The Wooden Fender, Colchester

Official site of The Wooden Fender - www.woodenfendercolchester.co.uk

Official site of The Wooden Fender - www.woodenfendercolchester.co.uk

I ate there in last week of May for my wedding anniversary. I ordered the potato starter with bacon and cheese I think. The end of one of the potatoes was rotten and I don't see how the kitchen staff could not have noticed. They apologised and I re-ordered, this time the asparagus starter. At nearly £5 I was horrified to see that it was just 4 pieces of asparagus and a drizzle of lemon hollandaise. NOTHING else on the plate (a bit of crustini or salad would have been nice) so I wasn't very impressed from the get-go!!!! My main of roast dinner with beef was just ok. The gravy was cheap, runny and tasteless and there was only two small-medium roast potatoes which I thought was rather stingy. Veg, which was very nice, was served in a dish for you to put on your own plate. For some reason we were served corgette as part of the veg which is rather odd for a roast dinner. I chose Eton Mess for pudding. VERY disappointing and I would not eat it. It was defrosted frozen berries, rather sour coulis and a bit of merengue crushed into it. Eton mess is supposed to be sweet, thick and creamy, and this was not. It was cheap and poorly put together and had NO cream. Other items that were ordered that day were burger and chips for the kids, which was average and a fairly small portion (so not ideal unless your child has a rather small appetite), and cheesecake which I think was actually home-made and was lovely. We were also unfortunate enough to witness an altercation between people at different tables whom did not know eachother which made it rather unpleasant. All in all rather disappointing and I would say that this place is NOTHING special at all and would not go back and would not recommend it to my friend either.