Review The Square And Compasses - Great Leighs

Friday 16th June I belong to a small dining club & 5 of us came along. We all had a lovely evening, the atmosphere in the 18th century pub was pleasant & the food was very tasty! Friendly service.

Stumbled upon this hidden country gem and had such amazing food. Will definitely be returning.

Dinner here was fabulous! I had the chicken pie special and it was delicious, my parents had the venison and pork crochet which they said they loved. We also tried the ratatouille special which was lovely and fresh. All the staff was friendly and welcoming, I will definitely be coming back again soon!

Visited for lunch. Nice country pub setting with traditional interior. Guest ale from barrel and selection of keg beers. Food very good but menu a little limited so may not suit everyone. We were told they always have fish on the menu which suited us. We would return but may check what's on the menu first. Very good cheese board. Adequate parking.

Popped in for Sunday lunch mid walk with the dog. Made very welcome by the owner who took an interest in our hike. Food was great and reasonably priced. I think the lady heard me say how much I love custard as she brought me extra. Would absolutely recommend.

First visit here today and what a lovely experience. A warm greeting as we entered and shown straight to our ( pre booked ) table. Ordered Sunday roast ( beef ), cooked beautifully, nice and pink, all the trimmings with a side of cauli cheese ( a must for me with roast dinner ). Absolutely delicious. Great efficient service from the waitresses who served with smiles, always a good sign. We weren't rushed and had the table for over 2 hours. Lovely building & surroundings. Plenty of parking. Great afternoon! Will definitely return. 🙂

Lovely evening, menu was good and the food great. Helpful, friendly staff. Will definitely visit again. Another visit, this time for afternoon tea. Best I've had, another 5 🌟 .

Our best place to go by far. Can't fault anything. The food and service is 5 star.

Popped in for lunch today, having been past many times. Had an absolute stunning lunch meal. All three courses were top drawer, but the steak and ale pie was best I've ever had.

Only been here twice as it's a bit of a trek from home and the visits were about a year apart. The food on both occasions has been excellent. Service is friendly and informal and although it seems to major on food, it's got a lovely pub feel about it. Highly recommended and definitely worth the trek.

Cosy, country pub with a good selection of local produce & seasonal dishes. Staff are friendly & make you feel welcome. It’s a must to come back.

1st time visiting this place and was bowled over by the food ,would definitely recommend, especially the roast dinner and puddings!

Brilliant food, fantastic service and plenty of gluten- free options. The braised ox and chicken pie come highly recommended.

Lovely little country pub, friendly staff. Limited selection of real ale but very good what they had.

An exceptional pub. Great food and drink and very friendly atmosphere. One of the best.

5 Stars. The best Sunday lunch full stop. Traditional Essex Country pub in a beautiful setting and dog friendly.

Very well filled ham sandwich (really thick home cooked ham and good bread) nice real ale straight from the barrel

Food was excellent only one slight issue the gravy for the steak and ale pie was far too salty. Fish pie delicious as we're the veg. Sharing bread to start also delicious

The fish pie does it for me. Venue with excellent service, kind staff and wonderful food and drink. You will be very pleased that you have found this gem and treasure it for special occasions. Thank you for your most excellent food and service.

Just got back in from a meal at the S&C. Hadn't been for a while and returned because the previous experience was so good, this one actually topped it. If you've not been before and want to impress, take them here. The whole place has a lovely friendly homely atmosphere exuded by the staff and is not pretentious in the slightest. Prices represent very good value for money therefore will not leave you clenching your teeth. It's a shame I can't give it six stars.

Good food and a very nice atmosphere. The staff were friendly and the food reasonably priced. We have only recently discovered this pub but will definitely be going back.

Hi we arrived at 14.01 for lunch but to late by a minute so went elsewhere...!! But we returned because it was such a lovely pub , and had dinner there it was the best venison pie I've ever tasted plus good service nice atmosphere love to go back asp ... Thanks for a great ending to a wonderful day ....

Cracking good meal tonight. The pub was buzzing. Great staff and lovely landlord to complement a superb atmosphere. Will be back soon.

Amazing food! Lovely atmosphere. So pleased we found this place 🍸❤️

Always amazing food and a great atmosphere. Well worth a go.

Superb food & service. Has become our firm fave place for a Sunday roast!!

Best pint of ale I've had for a while. Had the game terrine for starters, followed by steak and ale pie. Never had game before but if you come to a delightful country pub like this it's rude not to. Absolutely wonderful .

