The Five Bells - Piatti

The George

➤ The Green, CO10 8BA, St Edmundsbury, United Kingdom

Piatti • Pub • Steak • British • European

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"We visited The George during our fist visit to Sudbury. The staff were friendly and welcoming and the pub itself looked relatively nice. We were seated in view of the kitchen area where I witnessed on several occasions the chef licking his fingers whilst preparing food, picking at and eating the food as he was preparing it for diners. I was very shocked by this and both my partner and I vowed to never return. Never have I witnessed such poor food hygiene standards and we felt rather sick at the thought of how our food was prepared. The chef also had long hair which was only tied back and not covered. My partner asked the waitress to recommend a hot seafood starter, he specifically said he didn’t want anything cold. We trusted her recommendation and unfortunately what he received was a cold prawn starter with luke warm bread. He was very disappointed but was too polite to send it back. I believe the waitresses would benefit from ensuring they are aware of what the dishes are they are recommending to diners, especially as we saw other diners with hot sea food starters. All in all, we found our first experience at The George to be a memorable one, but all for the wrong reasons. I personally wouldn’t recommend this place."

Half Moon

➤ Cole Green, Braintree, United Kingdom

Piatti • Pub • Steak • Chicken • Sandwiches

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"Recommended to us, we got lost coming from Sudbury as we missed the turning for 'The Belchamps ' but once we got back on track found ourselves in a very lovely little village, where the pub was situated just across from the green. Didn 't seem to be anything else here, no shops etc but a very nice place none the less. Very attractive pub and very traditional inside lots of locals round the bar which was lovely to see as even after Covid lockdown this seems something unique these days. The food was very good, we both went for the Chicken stuffed with brie. The only reason we haven 't given 5/5 is that the service wasn 't great when we arrived we stood around and eventually had to ask if it was OK to just sit anywhere, once seated we were served quite efficiently but it was a bit lackluster. Our drinks order was wrong and the food took 25 minutes, even thought there were only 2 other tables occupied in the place. In saying that the food was worth the wait and all the serving staff were very young so can be forgiven for the service not matching the food. We probably will go back and would not discourage anybody giving it a go."

The Swan Inn Clare

➤ 4 High Street, CO10 8NY, St Edmundsbury, United Kingdom

Piatti • Pub • Pizza • Pasta • Steak

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"Great Classic Pub grub meal last night for my Dads birthday. The greeting was lovely and the staff were friendly throughout. Menu is varied and the Specials board was good. I had the homemade pie which was delicious aswell as the mash and veg. Other choices from our party was Chicken and Chorizo pasta which again was fresh and plentiful. Homemade lasagna and Homemade Hunters Chicken. We also had starters where 2 had the fresh cooked shell on prawns with chilli and garlic and I had the homemade Spicy tomato soup all served with hot baguettes. Will return again"

The Bell Closed

➤ Market Hill, Clare CO10 8NN, United Kingdom, St Edmundsbury

Piatti • Pub • Fish • Drinks • British

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"When we arrived, everything seemed fine initially, but then the food was served. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves—burnt dishes, undercooked items, and missing components made up a long list of complaints. Eventually, I was asked to have a private meeting with the manager, Nicki, to discuss our experience. She acknowledged the issues and agreed that we wouldn’t have to pay for the food, promising that her husband would call me shortly. When he did call, he accused me of "ranting at his wife and making her cry," which anyone who knows me would find hard to believe. He insisted he was coming to the restaurant and would take 45 minutes to get there for a one-on-one meeting. While I wouldn’t mind this, the other 11 guests were equally upset and wanted to meet him as well. When he arrived, he confronted me in front of everyone, repeating that I had made his wife cry. However, he refused to let her come and talk to me about it. He mentioned issues with previous chefs being bullied and said they had a new chef from Indeed, although I'm not sure why that was relevant. He claimed that missing items from our plates were due to us not including them on the spreadsheet we provided. So even though the festive menu listed "burger with fries, coleslaw, and pigs in blankets," we only received the burger and fries because we only typed "burger." He did offer us a free meal, which we declined after the treatment we received, and Richard also offered to refund our drinks bill, which we also turned down because, despite the terrible food, we had enjoyed our wine. I’ve always been a supporter of The Bell and considered it a great pub for drinks, but after this experience and the way we were treated, including the baseless accusations, I regret to say that we won’t be returning—especially since there are other places in Clare that provide better service without such issues."

The Cock

➤ 3 Callis Street, St Edmundsbury, United Kingdom

Piatti • Pub • Steak • British • Vegetarian

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"We turned up very hungry and tired after getting lost on a walk. It was late for lunch on a Saturday, but the bar man couldn’t have been more helpful. He turned a blind eye to our muddy boots and took the trouble to put a group of tables together for us. He took a drinks order at the table, and brought them over to us to save our tired feet. Our food order was rather slow to arrive, but given the time and the number of us, hardly surprising. Not everyone in the party was as happy as I was with the quality of their food but my gammon, egg and chips really hit the spot after our long walk."