Epping Forest
Foresters Arms

Foresters Arms

15 Baldwins Hill, IG10 1SF, Epping Forest, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • British • Vegetarian


"Not for vegans! Our friends booked this restaurant. They called ahead to reserve a table and specifically asked if they had vegan options and was told they had a vegan menu so they booked and paid a deposit. On arrival, I asked for the vegan menu only to be told that any vegan options would be on the main menu. There was 1 vegan option on the entire menu a curry. The waitress said that they could custom some vegetarian meals but this was clearly another fib. The 2 options could not be veganised . Staff were clueless about the ingredients, which would be worrying if anyone had a serious allergy. The waitress had to keep going back/forth to the kitchen to ask and seemed put out that I was asking. One of the options, a nut roast, was not even vegetarian let alone vegan. The vegetables are covered in butter, the carrots are honey glazed and the roast potatoes are cooked in animal fat! The other option was a bean burger which could be served without the bun, as it was brioche, so I went with this option. Nearly 90 minutes later, the waitress came over with the dessert menu and we had not even received our starters!! My friend order a chicken salad which turned out to be a thin piece of chicken breast on a limp bed of rocket. My friend 's husband ordered beef roast and was given lamb. My burger was undercooked and mushy. The chips were so burnt they were inedible. Everything on my plate was cold. Same for my husband. He literally had 5 chips on his plate and they were burnt and cold too. Service was VERY slow. Our table was booked for 2pm and we left at 4:45pm. Other diners were complaining about the wait for food too. I was so hungry when we left the pub that I made a sandwich when I got home. My friend who ate the chicken was ill a few hours afterwards. £179 for terrible food. Never again."

The Garnon Bushes

The Garnon Bushes

13 Coopersale Common, CM16 7QS, Epping Forest, United Kingdom

Full • Steak • Coffee • British


"We have visited this pub a few times over the last couple of years. First and foremost this is a local village pub. It can be very very clicky but the one thing that stands out is the lack of warmth or welcome from the landlady. At best she is very very rude to some customers, seemingly the younger ones. Although we have not had this problem ourselves we have noticed that she seems to favor certain people, namely locals and older people. The food is without doubt lovely and well well worth the money. Bear in mind also that this is a dog friendly pub, so be prepared for a lot of them in the bar. On the whole they are well behaved but some are very barky which is annoying when the owners think its funny and encourage them. The younger lady who serves is lovely, (I think she may be related to the landlady . Always smiling, willing to do everything she can to make sure you are happy with your meal etc. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem in the kitchen whereby the chef isn't up to keeping up with the orders. On 1 or two occasions we have had to chase up our food as he seems to forget orders. On this occasions we only had drinks. We popped in here on Saturday night with friends for a drink and were unfortunate enough to witness a full on screaming argument with a completely unstable customer about a young man who had brought in his dog (who had had his ears pinned and had them bandaged up and posts in them bear in mind that this is an illegal practice in this country and will obviously offend a lot of people, myself included. However, it is not my place to point this out to him. The young man argued that it was legal and that he had brought the dog over from abroad as a working dog. First and foremost this is a barbaric procedure with no purpose other than to make the dog look scary (proven by vets . As a vets assistant I can assure you that there is no benefit at all to the dog other than pain and stress. If its legal we would do it here, we do not! Buying a dog from abroad with this procedure done really tells you all you need to know. It also speaks volumes about the people who partake in this practice. They can all claim they are working dogs but this is highly unlikely. Looking at this young man it was clear it was a statement dog for him. Nonetheless I felt that the whole debacle went on for far too long, upset a lot of children and she should have been thrown out there and then. Moreso don't allow dogs in who have clearly had operations that may make then even more unpredictable. If someone had touched his ears he could have bitten them. God knows what this idiot was thinking brining him into the pub with bandaged ears! I do like this pub as an occasional stop off but be warned it is full of locals who on the whole are very friendly but some do think that they own certain seats in here. The landlady could simply do with being a bit more polite. In this day and age I am sure hospitality needs as much custom as possible."

Cafe Mio

Cafe Mio

85 High Street, CM16 4BD, Epping Forest, United Kingdom

Cafe • Soup • Vegan • British


"We moved away from Epping a couple of years ago, but when we did live there, Cafe Mio was our favourite cafe, and I have previously left 5 star reviews. I am sorry to say that this cafe has gone downhill massively. My daughter and I were in the area visiting our optician and decided to go to Cafe Mio for lunch. The menu has changed, and it didn 't have our old favourites, which was the salmon salad and the steak and onion baguette. My daughter asked the waiter (male, 20s, brown hair, and slight beard) for an alternative to the steak baguette. He suggested the steak burger. I asked what it came with, and he said, Cheese if you like. She ordered this, and I ordered poached eggs on toast, making sure to tell the waiter I wanted runny yolks. Food arrived, and the burger was not what I would call a steak burger. It tasted cheap and was so greasy that the bun disintegrated. My poached eggs were on toast from a cheap white loaf, not artisan bread by any means, and the water from the eggs had soaked through the toast, making it inedible. I literally only ate the eggs, which had hard yolks not runny like I asked. My daughter left more than half of her burger. When i asked for the bill, I was told a price, they didn 't provide me with a paper bill, and it was much higher than expected, so I asked to see the itemised bill. I noticed that they had charged me £2.50 extra for cheese on the burger. The burger was already £12 and definitely not worth the price. I can get an amazing truffle burger in central London for the same price! I was perplexed and asked the waiter if the charge was correct. His surly reply was, Of course we charge extra !! I was horrified as he said it with such a rude adolescent attitude. I was so upset, and he quite literally shrugged his shoulders. Disgusting attitude! He DID NOT say the cheese was an extra charge when we asked about the burger. We would not have ordered it had we known this. He did not offer to deduct it. I told him I wasn 't pleased and would not be back. He couldn 't have cared less. Shocking attitude and to think this cafe used to be a brilliant little cafe with lovely staff. I can only assume that it 's under new management as I did not recognise anyone there. There are loads of amazing places to eat in Epping, so I 'd give this place a wide berth!"

Bakers Arms,chef Brewer Pub Co

Bakers Arms,chef Brewer Pub Co

Sewardstone Road, EN9 3QF, Epping Forest, United Kingdom

Pub • Meat • Steak • Coffee


"First a tip: Ask for a table away from the kitchen as the music playing in there was fighting with the ambient music in the restaurant so you just get a cacophony of noise. We visited on a Sunday and first looked at the drinks menu. No prices on a lot of the drinks and was told that was because the prices changed from pub to pub. We had one starter and two nibbles. The calamary starter was tough. The Cottage pie croquettes had a nice taste but were so dry that they were unpleasant to eat and the honey and grain sausages had no taste at all. For the mains, we ordered roasts, which were good and the lambshank shepherds pie was just ok, but at £24 it was lacking. Only two desserts ordered. The trio of British desserts consisted on a jam roly-poly that looked more like a meat pie and was very dry, a strawberry Eton mess that was just jam mixed with squirty cream and a few bits of meringue. As one guest commented: the gin and tonic had more strawberry in in than the Eton mess! The trifle was good though. The service was ok, but none of the staff put themselves out. I watched a man with his hands full of drinks negotiate opening the door to go outside, while two members of staff just ignored him. The place is clean, though the door through to the kitchen was full of fingerprints and needed a good clean. The outside spaces were clean and tidy and there is reasonable parking. Unfortunately, for what we paid and received; we wont be back."