The Exhibition Inn, Great Wakering, Southend-on-Sea

This pub has gone downhill so much in the last couple of years . Its full of louts swearing and making a racket . The bar staff are more interested in chatting to thier friends than serving and when they do its like they are doing you a favour . One lady had a jkt potato bought up on her plate like rock she couldnt eat it. The waitress said . “You should have said if you wanted a soft one ” and that was it ,poor old dear. Id never eat there again . Lovely garden out back in summer . ( best bit)

A friend of mine recommend this pub/restaurant to me, saying that she had a really good meal there.

My husband and I pitched up one weeknight evening and our entrance was like something out of an old Western. Had there been music or a piano playing, it would have stopped immediately on our entrance. Everyone within eye-line of the door turned to look at us and we could feel eyes burning into us as we took a table in the farthest corner of the room.

As we settled with a drink, our conversation was interrupted by the people playing pool, most of whom weren’t wearing shirts (and it wasn’t a warm evening) were swearing loudly and frequently and were talking about random acts of violence.

We had already placed our food order by that point so had no choice but to grin and bear it.

The food was the saving grace of the evening. It arrived promptly, was served with a smile and was delicious. I had a steak which was a good 2 inches thick and was cooked exactly as I had ordered.

We probably won’t go back just to see if we visited on an off-night. The atmosphere of impending carnage has put us off, despite the fact that the food was so good.