Tom, Dick & Harry's — Restaurant in Epping Forest

I'll just say it was soft launch week, but this was the last day of the soft launch and they need to up their game and fast. The staff are all over the place. Nobody knows what they're doing, wine took 20 mins to come. Were told, by us having to ask the waiter, after 15 mins wait, that the first bottle we ordered they didn't have. Ordered another. Half way through that one another waiter brought over the one we ordered. Cue, massive discussion between the waiters away from us, but in my eyeline. Okay, the food. The chef really deserves incredible praise for what I think is quite a feat. Making pork scratchings have the taste and texture of polystyrene. I've never tasted a pork product with no salty taste. It was like Heston. But for the wrong reasons. Salmon starters were nice. Fresh and nice flavours. Roast beef Sunday lunch main course. Oh dear. Three sorry looking potatoes (cold), two slices of beef (cold), three baby carrots (scolding), a small wedge of cabbage (warm) and a terrible, totally dry, again tasteless, overdone Yorkshire pudding. Dribble of thin jus over the meat. No offer of extra gravy. Should come as standard. It's a Sunday lunch. £22! £22!!!! Hawksmoor is £21 and is on another planet. I know they've been around longer and are established, but to start at this level doesn't bode well. Especially somewhere as small and local as Loughton. I got the cheese as my dessert as I jokingly said to my wife that I'm certain that couldn't go wrong. I was incorrect. The 'big chunk of cheddar' advertised was unavailable. Cocktails are like £12.50. Again, Hawksmoor are £10-£11. Onto the ambiance. Kids absolutely everywhere. Running here, there and everywhere. Sat at the bar. AT. THE. BAR. I said to my wife "just stop and listen to all the different noises". Music, kids, people shouting, glasses smashing. It was a cacophony. Nobody from the obvious owner/manager/maitre d crew came to ask us how it was, no feedback card was given. Just wow. They are sooo brave to start a venture like this in this way. Or maybe brave is the wrong word. I had really high hopes for this place and am a bit sad to have to say all this, but it's feedback after all. I will try it again to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm going to give them a few weeks at least to professionalise, and hopefully develop a tight ship, as for the prices they are charging, I expect significantly better all round. Opening a restaurant isn't just style and having a big tray of different Rosès on display, it's substance. The style will quickly wear off. If the food and service isn't significantly improved, and unless it doesn't wow every time for a £100+ meal, like Sheesh does for example, it won't last a year. And that upsets me because I want great places to go in Loughton and I don't mind paying as long as I enjoy the whole experience. As it was 50% of soft launch week the whole cost was cheap (£63) and so therefore I can stomach it. But if I went again this Sunday it would be £124 including 12.5% pre added tip, which is also quite cheeky to expect in 'the Burbs'. And if I spent £124 on a meal like that, then this text would be done in person, and in front of everybody! These people giving 5 stars clearly must know the owner/staff as Loughton is a...

I feel sad and angry that I have to write this review My husband and I were happen to be staying in Loughton for a few days. We walked in to TDH one afternoon for drinks. Cocktails were very good and menu looked rather interesting. We ordered Fried Crisp Cornish Squid, Togarashi Pepper, Lime, Squid Ink Mayo and that was really good! it was served with Key lime, not Persian one! Impressed so far we decided to come back later that evening for salt marsh lamb rare treat. Service was friendly to start, (tables were a bit sticky, common problem I suppose with commercial cleaning detergent not being wiped off properly due to its high viscosity, minor issue thought) We came back in the evening and ordered salt marsh lamb. It is rare and expensive, and needs to be cooked to perfection. It was ordered as medium and was cooked and presented quite done (based on other reviews i am not the only person who thinks that lamb there is overcooked) It was sent back and another rack was cooked, to perfection! We expressed our gratitude to the chef and he seemed to be fine, (after all when one pays £34 for a small rack of utterly delicious rare salt march lamb one expects it to be cooked to perfection or near. ) Meanwhile attitude of serving staff/management…, Changed drastically… We have order selection of cheeses, it was really good one (avoid Lincolnshire poacher perhaps) and more red wine, Malbec and Merlot were ok, easy drinking. We also had a few cocktails. After we have sent overcooked rack of lamb back we were treated such as personae non gratae by the serving/managing staff. We ordered two more large glasses of red wine to finish lovely cheeses that did come with delicious sourdough bread and asked for the bill so we can slowly enjoy cheeses that were finely getting to the right temperature. We settled up at 22.13 (according to their website they are open till 12am) While we were still enjoying our cheese and LARGE glasses of wine waiter/manager came up with a take away box and placed it on our table?! We have never asked for ?!? Basically pointing us to F off ?! And complaining that place is empty and they feel like closing up! (Perhaps you shouldn’t be open on Mondays if you can’t be bothered) While we still have wine glasses full! I was so f.ing furious that I was going to ask if he is also going to bring us plastic bottles to decanter our wine and kick us out properly! after all we have only spent +£200 with them that day on quite Monday Whilst my husband who is a cancer patient going chemo/radiation therapy in Guy’s London (hence we are happen to stay here) told me that it was not worth an argument … Both of us have extensive experience of world travel and cuisine, I have enjoyed experience of delicious food cooked on open fire with Beduins in Africa and dining at the Leander club, and everything in between … … at no point I was ever thrown a paper take away box asking me to leave Such a shame .. It started...

Food generally ok (not amazing) but service absolutely appalling!

We visited for my wife's birthday on a Saturday lunch time. On first impression, the place looked smart and the waiters were quick to offer menus and ask for drinks. It pretty much went down hill from there. We got the starters in good time and then mains (we had scallops, chicken wings for starters, cod and pork for mains - all of which were nice enough but nothing overly special. A bit "try hard" if anything) . We did, however, have to flag someone for more drinks as nobody came by to see if we wanted anything else. The main issue was that our plates were left on the table for at least 15 minutes after we'd finished with flies buzzing around it so my wife went and dumped them on the bar as nobody had even noticed we'd finished.

We'd pretty much been forgotten about and just left in the corner. We had a bottle of white wine which we poured ourselves and again, nobody thought to see if we wanted any more or to top up our glasses.

There were a lot waiters and bar staff (at least 8-9) and the restaurant was relatively quiet - perhaps this is what causes such complacency.

The Maitre d was nowhere to be seen apart form when he noticed the waitress had ignored us and my wife dumped the plates on the bar. If the owners read this, I thoroughly recommend you allocate sections to your wait staff so this doesn't happen again. We noticed our waitress serve us and then another table in the opposite side of the restaurant.

Adding 12.5% gratuity to the bill is frankly insulting when the service is so poor. I didn't make a fuss and refuse to pay it as it was a special occasion but I certainly won't be visiting again.

In summary, the place looks smart but there's no substance. Waiters look the part but have no idea about good customer service and how to do the job in hand effectively. A lot of improvements needed...