Stock Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Darren Bennett’s stalwart, serving up creative modern British cooking (including a well-regarded afternoon tea) “continues to be reliable in all respects”, whether you stop to take advantage of the set menus or its popular side act as a wedding and events venue.

This “lovely old Essex pub” with a white wooden facade serves food that is “well above average for pub grub” – and its popularity means it “gets overcrowded and noisy” at times. Originally three weavers’ cottages from 1460, the building was converted two centuries later using beams salvaged from naval vessels docked at Tilbury. Top Menu Tip – “the skate wing is delicious”.

“Who needs Pizza Express” when you’ve got this bottomless Neapolitan pie joint – a “great concept” (since exported to Colchester) where you press the button for service and “pizza slices keep coming round” in a form of culinary roulette; since no two slices are the same, “you get to sample loads of exciting flavour combinations” that “one would not ordinarily put on a whole pie” (“the sweet chilli chicken with honey is a favourite!”).