Lock and Barrel Frinton — Restaurant in Tendring

The Lock has been a fantastic pub but has sadly been on a steady decline in the last year or so. To begin with I had to lower my review stars from 5 to 3 because the cost of coffee's went up to £3 (more than any of the other coffee shops on the high street!) and it seemed as if those coffees went from being barista made to machine made.

That was forgivable as there are plenty other places to drink coffee and the food here was superb... but that seems to have changed also.

My mother has a severe garlic allergy to the extent of having an epipen. It's an awkward and difficult condition but is very real and most places are able to accommodate it. We've never had an issue with it here before, but stopping for lunch yesterday was absolute chaos.

She ordered a crayfish and plain mayo sandwich and I a steak and onion marmalade ciabatta. After 25 minutes mine arrived (it wasn't busy when we walked in, but it was when we received my sandwich so fair enough) and we were told that the kitchen had made a mistake with her order and were in the process of making a new one. My food lacked the onion marmalade that was on the menu so I asked after it and a short wait it arrived.

As I bit into the sandwich I noticed that it was hot in places and cold in others: not good for meat, totally unacceptable. I had to take it back and was told that it'd be remade.

After another 15 minute wait my mother's food arrived and as she went to bite into it... strong smelling garlic mayo. Seriously?

She took the food back and said to cancel my sandwich and that we won't be eating here today. We were given our drinks for free, which was a nice gesture.

Full credit to the two members of staff working the floor: it was busy, they clearly didn't have enough people on but were very attentive and apologised profusely for the troubles we'd had. Unfortunately it isn't enough to stop us wanting to never eat here again as the kitchen staff clearly weren't on the ball.

tl;dr continues to be a great pub for a pint but there's no chance I'd get food here again. Used to be one of my favorite places but now... no way. The coffee used to be nice but is now very overpriced and has taken a dip in...

I am sad to say that this place has been in decline for some time. I am informed that the erstwhile chef has left and this is certainly reflected in the quality of the food. I note that most of the old staff have recently departed too. On Sunday my mother ordered the Seafood Risotto with Parmesan Cheese; this consisted of unchewable calamares and broken mussel shells which had splintered and permeated the rice. Any chef worth his salt knows that you do not serve broken mussels as they can make you dangerously ill. This is the second time running that broken sea shells have been present in this dish. The portion was hardly Falstaffian either. The dish as I previously stated was laughably named named "Seafood Risotto with Parmesan Cheese." I was informed upon ordering that they didn't have any parmesan cheese. What? There are several supermarkets within a stone's throw but they obviously couldn't be bothered to get any in. We informed the new (and sullen) teenage waitress who purportedly informed the chef and then proceeded to slap the new bill down (minus the price of the risotto) on to the table without a single word. Extremely rude. She also had her very long hair hanging down in the food and seemed to spend most of her time giggling in the kitchen.

It seems to me that this place is now bring run by a bunch of kids who, quite frankly, couldn't give a monkey's. Fortunately I have a friend who knows Richard Neame very well; I shall make sure this...

Failed as a restaurant. Our birthday girl ordered a fillet steak at £19,had phoned prior to check gluten free was available and reiterated this whilst ordering. The steak came topped with battered onion rings so after an explanation why this was wrong they took the meal back and said that was the last steak. she was served chips with the meal so on finding no other meal she said she'd just have a plate of chips but found all the fried food was mixed so they would also have made her sick, same as the onion rings. so she has a ceaser salad with no dressing as it contained gluten just lettuce and dry chicken. They then tried to charge her for the ceaser salad AND the Gluten infected steak they originally served! !

My meal, a lasagne they forgot about.

As a pub its good, staff were mostly helpful.

I'd suggest eating somewhere else like cafe 19 just opposite or avenue bistro at the end, cafe 19 understand serious food intolerances like coeliacs disease and won't poison you :) which is a bonus if you prefer to avoid a few days with your head...