please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Very pleasant pub that does good value food as well. They always have beers from Mighty Oak on and a couple of other guest beers as well. The staff are friendly and welcoming and I'd certainly call back if I'm in this area again.
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Visited yesterday - nothing to make me want to go back. A pint of Mauldons 'something' which was very average. Friendly enough welcome from the bar and toilets very clean though.
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Great little boozer and a cracking pint of Guinness on a busy Saturday afternoon.
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Nice pub, friendly staff, excellent pint of Maldon Gold, good jukebox. In spite of some of the earlier comments, the clientele all seemed fine.
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Narrow pub in town centre with 4 beers on - two from Mighty Oak in decent condition. Friendly and with a good atmosphere. Group of (I presume) soldiers having a few drinks when we visited including a few who had clearly suffered physically in Afghanistan. A privilege to drink in the same pub as these brave boys.
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Visited on 28 December. Three Mighty Oak beers - Oscar Wilde, Malden Gold and English Oak with Youngs Ordinary. Narrow pub with exposed brickwork and low beams. Good.
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Great pub - great beer - Mighty Oak Yellow Snow in fine form!
cobbo - 15 Dec 2009 13:05 |
The F&F is a surprising pub, haven�t been for over a year, but the staff especially the landlord are always friendly and the range of Mighty Oak beers is good. I say surprising because some of the customers look intimidating, but don�t be put off it�s a very friendly place with great ale and good value nosh. We only had time for one before heading on to see the U�s beat the Monkey Hangers but what a lovely pint it was, golden, dry and very bitter. Blowed if I can remember the name, Viper something, that�s what the Old Growler in the OOO does to you! Surprisingly low average score on BITE of 6.2. I'd give it 7.5 and it's streets ahead of most of the ghastly town centre drinking establishments.
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Nice pub with quality ales. Friendly and knowledgeable landlord. Staff friendly and efficient. Clientel sometimes lets it down.
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Mighty Oak Maldon Gold, English Oak, IPA, & Mixed Doubles (a confusing pumpclip helpfully annotated with a sticker indicating �blonde�), one pump unclipped. The Maldon Gold was excellent value at �2.20 �all day, every day�, and this meant the cheapest 4-pint round of the day at �9.70. The front bar has marble-topped tables & rather strange leather seating & sofas where one would expect more traditional wood furnishings but, that aside, I like the place & the guv is a courteous & genial host. I don�t recall all the 3-Para photos last visit, was I asleep?
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Good welcoming pub with a great range of beer (mostly from the Mighty Oak range). It's quite a long narrow beamed pub with a courtyard beer garden out the back. Juke box is worth a look too. Have seen this pub packed with squadies, football fans (even Leeds ones) and regular drinkers but never a sign of trouble.
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Excellent selection of Might Oak ales, all well kept. Home cooked food is just that and good value.
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Nice enough pub with 6 ales on hand pump. Friendly vibe and the beer was good.
chick - 26 Jan 2009 14:19 |
Excellent beer (Mighty Oak, well kept and well served), and I didn't think it was more expensive than anywhere else. Too many over-loud squaddies for it to be a comfortable drink though. Maybe it's better at lunchtime.
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Not really been in here to many times, nice little pub especially right near the high street. good music in there and good beer and lager choices. i can imagine that the atmosphere is enhanced the more people go in, ive only been in during the day so there arent that many people in. A pub that backs our boys, the paras. Friendly staff aswell. Good pub.
Also to my fellow critic. Stating 2.70 a pint of ale. beer prices go up annually from brewers, plus the lovely cancellors budget constantly beats the price with duty increases. A pub must pay its way with bills somehow and that is the only way. i would still pay it.
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Was impressed by the quality of both the beer and food. The "home cooked" food was particularly good. We did the card of real ales, and the Malden was very good. The rest were fine.
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strange pub. likes to make out its a good old fashioned pub, but is slowly becoming another squaddie pub, and not for good reasons. you get jeff walking around who looks like a coke-head who's just ran out of cocaine,with the customer service skills of a pitbull.some daytime bar staff are a bit ropey, especially the one's borrowed from mollys. its one of the last surviving 'pubs' in town but is on a downward spiral i think...........
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I finally got round to trying the sunday lunch recently. A good selection of meat was on offer, we were informed by Jeff that it is all sourced from the local respected butcher Frank Wright. The vegetables are all fresh as well and none frozen. We went for the beef roast and it was a well covered plate. The food is all cooked by Bev, Jeff's wife. The food was very good and we really enjoyed. The deserts were rather good as well.
