Review:

Saturday evening and together with 2 friends we set out into the wilds of North Essex, a bit of a gourmet desert (as in Gobi, not fudge sundae!) if I'm honest, to see what Baumann's Brasserie in the sleepy but pretty market town of Coggeshall had to offer. This is what we found.

Food

The menu was interesting, with a good selection of starters and main courses. Pricing seemed a touch expensive with starters ranging from £6-10 and main courses from £14-20, OK if the quality is there.

Review:
I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit sick of these "blackboard pubs". You know the type - beautiful settings in small rural villages, babbling brook outside and a host of Egon Ronay/AA/Good Food badges at the door. Inside there is a massive blackboard with mouth-watering dishes - half a pheasant with blackberry jus, monkfish in roasted red pepper sauce, etc. When you get the dish it's fairly well cooked, vegetables are just about right but, it's..... well, it's.......bland. There's no pungent whiff of garlic, no searing chili - no tingle of nutmeg - just old, safe, tidy and disappointing.

Review:
The Cricketers pub in Clavering Essex is owned by the parents of TV's "The Naked Chef", Jamie Oliver, and this is where he learned his basic cooking skills. It was too busy on a Sunday lunchtime to get a table inside but we found a table outside in the garden which was a veritable sun-trap.

There is a huge menu along with the traditional "blackboard" inside and both Q and I, along with our friend G all plumped for the Steak and Guinness pie - a tower of meat (I counted about eighteen cubes of juicy lean beef) with a perfect crunchy pastry lid. It came with either new potatoes or chips and, once again, real potatoes perfectly cooked. A side salad at the "help yourself" bar was free with the meal and I heaped a collection of fabulously roasted veg with a combination of leaves, tomatoes and coleslaw to accompany.

Review:
Lunch on a wet August day was quite a treat, although we didn't venture outside this rural Essex pub to enjoy the view across the pond and the gently sweeping valley. Service from the husband and wife owners of this Free House was quick and friendly, and one small mistake with the order was dealt with rapidly. There was not too much choice for vegetarians, with only one vegetarian main course - a Thai vegetable curry, which the owner warned other diners was very hot indeed.

Review:
Not far from the bland concrete of Harlowe, on the road to the considerably cuter village of Little Bumblebee (or something like that) lies the inn by the name of the Black Swan. I went there for lunch. The car park is big and there are tables outside with a kids' play area but I didn't linger as the weather was not warm. Inside, though, all was snug and comfortable. It looks pretty old but I wouldn't like to say quite how many summers it has seen and it is all white walls and black timbers.

Review:
Floor to ceiling windows ensure the light floods in to the Lemon Tree in the centre of Colchester. A section of the old Roman town wall makes up one part of the wall of this small and friendly restaurant. The fixed price menu was very reasonable at £9.95 for a three course lunch and £12.95 for a three course dinner. We were there for lunch so tried both the a la carte and the fixed price menus. The goat's cheese and red onion tartlette melted in the mouth.