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Things have been VERY hectic at home lately! Preparations for Christmas, a family holiday and a busy work schedule are all things that we have been very grateful for, but it feels like we’ve barely had a moment to sit down without rushing through lunch to get on again!
When Open Table contacted me, to work together on this post, I decided to look at the stunning restaurants in my local area. I live in Essex, and as such Hertfordshire is right on my door. Hertfordshire is packed FULL of stunning restaurants with fresh seafood, delicious steaks and fascinating drinks too.
I LOVE a deal, and so I set about looking for a stunning restaurant that also has a brilliant lunch menu, close to home, which is where I found The Orange Tree in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. Located at 166 West Road, CM21 0BP.
The Orange Tree are a pub, restaurant AND farm shop, so not only can you enjoy their delicious food in house but you can purchase some of the tasty meats to take home too.
They offer a daily changing specials board and pride themselves on their deliveries from trusted suppliers including fresh fish and locally sourced fruits and vegetables. You can FEEL the quality when you’re dining here!
Take a look at the menu and you’ll see delicious starters, packed full of flavour, stunning fish & beef dishes and an array of amazing sounding side dishes including beef dripping fries and seasonal vegetables.
For our visit we went for a Monday lunchtime slot, one of the first of the week, arriving at 12:30pm and taking our 18 month old with us – the joys of having no childcare!
The service that we received was efficient, without feeling rushed at all, and remained attentive throughout. We dined from the 2 for £30 Great British Classics menu, where you can enjoy 2 dishes and either a bottle of beer, glass of house red or white wine or a soft drink from 12 – 5pm from Monday – Friday.
We started off with Thomas having the starter of salt and pepper prawns & squid (£10). I tried a little and this was delicious! See this pictured above.
My husband Thomas and I made our own selections; I went for pie of the day with heritage vegetables and gravy (usually £17).
The quality of my meal really was fantastic. Not only was it a HUGE portion, but the quality itself was top notch too. My pie (chicken and ham) was packed full of flavour, beautifully presented and I was very pleasantly surprised by just how good value the 2 for £30 menu felt.
Thomas went for handmade wagyu burger with beef dripping fries, applewood cheese, dry cured bacon and beer battered onion rings (usually £16). As you can see for yourself the portion sizes are HUGE, very good value all round.
Thomas loved the burger, in particular complimenting the burger itself and saying how perfectly the burger was cooked. Again, the portion size was very generous, while still being lovely quality.
We took our daughter with us and they were able to cater to her allergies with ease. Aurora enjoyed 100% cod fish fingers with fries (£9) and I asked them to hold the peas, as she would just throw them around the restaurant. I always try to clear up mess when dining out with my little ones so I try to skip things that are too messy!
Obviously Aurora is a little on the young side to comment but she seemed to really enjoy her food! The children’s menu had a great range of light bites (£4) and main courses (£9). While £9 may seem on the more expensive side for a child her age it would be amazing value for a bigger child and as you can see the portion sizes were HUGE. I sampled the fries and the fish fingers and you could tell they were great quality, nothing cheap, and no scrimping on the portions.
Drinks wise they had a wonderful selection of local ales, a high quality wine list, with many wines available by the glass, and all the much loved classics such as Peroni, Guinness and Stella Artois.
We didn’t have time (or room!) left to eat dessert this time but the selections looked incredible and we will definitely be back to try one soon!
Overall we were really impressed with our trip to The Orange Tree. The 2 for £30 menu in particular is great value, though I’m sure the quality of the main menu makes it worthwhile too, and it was super simple to use the Open Table website to book.
The map feature made it really simple to find a restaurant close to home, on a set day and within a time window that was convenient for our schedule. I was also able to search for Hertfordshire Restaurants too, which was very simple.
I loved being able to find somewhere close to home, that we had no visited before, and The Orange Tree felt like a real find for us – we will definitely be back.
The Orange Tree were not aware that I was visiting on behalf of Open Table and I have NOT been asked to provide a positive review or provided with any additional service or treatment. All opinions are my own, and as with all reviews on this website are based on my own views with no requirement for positive comments as paid of my collaboration with Open Table.