The Black Buoy - Colchester

We had lunch today at the Black Buoy. The setting was warm and attractive; the service was friendly and efficient; the food was excellent. A lovely experience and real value for money.

I went fir lunch with my husband and my son. Because of my son working unsociable hours we don't see him that much. We all had fish and chips. Not great I must say. The fish was very watery, batter over cooked. Staff where extremely loud !!! One waitress was speaking so ! Loud., I found it difficult to have a normal conversation. Conderments hadn't been refilled. Very poor.I definitely won't be returning. Very disappointed

Me and my partner have often been visiting this pub in lovely Wivenhoe village over the last 3 years. Unfortunately every year since and every time the food gets worse incrementally and I don't know of this is consistent with the change of kitchen staff. The local ale and beer selection has been lovely and the beer fest they often host in the back garden also has a great beer selection. However this last visit was really bad. We booked a table for Sunday roast and we were sat in direct view of serving staff and got ignored for the first half an hour despite it being early on Sunday and barely having any tables to serve. It wasn't until my partner had to make staff aware that we were sat there. No proper greeting like older times and no cutlery or general hospitality provided. We kind of brushed it off as we taught its younger, teenage servers who looked inexperienced. The wait for the food was quite long and the roast was extremely mediocre despite the recent price hike which is not just (cost of living) related and shouldn't be in my opinion as competing country pubs have similar prices and majorly better food quality and portion size. Small portion of meat, beef was sinuie and very tough. It was difficult to cut and chew despite it being on the rare side which should make it more tender. The vegetables used to come separate, unlike this time around where we were served poorly overcooked small portion of fine julienne carrots and horribly overcooked frozen broccoli florets. Gravy was really scarce and barely dowsing the plate, Yorkshire pudding was flat and tasted like it was frozen and microwaved, also cold. The wine offer we chose was a bottle of red not opened infront of us. The server seemed to be in a rush and didn't even wait until our order was finished and just rudely turned around. The specials board dessert for the day (apple crumble) had ran out which is a bad impression of kitchen management as it was really early on in the day in terms of Sunday roast food service which lasts till 5pm and this was a 2pm booking. We ordered the other special dessert for the day (creme brulee) which was runny, watery and sugar loaded which was a bit sickly. The shortbread it came with was fresh out of the oven but the dough inside was undercooked/raw and again way too sugary. The tables around us seemed to be finished with most of their plates still full which was also not a good impression. We got asked if the food was okay multiple times by the same server which was also excessive and annoying. I wouldn't come back here again personally as there is much better competition around this area and even affordable good food/michellin star pubs. I would advise people to avoid the mediocre food, rather maybe have a drink if the bar staff could actually come around ti ever taking your order. Shame really, they should realise that a lot of people can cook a roast better at home it's not something you can avoid criticism about as it's a Great British Classic.

I write this review with a bit of a heavy heart. i have been coming to the Black buoy for many years to enjoy the great selection of beers and more frequently over the past three years , its great Sunday roast. However over the last three or four visits this yer I have been disapponinted with the quality and portion size. I am not sure this is down to new management or chef, however, whereby upon oredering the roast you used to be served a decent prtion of meat with a side dish of hot al denté vegetables and a cracking fluffy yorkshire pudding with crispy roast potatoes and gravy on the side...now the plates arrive with soft soggy veg#carrots batons cut so thinly(juliene style) which are soggy and overcooked and meagre amounts of meat. the yorkshire puddings are flat and for the most part cold. It is so disappointing as I used to recommend this pub as serving up one of the best roast dinners around locally . the other recommend is The Lexdon crown which is amazing also, however I felt the Black Buoy had that slight edge due to its location and ale selection. I will likely give this one more chance to see if there is any improvement but unfortunately if not it will be the Lexdon Crown in futere -sorry to write this but it really has lost its touch

This pub is in the picturesque area of town near the Riverside. It does not have parking and parking in this part of town is extremely limited. However, a short walk away is a free car park. We received a warm welcome and service was good. Decent choice of food including vegetarian and I enjoyed a vegan burger and very tasty chips. The food was reasonably priced and the coffee very good value huge cups! If in the area again would be happy to return.