Excellent. - review added on Tue 2nd Jan 2007

Real home cooked food like eating in a top west end hotel.

Overall:	10
Food:	10
Service:	10
Ambiance:	8

Recommended Dishes: steak, lamb shank

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Truly Awful. - review added on Mon 30th Jul 2007

I can only assume the first review of this restaurant was a mistake - it isn't in the West End, or a hotel. Or excellent. I've rarely had such a bad experience.

My girlfriend and took her dad and his partner to see a film at the electric palace and thought we'd also go for a meal. We'd seen the Bear from the outside on a previous trip to Harwich - and it certainly looks ok - so we tried to book. They didn't answer the phone all day, but when we turned up (about 6:30) they showed us straight in.

That's when it went downhill. The owner (I'm guessing) got us all a drink, then said he had to nip out for a few minutes but would be back very soon. He left us with a young waitress, who took our food order. He didn't come back for 40 mins - and it turned out he was the person who would be cooking our meal. Not ideal considering we had a film to see at 7:30.

He went straight to the kitchen and began to cook - how I wish he hadn't bothered. My girlfriend's dad had fish and chips, which turned out to be a piece of cod the size of your palm, in a lump of batter which filled half the plate. The chips were plentiful, but badly overcooked, and there were no veg or salad. His partner ordered salmon (£9.00) and was told she had to pay £3.00 extra for vegetables and £1.75 extra for potatoes. The salmon was no bigger than the cod. My girlfriend and I are both veggie, and the worst was reserved for us. Our options were veggie lasagne (yawn) or some kind of vegetable bake, which might have been ok but was hardly inspiring and most likely frozen and microwaved. Instead we both opted for a starter (deep fried brie) and desert. The brie turned up in what was obviously the same batter as the cod, and guess what? It tasted strongly of fish. I managed to eat about half of mine (I was starving) but my girlfriend could only manage one bite. Even if you're not veggie, it's pretty disturbing to eat cheese that tastes of fish. When we asked to see the manager (in a very polite and friendly way) we were told he was too busy and we'd have to go into the kitchen to talk to him. We explained the situation and he basically said hard luck, insisting the brie had been cooked separately. Getting a bit angry, we said we were not prepared to pay for my girlfriend's portion of brie as she hadn't been able to stomach it. He informed us that "we'll be falling out then". We suggested that we leave without paying, but take up the matter formally by post (always be prepared to do this, it's your legal right, but also be prepared to demonstrate that you could pay there and then if you wanted too, otherwise it's obtaining goods by deception). He backed down and took partial payment.

Add to this the sticky tables, the sweet wine when we ordered dry (though he assured us he didn't sell sweet wine) and the general air of greasy spoon once you get past the charming exterior of the building, and you end up with a fairly awful meal. We didn't bother with desert.

Overall:	2
Food:	2
Service:	2
Ambiance:	6

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Review added on Sun 1st Jun 2008

Saturday 31 May 2008. 2 reviews above - 1 good, 1 bad. There 18:10 - 18:45. No else in, admittedly rather early. I have to go along with the dreadful.. For example, ordered 'large' salad - it wasn't, but was pre-cut/tired, no dressing applied or offered. Had salmon, sauce was gloopy. Ordered a glass Piesporter Michelsberg, not recognisable as such. State of table placings lacked any finesse whatsoever.

Overall:	3
Food:	2
Service:	4
Ambiance:	2

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