Established in 1679 as a coaching inn, The King's Head in Chipping Ongar is the oldest brick-fronted building on Chipping Ongar High Street.
Named after King James II, who is believed to have stayed here during his reign, this Grade II listed building is home to a traditional lounge area with open fire, comfortable bar, function room, and a 100-seat restaurant, complete with full-length open kitchen.
We had Friday lunch here. We were 3 people. We waited 15 mins for our drinks and food order to be taken. We had ordered a nibble starter and it sat on the pass for 10 minutes and finally arrived with our main meal. We were left to our own devices for the rest of the time. I had to physically go and ask for the dessert menus. Our desserts arrived to a table still full of main dirty plates. The poor guy on duty was alone with 11 tables to serve and coffee, drinks and the rest to do. Not acceptable. Terrible management scheduling and planning. One person should not have been left to deal with all that. Our food was just ok. My lamb was dry, my friends fish and chips were ok. That’s about it. Someone somewhere needs to arrange staff much better! Service was atrocious.
Family meal for all my partners Family.. Due to our party size we chose our meals before arriving. Kids meals had been overlooked. Starters were average then an hours wait for mains. Fire alarm kept going off, but staff did nothing to reassure people it was a test/fault and just carried on regardless. We hadn't even been given our desserts when they came round and asked who wanted coffees! Needless to say, coffee was served before desserts. Poor organisation and not very friendly or helpful staff. All in all, very disappointing.
Convenient location with free parking. Sadly the food was an issue. Good variety on the menu but there were issues with the quality and service. We were a large group but had pre ordered three days before our sitting. The management need to address the issues we experienced or people will not book in the future!
Brilliant lunch. The team there were absolutely fantastic. The waiter looking after us overheard it was my birthday and took it upon himself to get the team together and sing happy birthday . Lovely touch. seeing that we really weren't expecting it. Food was awesome too.
Beautiful pub and restaurant with a pizza oven, serving mainly Italian food. Owned and restored by a lovely friendly couple. The building was originally built around the 1600's and is apparently haunted 😉 Loads of little rooms and pockets to have cozy chat's or larger areas for groups. Only found the venue whilst waiting for the steam train 🚂 ----- The following is from my second visit to the venue - which was planned during the summer 🌞 where we had 3 course meal and pizza as our starter's. Didn't get to take a picture of the aubergine pizza 🍆 🍕 as it was delicious and was swallowed whole 😋👀 The staff were amazingly friendly and helpful. The King's Head is a great example of how hospitality should be! Lovely covered outdoor terrace and seating area. There's a huge car park to the rear which I didn't know about on my first visit. Beautiful field and stream that run around the rear of the property. Perfect for a post-dinner walk.
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Chipping Ongar, Essex, CM5 