The Kings Head, Bradwell-on-Sea — Restaurant in Maldon

Not long moved to the area. The Kings Head is in the next village. Had friends visiting so thought we’d book a table as it was a Saturday night. We drove into the village from the direction that we got to the car park first without driving past the pub, It was a bit difficult to navigate how to get inside. As there are a collection of barns and what looks like a disused dirty conservatory. There are no entry signs. We were just going to walk back to the car park entrance to enter from the street when we saw a member of staff. She told us to walk through the conservatory then through the restaurant and she would meet us a the bar. We were given a table in the window which had a lovely view but had a huge tv to the side of it which was really distracting. We ordered drinks at the bar and then went to collect menus as none on the table. We picked two different menus that had similar items on but presented very differently. The menu is not easy to read as it’s a huge choice all crammed onto one side of A4 paper. I’m Dyslexic which for me layout not being starters then a list, mains then a list and deserts then a list is really confusing. The layout is kind of newspaper style. Our order was taken and our starters arrived. The young lady serving us was very nice, smiley and relaxed.

One of my friends is rather particular about certain things like minimal water being served from a closed bottle with an empty glass not being poured from a hose into the glass and delivered to the table. The young lady was very good at dealing with her. Even though she could not resolve the issue as the pub didn’t have any bottles of minimal water.

My starter was kicking chicken wings which were delicious and melted off the bone. My main was beer battered haddock with chunky chips and a side portion of beer battered onion rings. Again delicious. I didn’t eat it all as the portions are a good size. I wanted to save room for dessert. I had the apple crumble with custard. Again delicious. I had a great evening and really enjoyed my food.

I’ll definitely be going back again. Next time I will be mindful of who I’m taking as it’s not a brasserie type establishment that I...

Sat outside in the beer garden on a rare hot and sunny Bank Holiday. Food was delicious, good portions and well presented. The Sunday Roast looked good although we went for Chicken and Bacon stack, and sweet Chilli salmon. The stack was big, juicy and yummy. The salmon was a big portion not like some where it's 1 inch by 5. This was more like 5 by 5 inches if not bigger. The stack was served with thick triple cooked chips which were golden and crispy and fluffy inside. The salmon came with a sour cream jacket, which was perfectly cooked and just the right amount of sourcream and chives. Both meals were served with a generous and well presented salad as well. Dessert sounded great though we opted for Raspberry Sundae and a trio of icy scoops (raspberry ripple, orange sorbet and raspberry sorbet) all of which were really good and rounded off the meal nicely.

If I had one minor gripe its that they only have filter coffee but it was perfectly drinkable so not a major issue.

Definitely one to go back to when we next walk...

Great to see all the positive reviews, we went late Sunday and had a selection from across the menu. Personally I thought it was all very plain and cheap food. I guess it is sold fairly cheap so what can you expect. Burger was a frozen patte which nowadays is very poor. Nothing had any seasoning and the plates were just loaded with these large bland zero taste chips which just seems odd, who on earth wants a huge load of badly cooked frozen chips with their lunch. Whoever picked the house wines has zero taste, all just generic supermarket whites, one of each was pretty awful. Look it is a lively setting but it is cheap and I guess cheerful. We will never go back and that tells you everything. Country pubs should be wonderful places you want to return to again and again.. this place is not one of these. The setting is amazing the staff were fine the price was cheap but the food was bland standard cheap stuff which is...