Valero Lounge - Braintree

Popped in for some breakfast as we hadnt been here before. A good locations and the decor was also very good.. You order at your table through the app or goto bar with your order. Overal the service was good but the food was pretty average.. Hard Poached eggs, overdone pre cooked sausages and dry beans.. The coffee and **** Mary was excellent though

Firstly I will say I have eaten here several times and always been impressed with the food and the service. Decided to take them family down for a breakfast on a rare Sunday when everybody was not busy. Started queuing , there was a couple in front of us that were waiting to be seated that gave up despite half the main restaurant being empty. There only appeared to be two people serving and they were rushed off their feet. Eventually seated outside as no tables big enough inside for our party size but the table were filthy so ended up cleaning ourselves. Eventually ordered, half the drinks came after 10 minutes, the food took nearly 40 minutes to arrive and no hot drinks served. Hot drinks turned up as we were finishing food. The sausage on the lounge breakfasts are normally nice tasty big pork sausages, today was 1 tiny thin sausage with no taste, the bacon was burnt to a crisp, cold beans just not good. Staff seemed harassed as they were over run. For the money charged today was certainly a let down, every other time I have been has been weekdays and the food is usually great and service good so maybe an off day today.

30 mins for a small breakfast to arrive, no offer of sauces when delivered (which I did actually want). I advised that my pot of tea still hadn't come out and the girl said they were doing it, but no apology offered. One of my breakfast items was broken up on the plate. Nobody came around to ask if everything was okay, which would have allowed me to feedback directly. Just after I finished eating, my pot of tea was brought out, with a grunt for what passed for an apology, by now some 45 minutes after placing my order. Service has gone downhill over the last few weeks and, whilst they were quite busy, you still expect service to be better than they're giving. Second time this has happened in a month, though first time I've submitted a review. If they don't change things around soon, customers will start leaving. Not impressed.

It took 30 minutes for drinks to come out, 50 minutes for food, When food did come out all was stone cold. They did offer to re-cook the meals which is why I have given 2 stars rather than 1. They also didn't bring out the snack pot for our 2 year old which would of been good with the long wait, even though we asked for it after 20 minutes of waiting, we didn't get it at all. This is a shame as being local in the town it was one of our favourite places to have brunch, but it seems to have gone downhill based on the last few times we've been. We even left a tip as you are made to leave this when you order the food, which is completely wrong in my opinion. We won't be coming back.

Bit loud but a nice place to eat in a relaxed way with friends/family. Food was prompt and tasty. staff friendly and helpful