The Carpenters Arms — Restaurant in Rochford

Stopped in here for dinner yesterday and was very different to when we last came in.

We ordered Chicken skewers that were meant to be marinated in chilli, ginger, coconut and soy sauce - judging by the pale colour they were not marinated in anything at all they were extremely plain.

Then we ordered the french onion soup which was very watery and bland - also served with bread and some pre grated mozzarella - not the usual way of serving french onion soup which normally you would bake the gruyere onto the crouton on the top, this was just lazy cooking.

Sausage and mash - this was probably the worst sausage and mash i have ever eaten - cheap frozen sausages clearly chucked in a fryer because the outer was so crispy i couldnt cut it with a knife. Veg and mash were okay.

Steak and red wine pie and mash - this was not bad steak was a bit dry inside but the flavour was pretty decent and clearly homemade which was what saved this being a 1 star review.

Clearly whoever works in the kitchen is doing so alone because this whole meal took about an hour and a half when we ordered within 5 minutes.

My advice as someone who has worked as a chef - stop cutting corners on the produce, makros sell very good quality sausages for £8 you dont need to use cheap frozen ones £16 for sausage and mash and the sausages are that low quality is embarrasing.

If this pub got a decent team in the kitchen they could be a...

Popped in for a last minute roast & dinner out with the other half. Got there at 2.30pm, starters at 3.15 & main course didn't arrive until 4pm after we asked how long it was going to be as we thought it had been forgotten about. They apologised and said it was because of the ribs however we had seen people who came in & ordered after us, get their food before ours. When the mains arrived, the veg was obviously frozen before hand & just reheated, the pork was cold & to top it off it only came with 4 roast potatoes which were all soggy, not crunch at all & 2 TINY parsnips which were hard. Our starters were lovely which is why the mains was a real let down and total shame as felt like we could of cooked it better ourselves. To top the whole experience off, one of the girls behind the bar even had the cheek to say "well she ate it" behind my back, when infact I left all the veg, some of the pork and only ate the potato, parsnips and Yorkshire pudding because I was starving after waiting over an hour and we had to be somewhere at a certain time! Had I of known we would have waited that long we would not have eaten there. Only good thing was the bartender and the drinks. Won't be coming back again which is a shame as we've eaten there before and it was...

Returned after visiting some time ago

Disappointed. There was just one member of staff serving the bar and the restaurant.

The car park. Is now monitored and uou enter your car registration at the bar. The car park has been improved since our last visit.

Three items off the mains menu were not available. The pie of the day. The steak and kidney pudding, and the calves liver and bacon. All not available as the previous chef had not prepped the food. There must be other premises or businesses nearby that use the psrking spaces. The waitress did apologise to us saying she was the only member of front of house serving. She was herself very pleasant, but was obviously stretched. The restaurant is pleasantly decorated. We were given menus and a difficult-to-read handwritten "specials" menu. The food was OK, but my only option, "fish"and chips with peas was underwhelming.

But it took a while after finishing our meal before anyone came to clear away and ask if we wanted desserts. We ordered desserts. But again, some of the options were not available...

Ignore what the online menu says is available, it isn't...

Not sure we'd rush back...