The Starr Inn | Restaurant & Bar | Dunmow — Restaurant in Uttlesford

Booked a table for two in Charlie's as a treat for Saturday night. When we arrived there were two other tables in use. First thing that we were told was that there was no duck. Shame as this is what instantly caught my eye when we booked. Had the chowder and the scallops for our starters which we both enjoyed. For our main course we both chose the sirloin steak (med rare). When asked which sauce we wanted, my wife request peppercorn but in a pot, not on the steak. I said I did not want a sauce as I wanted the flavour of the steak. When the steaks arrived they were clearly quite different. My wife's steak was altogether nicer, slightly plumper and perhaps a bit closer to medium rare. My steak was very thin, quite dry and medium at best. Then as I started to eat it I realised that the whole plate had been liberally sprinkled with course ground pepper. Now I really like pungent and hot black pepper in the right dish, but on my already disappointing steak, it simply meant I could not taste the flavour of the steak. As I hate complaining and knowing that it embarrasses my wife, I continued to eat it. When someone eventually decided to ask if everything was okay, I explained that it was not and that the main meal had been very disappointing, I was met with a look of slight disbelieve and was informed that this was not the view of the majority of their customers. We were offered a free dessert which I declined as we were both too full and then offered a free coffee, which we also declined. The bill arrived without any discount. This is an expensive restaurant, masquerading as fine dining. Perhaps the numerous empty tables on a Saturday night speak volumes about how disappointing and overpriced...

Beautiful decor and friendly Barman we had a pre dinner drink then went through to the restaurant… I had been looking forward to our first wedding anniversary dinner … we where told to pick a table ( only 3 tables 6 people in total taken ) we chose the conservatory… looked at the menu my husband had the soup very nice but leek and potato isn’t hard to do .. then he had the lamb which was overcooked … I chose the asparagus and quail eggs starter never before have I had warm asparagus with hard boiled fridge cold quail eggs cut in half and put on top ? My Main was the Dover sole with blackened butter and capers with new potatoes £36 no veg had to order on the side when arrived it was in butter just butter and a few herbs and that annoying bean shoot garnish no capers butter not blackened I did start to eat and it was ok by the time we could get the waitress attention I had nearly finished I asked why did it not have capers etc she said oh yes it didn’t did it I’ll ask the chef …. Came back cleared our plates nothing said ? So 10 mins later she came to ask if we wanted to see dessert menu so I asked what was the chefs comment? She said oh he laughed and said he forgot !!!! No apology!! Not the sort of service I was expecting .. very disappointing… having my own established business in great dunmow and I pride on customer service …staff where friendly but we will...

The first thing I liked about the Starr Inn is a very well appointed bar as you come in the main entrance. There were 10 of us for lunch and it was a pleasure to meet there and grab a drink before heading to the table. It's a tricky prospect for both the guest and the restaurant when hosting a large group, but I felt the service was really well managed throughout. The menu is actually quite extensive, although dishes especially the small plates are fairly simple in composition. You can also mix and match, so I had a starter and then 2 small plates rather than a main, which also offers great choice for children as there are loads of options like mac and cheese, croquettes, crispy pork belly. So actual restaurant dishes. The menu also goes relatively big on seafood (there are plenty of meat and vegetarian dishes too) so I had sardines on toast, which were whole fresh sardines, well cooked with a tomato sauce on toast obvs. A few tweaks like more depth / energy in the sauce and a crispier more chargrilled gnarly chunk of bread and this would be 5*. All the seafood was super fresh, which given location is admirable. All in all everything was to a standard, it's feels fairly priced for what it is, kitchen and service teams seem to be finding their stride after only recently opening 2-3 weeks ago. Would defo recommend from...