The Lock Wilkins Tea Room

The best ever afternoon tea and the service is sublime!! I cannot recommend the tea room enough superb food and really brilliant staff.

My sister and I just had lunch at The Lock, we were made to feel very welcome and the food was excellent. Thank you to the staff. Jo Pat

Good good, service good, staff good. But every time a dog arrives the young waitress pays and strokes it and then puts her. Hands on the food plates to serve them, utterly disgusting.

Great spot, seating inside and out, staff lovely, food delicious. Had cream tea for one, scone was warm and didn't fall apart, tuna cheese sarnie with salad, crisps and Tiptree onion chutney was to die for. Toilets spotless, staff lovely and they sell all Tiptree goods at supermarket prices. Will def be back! Quiche new pots and salad seems to be a big seller!

Visited today for coffee. No table available only bench which we took. After waiting 20 minutes to order coffee I went up to a member of staff who said ‘oh sorry forgot’ table next to us had been waiting much longer so I told same person to go and take their order. People coming in after us were served immediately. It seems there are plenty of staff but they don’t have a clue what they are doing and don’t really care.

We've been coming here for years but we'll be giving this place a miss in future. Typical of Essex cafes there is a notable lack of vegan options. However in 2023 Tiptree tea rooms have decided to marginalise vegans further by reducing their options. They've replaced their hummus sandwich with a vegan cheeze. The only other vegan meal option is a bland baked potato with baked beans. Luckily they had 2 small options which were short term offers. Despite the great service and nice location, if you're a hungry vegan I suggested you don't waste your money and time here.

Arrived at the Locks Restaurant at 13:35 and was told that they had in out of food. When asked if we could have a drink told No! Went for a short walk, passed the restaurant 30 mins later and saw people ordering?! I was then told we've caught up now but a 45 min wait. They had clearly lied to us. If they had the decency to tell the truth fine, being lied to they don't deserve a good review Service was mediocre . I should have walked past the Tea Room on the second occasion . They make the food on the premises so to go from no food to a full menu in 30 minutes is not believable. We were then served I 5 mins

Went with my wife and mother in law after we were given a gift of an afternoon tea for two. The people giving us the gift would have been embarrassed at the paltry serving of food: 2 sandwiches one ham and one tuna that were average, a couple of scones that were stale and small cakes that weren 't worth the bother. Then to be told later that we could have unlimited tea. A server then proceeded to inform us that it must be on the small print on the menu- hardly an apology. This after it took us ages to be served in a not that busy period. Staff seemed to be 'busy ' tidying menus, arranging glasses on trays and standing about. No doubt the tea room think that will succeed on volume rather than...

I 'll start with a positive the lady that served us was delightful. I didn 't catch her name but she was a little older. She was very friendly and couldn 't do enough for us. Unfortunately this is where the positivity ends. Having had 30+ years in the catering trade I understand that I may be a little more critical, however, it doesn 't take years of experience to notice what we saw here yesterday. I was more than a little shocked at some of your hygiene standards. On at least two occasions I saw a member of staff walking through the seating area with a bag of rubbish. Didn 't necessarily have an issue with this until they put the bag on the floor and then served a customer at the 'hatch ' w...