Five Mighty Oak ales are available and the beer quality is always good. It is a shame that as a free house that all the beer does not revolve. It is good that a local brewer is being so well supported but it' a shame that English Oak is still an ever present beer. I can understand the IPA being a regular but I think the other 4 should change. It would be good to see more than 2 pumps where the beer changes.
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Mmm, Have used the pub about 17 times this year, the beer is normally ok, though the landlord should have more of a choice of guest beers in my opinion, and not the same ones.
Recently the beer had gone up to �2.70 a pint, which really for a freehouse is TOO MUCH, especially as there are more pubs around Colchester jumping on the real ale bandwaggon.
Nikki is a real credit to the pub and offers a warm personality. The pub is ok , but I think it could improve on beer selection.
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Another pub added to our crawl on local LGA�s recommendation, and rightly so. Very friendly greeting and service at the bar, Mighty Oak Burntwood, Maldon Gold, Everyman an Emporer, English Oak, and the fabulous In Seine. Pub arranged in 3 sections with bar and seating at the front, a lovely beamed room to the rear entirely occupied by a huge square table around which is seating for 12-15, and in between more seating in a dining room style. The rear two sections are separated by a large chimney breast. I fear the barman, dressed in full St George crusader outfit before the rugby, may have taken some mighty stick from his kilted chums Sat night.
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Its still a great pub with a good choice of ale from Mighty Oak. Nikki behind the bar is still a credit to the pub. Why though as one of the 3 or 4 free houses in the town has he decided to put up his beer so high. Yesterday the cost of a pint was increased to �2.70. Apart from the brewery owned pubs in the town (Adnams/GK)this is now the next most expensive. Its not even linked to the beers gravity its across all the hand pumps.
I am afraid this latest increase adds a �1.00 to every round before football now. We may have to review our pre-match pub now. Other free houses in the town where a pint can still be purchased for �2.50 or under are The Fat Cat, Odd One Out or The Foresters. Others where I am unsure of the owners The Bull and Hole in The Wall also are priced about �2.55.
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This pub is the best in Town. Best jukebox and Saturday night entertainment. Good value food...and Jeff is tops !!!
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Probably the best pub for a pint in the town centre itelf - well kept interesting beers from local breweries, and staff that notice when you come in.
I'm also suprised by the low rating - it does occasionally attract some rather loud types that swear a lot, and the sunday lunch is pretty revolting, which may have something to do with it. Oh, and there's no real cider, but overall well worth a visit.
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I have just had an excellent pint of Mighty Oak 'Oscar Wilde Mild' in this pub. I hope this remains as one of the permanent 'Mighty Oak' choices of which there are 4.
The landlord has recently added a fifth pub where the ale always changes.
Lovely 15th Century free house pub of which few now remain in the town.
There is a rear seating area if you fancy a drink outside or a fag. There is a door to the left of the bar which allows you out to this area.
Good jukebox with a wide selection to suit most tastes and ages.
This pub seems to have a surprisingly rather low BITE rating for a good pub.
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There are 5 real ales on offer now at the F&F. 4 from the local Mighty Oak Brewery (Burntwood, IPA, Maldon Gold and English Oak) and one total guest currently 'Dark Star - Old Ale'. Not sure why the award winning 'Oscar Wilde - Mild' was not included as one of the four though. All the beer I tasted was to a very high standard. There is obviously a high turnover of the beer here.
On Monday and Tuesday evenings the beer is reduced to �2.00 a pint.
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No wonder the previous reviewer is anonymous! I would not listen to past review if he prefers super cold beer in the Playhouse.
I regularly visit this pub and have always found Jeff and his staff to be very welcoming.
Usually 4 real ales are available, 2 are from the local Mighty Oak Brewery in Maldon.
A good traditional town centre pub dating back to the 15th cantury.
Sometimes live music is available at weekends otherwise the jukebox is usually playing something you know.
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When I went to this pub, the landlord was incredibly rude, the atmosphere was not welcoming at all, I'd walk on towards the playhouse if I were you - which is saying something. Thought you would all like to know. Poor rating.
anonymous - 11 Jul 2007 12:15 |
great pub
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A good traditional town centre pub that serves well kept real ales. Bar staff 'clock' people as they come in, are polite and ensure that (as best possible)punters are served in turn. An excellent example to some of the other so called bar staff in Colchester.Good viewpoint for watching the happenings in Head Street in the evening!
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I love this pub, is so nice and Jeff is great. Music is good. Real ale is excellent although I'm not a lover myself. A lot of CAMRA hang about in here. Is a brilliant pub, riff raff free.
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Good ale and well kept. Funny atmosphere though, but not in a bad sense.
J1985 - 18 Apr 2006 09:46 |
Best landlord (Jeff) in Town . Knows his real ale !!
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good pub nice landlord, however could benifit with more livley atmosphere.
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