The Bell, Ingatestone

Steve of N21 left this review about The Bell

Situated on the Ingatestone High Street the Bell is a 500-year old grade II listed traditional village pub that was originally a coaching inn and from what I could make out by reading local reviews, the least gastrofied of the two remaining pubs on the high street and the most likely to do a sandwich at lunchtime.
Internally it retains two bar areas, a small wood floored public bar off to the left as you enter that is dominated by a pool table and is decorated with a lot of rugby memorabilia. Then the larger carpeted saloon with its three distinct areas arranged around the main bar is to the right and has a lot of character, with its heavy oak beams and original fireplaces.
It’s a Shep Neame pub with a couple of their beers on the bar and I went for the Whitstable Bay and it was perfectly fine. A fairly standard pub grub menu, which does include sandwiches and the Prawn on granary we went for was passable but fair to say would not be winning any Michelin stars any time soon.

On 28^th October 2025 - rating: 7
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