The Lakes Stoke By Nayland Golf

Great choice of food which can be eaten in the bar or the restaurant, I had the rib eye steak which was cooked perfectly and reasonably priced, my friends had a mix of the other dishes, which they all enjoyed, sticky toffee pudding was too done for!! Friendly service, would definitely recommend

I thought I’d treat my son as he was home from boarding school we booked into the The Lakes Restaurant it took ages to decide on a dish as the all choices seemed tasty we settled on the Dingley Dell T bone pork steak I like my beef steaks but this is something I’d order again it was so tender and cooked to perfection It was so delicious big thanks to the chefs

Usually my wife is the one who fills up the comment cards, feedback forms and writes few words on tripadvisor of the place. Usually we are a very happy, cheerful and satisfied customer most of the times. But after this dinner at the Lakes Restaurant I had a feeling I have to write a review by myself. As I am an Italian person I love food (to eat and also to cook) enjoying wine, sweets and coffee too... So I have to say if someone is really passionate about to have a good dinner this place is not the right choice. Bar is lovely, bit outdated but does the job. We discovered on arrival the bar person was already half drunk speaking and laughing even more loud than the guests! And there was a young guy in blue vest, white shirt was kind of annoying too who could not stop saying to every single person around him he is very busy has to look after a big function but till we left the bar after our aperitif he was still hanging around and chatting to his co-workers. Not a problem at all, I thought someone else will looking after his guests... Lakes restaurant looks nice, good atmosphere but the problems are just started here... Sat down, got menus in hand bread arrives in few minutes, before we even opened the menu and had a look... Nice quick service, bread sliced, slightly warm, looks fresh and tasty! Lets choose some wines, then order some food. Wine arrives by a very professional waiter, Hugo. he looks smart, friendly, helpful and knows how to serve wine in a professional way. Well done! After this we had a look on the menu and realised the choices on the menu are very poor not seasonal and overpriced but as we are already here lets eat something! Starter takes ages to come, really disappointing, tasteless food, wilted salad and supermarket part baked baguettes croutons, and just doesn`t look appetising. Finger prints on the plates everywhere. Main course coming after a long wait too looks like a pub-grub, lukewarm, lots of gravy (I guess made from gravy cubes) very far from 2 rosette standard, very amateur presentation. But at least plate warmer was working as my wife`s plate was extremely hot, but not the dish, eh! Very disappointing food £14 apparently home made burger, must be kidding, please tell me which part of the dish was home made. I had the same somewhere else in a simple pub just few days ago when I went for a quick meeting with my colleagues and had a meal with just for £7 included a pint. We got offered to see the dessert menu but I was really sceptical to see the choices as I thought they must be the same quality as the previous courses or even just simply bought in from a local bakery so we said no to the waiter. Luckily he was trying to convince us to try some so as we were still pretty hungry so we accepted the challenge. I have to say that was the best choice of the night as they were so delicious and they looked amazing Vanilla brulee and Boxford farm cheesecake. The dinner was really disappointing, never thought food can be this bad at Stoke by Nayland, don`t think we would like to come back ever again or might be just for some wine and some sweet treats or might be just for the spa treatments. Food experience 0/5 but giving 5/5 for desserts so that makes 2/5 in overall Service 1/5 for the funny welcome at the bar plus the food runner had no idea what is going on but 5/5 for Hugo the Spanish waiter so that is 3/5 in total. Price 2/5 as the quality is not matching with the price. We still left some tip and did not complain on the night to anyone as they were major problems not just a little mistake which can be solved right away with a free coffee or a 10 off the bill. We don`t want to receive any free meal or our money back after this review and if management are still happy with everything just please ignore my opinion.

Chosen because a last minute decision to go out for Lunch . Lots of popular good places locally but all probably unavailable at 12.30. The i remembered Stoke by Nayland Golf and country club was on my radar. Good reviews and personal recommendations, plus it was a large place so probably had space and they even did on the day availability booking on line. Decision made. A friendly greeting and shown to our seats immediately , it may have been raining but the view was lovely over the greens and in summer eating on the verandah must be a great treat. 2 Courses £19.95 . 3 Courses £23.95. Both of us opted for the Courgette soup as it was that sort of day and the home made bread. Lovely smiling waiting staff taking the opportunity to chat a while but never intrusive, quickly brought the starters and drinks . Both of us opted for the traditional Beef from the carver. No rough old leather this but thick slices of best quality Sirloin carved by the chef and then helped ourselves to Y.P , good roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese , Mashed swede, red cabbage , carrots and sugar snap peas. Hot gravy and horseradish finished the meal off. A lovely plate of food and comparable to the food at another favoured local inn. The main difference is the price , there the main alone costs £18.30 for a roast with less vegetables. Yes it arrives looking less of a car crash than mine did when i had finished loading it onto my plate but I could have as many of my favourite vegetables as I liked and no need to ask for more gravy. I like my gravy and find that chefs can be a bit parsimonious with their gravy which is fine as I know some people do not like it over everything but I love it when you get a gravy boat of plentiful grey to help yourself or like this ,a never ending supply of hot gravy. Plus the YP was by far better. Sadly no room for dessert but 2 large decent glasses of wine and a large bottle of water for under £26 a head . Yes we will be back ,Masses of car parking and a bar right outside where you can sit and wait of retire to after the meal .I have just discovered they do a breakfast buffet too for £13.99 a head , certainly one to do for the family Christmas breakfast outing.

I booked a table for 3 people for a Sunday lunch and requested a window table. The booking was for 12:30pm. We arrived and were shown to a window table, however the way in which it was set, only 2 of us could benefit from the view. Although we had booked for 12:30pm it was very clear that the restaurant was not ready. We were advised the menus were still being printed. The carvery was not set up until almost 1:00pm. Drinks arrived promptly but the bread did not arrive until we were leaving the table to get our carvery. The food was tasty but not very hot! Also the vegetable containers all had their lids left on which made serving difficult and several people did not realise that there were different vegetables at the back of the dishes. Pudding was slow in arrival. My partner and I requested coffee which took over 15 minutes to arrive and when it did there were stains down the outside of both cups. The waiter excuse was that someone had “bumped into him”. I sent mine back for a fresh cup but my partner put up with his although when I pointed out that if the coffee had been spilt there would be slops in the saucer it was to be noted that the stains on the outside of the cups were dry, which does not indicate a recent spillage. This is not our first visit to this restaurant and each time standards leave room for improvement.