Just had lunch with family. The new menu was very nice. The food was piping hot and our compliments must go to the chef. The staff were friendly. Would recommend and will be back. Well done all.

Went along to Yew tree for a meal 6.25pm on a wednesday evening. Was told that unless we had booked they didnt have a table for us. The pub was nearly empty. They didnt offer a later time to eat and didnt seem sorry that they were turning us away. Felt like they were short staffed and couldnt serve us. Meals at this pub have often been disappointing and was only going on wednesday because we had clubcard vouchers to use left over from trip to Scotland.

Was treated to a birthday meal by my daughter in law and grandchildren. Arrived about 5.30pm on a saturday. Seated quickly and order taken promptly by very pleasant young man. Here comes the patience bit. Over 30mins before main arrived. did not order starter. Food very good but mistake made on one of children's meal. Then ordered sweets. No Creme Brulee and no strawberry ice cream! Waited 20mins for sweet to arrive. 3 of the orders were for cold puddings. Does it really take 20mins to cut up a slice of cheesecake? Would be prepared to give Yew Tree another chance but need to improve waiting times.

Went to dinner with some friends to the Yew Tree, greeted at the door by a waitress who gave us the most dirty look, she then asked us to wait while she found a table for us which was expected, she then sat us at an uncleared table and didn't even return to wipe the table down. The food was served in 35 minutes which is not bad. If by a 'hearty portion' you mean seven pieces of scampi and crucified chips for £7.49, which is severally over priced for the portion and would never pay that again. I myself ordered a medium rare streak, which was just shy of being blue and uneatable, although we did get this taken off the bill. It took the waitress almost 10 minutes to get two steak knives, and we still had to go up to the bar and ask for them again. All the cutlery was dirty, and we had to ask for clean steak knives, so by the time we got knives our food was cold. All in all me and friends will never return and I can honestly say I would highly recommend that if you are thinking of going there don't!

Slow service, long delays between courses. Over 3 hours for Sunday lunch. Frozen vegetables , hard cauliflower. Poor desserts. Our first and last visit.. I would not recommend this pub.

Have been a few times now and food and service has got steadily worse. My food on saturday was dreadful, when i complained they didnt want to know. I will never eat there again

went for a family meal and we were all very disappointed with the very poor service and awful food. we wont be recommending this restaurant and wont be visiting again. avoid at all costs

We ate here tonight at a table booked for 5pm. Our party was 7 adults and one pre-schooler (hence the early teatime table). We asked someone to take a drinks order at 5.30pm and finally these arrived at 10 to 6. We then asked to order food and were told there was a one hour wait for food!!! Very disappointing but we agreed to wait as starters would be quicker and they promised to bring out the child's meal very quickly. The starters took 30 minutes to arrive (4 portions of crispy prawns). At 7pm we asked for the child's meal as my daughter was very hungry. Luckily we had taken a colouring book and pencils as there was no provision whatsoever for waiting children and she was on best behaviour, but I imagine if I had not taken these it would have been a very stressful 2 hours. My daughters' meal arrived at 7.10pm (fish fingers, rice and peas) and our main courses followed at 7.30pm after three lots of prompting and promises that our "table was next". Four tables of people who had arrived after us, were served and eating well before ours. Staff were not attentive until we really complained after being there 2 hours, then we were offered a reduced bill, free desserts, free round of drinks, extra side orders etc. A real shame as we were there to celebrate a birthday, had brought cake with us etc but in the end had a very poor evening and gave up on the cake as it was so late for a 4 year old to have eaten and she was very tired. We had the cake at home and didn't bother with dessert (even tho it was offered free!).

My family have been to this pub restaurant a few times recently. On one occasion, one weekday evening, everything was fine. However, I was ill for two days after but this could have been a co-incidence. My son had problems with service when he went after this and today my other son and daughter to me for a meal here. We gave up waiting for dinner after 1 hour and 15 minutes. During this time no apologies. We did ask twice where the meal was and both times they said they would go to find out. Nothing happened; they didn't come back and no apologies. This is the worst restaurant experience I have had for a good long time, in the end we just left. Oh; the chairs are comfy, which is just as well as you have to sit in them for a long time.

I ate at the Yew Tree in Great Horkesley for the first time on Sunday. What a lovely pub! Very traditional and with a thatched roof, but relaxed and modern inside, also saw a lovely garden with fountain which will be brillent in the warmer weather. We had a sunday roast which was delicious and the staff were friendly and nothing was too much trouble. I reccomend trying the Yew Tree.

Sat 22 Jan 2011: - First visit ti The Yew Tree, Great Horkesley and will not go back again. They have a sign saying 'sit down and we will do the rest', far from it! The service is far from attentive and we had to keep grabbing waitresses for most things, We needed to ask for more cutlery (the table was booked), one serviette on the table for seven, we had to grab staff to take the order, to get the bill, to take the money. The wait for food was long, a table next to us tried cancelling there desserts as they wanted to go. No coffee offered.

Basically they do not have enough staff and those they have do not give the attention required to the customers.

The food itself was good but poorly presentedand garnished and little more than average pub food at higher than pub food prices. There are many lunch time coffee shops at half the price that do better with food and service around the Colchester area.

Visited The Yew Tree on Saturday 22nd January for lunch, two adults and two children. I had a chicken burger with chips - it was definately chicken but the burger had absolutely no taste to it whatsoever - how can that be?? Chips were obviously the oven, processed variety. My husband had the moroccan lamb burger, again not great. Two kids meals of fish and oven chips, not too bad. This is a classic case of a big company taking over what probably used to be quite a cute British pub. What a shame - can somebody send Gordon Ramsay there to sort it out???

We have had so many bad experiences of this place- we will not be returning again.
Terrible service.

It was my birthday on17.10.2010. and my son and his wife came to visit and we had a lovely Sunday roast and a lovely sweet could not fault it.

ON SAT 17TH JULY, MYSELF AND 3 FRIENDSWENT TO THE YEW TREE FOR DINNER ASIT WAS MY BIRTHDAY. WHAT A MISTAKE!I FELT SORRY FOR THE STAFF AND THE MANAGER AS THEY SPENT MOST OF TE EVENING GIVING FREE DESERTS AND COFFEES BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE ALL COMPLAINING. THERE WERE TO MANY PEOPLE AND IT WAS OBVIOUS THATTHEY COULDNT COPE. MY FRIENDS CHICKEN WAS COLD,THE CHIPS WERE HARD AND HAD BEEN COOKED BEFORE. WHEN THE FREE DESERTS CAME MY PARTNER DIDNT GET HIS AND WHEN WE COMPLAINED AGAIN THEY SAID OPPS WE WILL GET IT, HE SAID DONT BOTHER JUST GET US THE BILL. MOBILE PHONES GOING OFF, WE HAD DRESSED NICELY AND OTHERS HAD SHORTS AND FLIP FLOPS ON,IF PEOPLE WANT A NICE EVENING OUT DONT GO.IT USED TO BE A LOVELY PLACE WITH A GOOD NAME AS I HAVE BEEN HOWEVER I SHALL NOT BEGOING AGAIN.