friends from BBC Radio Suffolk, so it was interesting to see the changes made by Deben Inns, whose properties I know well. Our Sunday lunch didn't start well because whoever had taken our 1230 booking on the phone yesterday had put it in the wrong day. It was lovely to be told that we were marked as a 'no-show' the previous day. So, after a bit of a hiatus, we were given a table 'as long as we vacated it by 2.30. Drinks arrived quickly although our female server brought a bottle of wine, when we'd ordered a medium sized glass. Blimey, over £8 for a not very large glass of very ordinary Sauvignon Blanc. Food was on the table minutes later. Roast beef for my friend who had kindly invited me to lunch to celebrate our joint birthdays last month and a 'slow-cooked' lamb shank for me. As the picture shows, the plates were hardly overloaded with veg. TWO potatoes? Really? You almost needed a microscope to see the cauliflower cheese! I have never known such mean portions of vegetables. What the picture doesn't show is that both meals were lukewarm at best. A matter reported to the server when she enquired whether we were enjoying the meal. Did she do anything about it? Not as far as we know. I couldn't understand the dessert offerings at all. At the start of October, why did most of the puds involve ice-cream? Where was the crumble and custard or traditional hot puddings? Nowhere to be seen. We had coffee and tea afterwards. I was less than pleased when the server whisked away my teapot before I'd had a chance to have my second cup. When the man at the bar asked whether we'd enjoyed our meal, I mentioned, again, the lukewarm plates of food and the tea theft. To his credit, he appeared at our table moments later with a £10 voucher. It was then 2.30 and nobody had arrived to kick us off our table. Did we need to go? Apparently we could stay as long as we liked! It's a nice venue, but there is no excuse for food not being served piping hot. Deben Inns are better than this. I know, my loyalty stamps on their app are nearly complete. As for their 'dog friendly' policy. Do people REALLY want dogs up on certain tables as their...

Sadly The Maybush didn't live up to our expectations. This was our first visit to The Maybush and we were greeted warmly and shown to our table by a lady I would assume was the manager. I think a coach party must have turned up because it became very busy but our food was served quickly and efficiently and with smiles from two young lads. For starters I had the whitebait and my wife had salmon, dill and horseradish pate. Both starters were excellent. For our main courses I had the sea bass fillets whereas my wife had the prawn linguine. Both were okay but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing we haven't done ourselves at home. I'm sure the menu stated that the sea bass came with greens but unfortunately they had been substituted for tender stem broccoli but tender it wasn't - the consistency was more like rubber - I simply could not cut through it. Normally when we eat out we're always asked if everything has been okay and so I was ready to pass on my comment regarding the broccoli when our plates were collected - but no, our plates were taken without a word being said by the lady that had originally greeted us. We decided to cut our losses and leave without ordering desserts and coffee. We paid the young man who was on the till who frankly seemed bored and disinterested, nevertheless we always leave a gratuity and my wife had cash in her hand to give to him. She asked if there was a staff box and without looking up he mumbled that there was one round the other part of the bar and made no effort to take the tip being offered nor to advise her where the staff box was. Consequently we left without leaving any tip which is a pity for the other young staff members were pretty good throughout our stay. So as the saying goes, "once bitten, twice shy," that will be our first and last...

Bustling beautiful large pub with a traditional heritage feel , yet fresh & modern , serving tasty hearty meals.

The location is the most fabulous draw nestled right on the waters edge with plenty of outside tables well positioned to make the most of the glorious view of the clear water & characterful bobbing boats moored up.

Our dogs were most welcome here although were not offered any drinking bowls or treats unusually especially as it was a warm day.

It was really very busy on the day we came so service was quite slow yet polite : a 25 minute wait from starters to main, then another 20 mins just to try & order deserts, by which time we were too full to eat one.

The sharing baked camenbert was by far the smallest I've been served in all honesty so don't share with too many !

Nice to have some different vegetarian choices with things like the veggie patty - style burger, really tasty. Overall , a great atmosphere, just wonderful ambience, stunning decor inside & out, great service, good food , good drink ,& most definitely worth the trip here. Advise booking as it really IS extremely popular.

Revisited in September 2023 :

Just as fabulous! Great service , relatively quick food service especially as it was unseasonably warm therefore busy.

Four of us had a roast dinner, 2 of which were veggie with a mushroom Wellington which was absolutely delicious. I wish we could have had more ! High Rise Yorkshire puddings & very nice vegetables including roast potatoes of course.

We all had puddings ranging from Raspberry cheesecake to chocolate brownie, white chocolate tarte to Creme Bruleè - extremely tasty! Just the ticket! You just can't go wrong...