The Lemon Tree, Colchester

We spent Valentines night at The Lemon Tree and had an excellent meal. The service was brilliant. Overall I have read some of the other reviews on this website and feel if I followed the comments made would not have tried possibly the best restaurant in Colchester. The reviewers of this site I do not feel understand fine dining. In one it is suggested that portion sizes should be 50% bigger. Maybe they should have ordered fries with their meal.

We visited the Lemon Tree on my wifes birthday as a party of 7 & were seated at a 6 person table which made the experience for 4 of us very uncomfortable & squashed. The food is cheap pub grub served in very small portions -that in parts was very poor - but served very expensively as a fine dining experience. The drinks are also very expensively priced & the whole experience was extremely poor VFM. The whole group left feeling hungry & dissatified. We would suggest that they reduce their prices by 30% & increase their portion sizes by 50% to offer good VFM. They also blamed their supplier for some poor quality food, but we feel they bought it, cooked it, served it & charged for it then they should accept the blame is in fact theirs.

I pre-booked this for a nice meal for me and my girlfriend it was a surprise that evening as we were celebrating our anniversary. once arrived the place was empty but we were left standing at the front door very poor indeed but gave benefit of the doubt. we ordered our meal my girlfriend ordered chicken breast i ordered the rib eye steak. my girlfriend meal arrived and looked nothing like chicken breast but more like strips of chewy fatty chicken thigh with bones in!!!!!!. i never heard of chicken breast with bones in. the waitress then argued the case then chef cooked fresh one by this time i had already eaten mine then waitress had cheek to say to my partner do you still want your meal really unacceptable what was supposed to be a romantic dinner for two ended up as my partner watching me eat my meal then me watching her soooooooooooooo wrong will not be going back would never recommend this to my worst enemy.

Very disappointed. We were a party of 11 who had prebooked from the January party menu..

Some food was not as listed - eg Mushroom risotto on the menu, but mushroom ravioli was served, the cheesecake was supposed to be blackcurrant, but arrived as vanilla.

The portions weren't exactly generous either - the chocolate dessert fitted on the spoon in one attempt!

Neither of the two wines ordered were as listed - same variety, but different producers.

Even the bill was wrong - they tried to charge a price other than that listed.

We were recommended this restaurant. Very disappointing. Very overpriced, cold soup and overcooked vegetables. Portion size poor too. Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Felt it was a total waste of money.

After reading the other reviews we were looking forward to a nice meal and atmosphere. We were very disappointed at not only the service but with the food too. Having not ordered and started whilst opting for a drink to start, the main meal arrived at the same time as drinks. The food seemed to us as if it had been cooked previously and then reheated in the microwave. We would defiantly not return or recommend this restaurant to others.

Inedible lamb - warm beer - poor service - overcrowded. Real disappointment

My girlfriend and myself dined at The Lemon Tree last wednesday night, we found the resteraunt itself very modern with a relaxed and inviting atmosphere. The food was very good, I had the lamb, my girlfriend had the salmon and we very much enjoyed it, it was probably one of the best pieces of lamb i have ver had! Desserts were also nice, had summer fruit pudding.

overall the service (although a little slow) was very good and the staff very polite, will be going back to try the rest of the menu!

Main meals were just about acceptable although the quantity of accompanying vegetables was very mean.

The deserts were really awful - supposed to be treacle tart. More like a biscuit with a little cream on top. The apple sponge was a little more appetising. Both were supposed to be served with home made vanilla ice cream which was not in evidence.

Many years since I last visited The Lemon Tree and it might be many years before I try again.

We visited The Lemon Tree, Colchester, on Friday evening and found it to be half full so expected really good service. How wrong we were - it took ages in between the starters and main and despite asking twice if it was coming out we were still left to wait a very long time. All of the party felt full by the time the mains arrived and as a result we would not be heading there again in a hurry. Also the deserts are all very overpriced and we all agreed they were brought from a shop rather than being homecooked as suggested. The place looks great inside and its just a great shame that it totally failed to live up to anywhere near its reputation! Hey Lemon Tree Owners - I think the local Institute does a good catering course maybe you could go on it! Something needs to change I'm afraid!