The Eight Bells — Restaurant in Uttlesford

We spent the day in Saffron Walden and ended up walking in to the Eight Bells early just because we were done walking. At first the service seemed to be very attentive, but we could tell a clear shift in mood when we decided to go with a starter first and then order mains and dessert later since we came in so early (it was around 4pm and the barn section just cleared with the last remaining lunch folks, so we weren't worried about holding a table for too long as it was that weird time between lunch and dinner where restaurants are typically empty. If it had been crowded we would have obviously ordered and eaten a lot faster). After that, we were pretty much ignored - we asked for the drinks menu which we got, but had to flag down service after 30 minutes to actually order, same happened with the dessert. I get that service loves to see people eat, pack up and go but I still spend almost 50 pounds each and order starter, main and dessert I do expect good service no matter how long I spend in the place (unless, of course the table has to be cleared for another reservation etc - but that clearly wasn't the case). Food was really good though, we had the sourdough + fish pate which was heavely, our mains were veggie risotto and fish & chips. Fish & Chips were very well seasoned and crispy and the tartare sauce was amazing. The risotto was a bit runny, but had a really good taste to make up for consistency. The sticky toffee pudding was bigger than expected and was amazing as well! Overall, a good visit with great food but unfortunately not so great service - which is a shame when a place has a service fee included (which we paid, but tbh it wasn't...

Travelled over 40 minutes to this place. I must admit, what a disappointment. When walking in we had high hopes for this place.

Sat in the barn bit freezing cold the whole time.

Scotched egg was just oily and to be honest, it looked like someone had already but into the egg.

Getting a waiter or waitress attention was Hard. So dissapointed in the service.

When the roast finally came out over an hour later. Please note, no one informed us of any delay. The plate consisted of part cooked veggies 3 cold potato's a Yorkshire pudding and two slices of meat. The pork, what can I say. One of the peices was a slice of fat. Each plate worth £22 ish pounds each. So 44 pound for 3 n a half peices of meat. What's worse, there was no check in to see how our food was. So no way of brining this to their attention.

I've left not only disappointed but also fuming. All in all the total bill was £88.00. And I'm starving as I hardly touched what they would call a roast.

What was meant to be a nice Sunday lunch out, has been a disaster and guess what! I still have to go home and cook now. In all honesty I wish I had refused to pay for the food now. It's all consuming...

Booked for Sunday lunch a few weeks ago and were excited as we'd not tried The Eight Bells before. Our table wasn't ready when we arrived but we ordered drinks and sat at the bar. Very quickly, though, a table was cleared in the barn/hall (which is absolutely amazing, though it took us a while to realise the plants were plastic). I'd book the whole barn for any special events (weddings, etc) if I could.

Service was very, very slow (a bottle of wine ordered with the food materialised as we were all finishing up) but the food was excellent, including being able to choose how the meat for the roast was cooked, so it can't have been pre-made. It took ages to order, for the food to arrive, and to pay.. it didn't seem that busy, but perhaps it was behind the scenes.

Toilets were ok, and there are a few tables outside and a car park.

It's probably the kind of place you'd have a special meal, or take out-of-town friends. It's not really a pub, but a restaurant.. or gastro-pub, perhaps. They do have a decent selection of drinks (including a good wine-list, though as we found out, not every bottle is available all the time).

We'll...