I went to the Martello lounge in clacton on Friday night with my work colleagues. There was 10 in our party so we rang up and booked a table a few weeks before Friday. When we arrived we sat downstairs for a few drinks whilst we waited for colleagues to arrive. You have to go to the bar to order food and drinks. I waited at the bar behind 4 other ladies to be served. There was only one young lady behind the bar serving for both drinks and taking food orders. I waited to be served for about 10 minutes whilst chatting with a colleague. I asked for a coconut and pineapple punch £5.95 alcohol free. The young girl was learning the ingredients for the cocktails and mock tails that was fine. I got a glass full of ice with the mix poured over it and got myself a straw. If I had not wanted ice (wasn’t asked) half the pint glass would be empty. It was a lovely mock-tail. I wouldn’t order again one because of the price - it’s a mock-tail and two for the amount of ice. The rest of our colleagues were running late so we went upstairs to find our table and another party (of 4 people) was sitting on our table laid for 10. We spoke to a staff member (young girl) and she did not want to confront the other party and said to us to move all the furniture around to make a huge enough table. We had to move lit candles and tables and chairs with no assistance from the staff. When everyone had arrived we went to the upstairs bar to order our food one at a time on the same table number. This took ages as two people behind the bar, one taking orders and one making the drinks. Everyone in the queue for the bar ordering food or drinks or both. One of my colleagues paid extra for sweet potato fries - extra £1. One of my colleagues asked for a burger with no tomato, no bacon and no burger sauce. Anyways all ordered and sat back down. Then the burgers started arriving one at a time. The staff were unsure what was in the burgers a colleague was given an avocado burger and told it was a cheeseburger. The colleague that ordered sweet potato fries didn’t get them, she had to ask for them to be changed. The colleague who ordered a burger with no bacon got a burger with bacon and then everyone at the table was questioned if they had bacon in their burger and had to show the bacon before the waitress would remove the bacon. This colleague got her burger when everyone else had pretty much finished their dinner. I went to the bar to order a dessert and they were out of 4 of the menu desserts. So i didn’t have a dessert. I won’t be in a rush to return. I won’t be recommending until maybe later in the year when the initial teething problems maybe be sorted. Ideally they need an app to order the food on or they need waitresses to take the order at the table. Or they need one person taking the drink orders and one person taking the food orders.

Paying beforehand means you are paying before you know the service / food you are going to get.

My advice get a receipt to prove what you paid for.

Order a couple of drinks at the same time as your food to ensure you don’t spend half you night waiting to be served at the bar.

The food was very nice and was delivered quickly after ordering. I had chicken and chips.

I can’t comment on the toilets as I didn’t use. The music was loud and I was struggling to hear some of my quieter colleagues on the table. The decor is lovely and the decorator has done a lovely job. The management and service needs a bit of work.