The Meadowlark new Shoebury pub review

Overall I've give it a provisional 3 out of 5; its good but there's lots of room for improvement. The Meadowlark is the new pub just opened in Shoebury (Essex) by Asda.

Entry is a problem, there is a side entrance and an outside seating area, adjacent to the carpark, but you have to cross grass to get to this entrance; bad planning.

There is no distinction between tables for drinking at and tables for eating at, but there is table service, which leads to confusion as to whether you're allowed to just take a table, and whether a waiter/waitress will be over. Better would be to admit its a pub and not a restaurant, and let you order at the bar.

Inside and out the building is new, reasonably good decor - a bit generic though, and nice and big. Good atmosphere and friendly staff.

They are using a silly marketing trick on the food prices - they've doubled the price of all their food, and saying "two main meals for the price of one". This is annoying as they are charging an inflated £10 for everthing, when they should put the prices at £5, because that's what you end up paying. It leads to silliness when there is an odd number of guests.

So there were 3 of us, and we decided this offer means we will get 4 meals for the price of two - therefore one of our meals and the extra one were free - and we decided to share the 4th meal. This is fine, though it is a bit silly, and what happens if you're on your own would you get two meals for the price of one?

And the final negative is that some of the staff are currently very inexperienced, which led to incorrect drinks orders twice, and a mess up of the salad order. Initially a bacon sandwich was delivered, then the salad, then another salad! And then we had to stop then from giving us a 3rd! Thankfully they got the bill correct.

On the positive side the food was really yummy! Okay one more negative, I asked for ketchup and got a tiny little tub (aka McDonalds), ONE!, it just seems ridiculous that they are trying to save costs by restricting the amount of tomato sauce they give out.

Overall I liked it, but would like them to sort out the awkward table service issue, and get some more experienced staff.

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Location:Shoebury