You wouldn’t chance just upon this gorgeous country gastropub, but then the best of pubs are always a little out of the way and yet attract a keen following from map-wielding real ale enthusiasts. They tend to repay the effort of navigation tenfold, and the Square & Compasses, a good and properly managed free house in the hamlet of Fuller Street, a couple of miles beyond Fairstead in deepest rural Essex is no exception, for this is the real deal in British country dining. You can eat in bars the world over, but there is no real equivalent to the British country pub anywhere. Although it’s only January, I’m going to stick my neck on the line here: the Square and Compasses is now the mark to beat for the race to become Millward’s gastropub of the year, and it will take a bloody good establishment to beat it for ambience, beer and grub. If crowned, it will join a very commendable list of truly splendid pubs, the very heart and soul of the British countryside. A quick word on the beer, since the ales on offer came from, respectively, South Woodham Ferrers and Maldon. Both were well-kept, though it would have been good if the casks could have been cellar cool and hand-drawn. At least if you seen the pint pulled from the cask you know there is nothing inbetween. Typically for this sort of place, it occupies a very old building, dating on this occasion back to 1652 and replete with beams, delightfully crumbling brickwork, a log fire at each end and the usual eccentric collection of ephemera dotted around the walls, including a wall of books. No dogs but positively dripping in character. The quirkiness extended to the toilets, where gentlemen engaged at the urinals could read an array of cartoons posted on the walls, much like one of my locals, The Victory at Mersea. The S&C was also surprisingly quiet for a Sunday lunchtime, though things did pick up before we left. Luckily for us, this meant plenty of staff to serve our table.”We” on this occasion is my family, meeting for a traditional Sunday lunch, plus a couple of pints of local ales poured directly from the barrel with a little help from gravity. Local is the watchword for the menu too, with great store being set on using ingredients with low carbon miles from the best of rural Essex, and indeed on being cooked from scratch. That the standard menu combines what you would describe as “traditional pub grub” shows you can please the comfort-food demanding customers and use the best of what can be sourced nearby. The blackboard gives way to a greater range of slightly more adventurous fare (fewer options would possibly make for a fresher dinner?), but for this occasion we all went for the Sunday roast – of which there was one, but a top notch roast. What it proves to me is that you don’t need to get over-cheffy and wield tweezers with dainty and fussy presentations to serve excellent food. We can leave the debate about sophistication versus comfort food for another day, though I’m not a fan of restaurants serving “ironic” renditions of simple and solid dishes. The roast beef dinner chosen by all was a case in point. 28-day aged sirloin, served medium-rare, proved tender and had the depth of flavour you would hope for. Not perhaps as tasty as rib but way better than the average pub roast beef dinner, for sure. It did not need more attention than it had been given: simple and delicious. It was accompanied by a spectacular yorkshire pud flavoured with rosemary, properly al dente savoy cabbage and carrots, both of which bore the hallmarks of having been freshly prepared from scratch. Thin beefy gravy came in a small jug, and the accompanying horseradish was a step up from the average, giving a jolt of heat down your nostrils. Only minor blemish came in the form of roasties that were fluffy inside but not crisp outside, an indicator of having been kept warm for a while. Four empty plates demonstrated the efficacy of good cooking, followed by four more empty plates as we polished off two portions of sticky toffee pudding and one each of cheesecake and lemon & lime pannacotta. The latter is an example of a dish either served from supplier to bowl without action, or screwed up by getting the gelatined texture wrong. I’m happy to report that this version looked and tasted homemade, but had neither deconstructed itself nor set like blancmange – a dessert that leaves me with bad memories of the 60s! En route to the loo, you can see the cheese board, served on a trolley in the same old-fashioned way some Italian restaurants still serve their desserts. As a known cheese-lover A lovely pub and a good dinner – credit to the owners, whose names I sadly can’t give you since that page on their website is “under construction.” However, they were much in evidence and were the epitome of friendly and hospitable pub landlords. Next time I visit, it would be great to put chef Craig Loveridge and team through their paces and see how effectively they perform at a stretch, but be assured no visit will be wasted.

Fantastic food, service and ambience. Could not have been more accommodating. Hopefully the kids wern't too much trouble. Will definitely be returning.

Agree the food was great and the service by the young girl serving us was good (in which I still tipped) but I cannot except finding a live maggot on my plate. I decided to mention this quietly so as not to alarm other customers eating, management (landlady I think) came over and said they don't know where it could of come from, would make a note and that was it!! (I didn't know either!!) To me this is not acceptable and whilst I didn't expect a free meal I certainly expected more etiquette and acknowledgement from the landlady. I am from the area, eat out regularly and have never experienced anything like that ever before. I will not be returning.

That 'wing of skate'! What on earth was the chef thinking serving up that oddball combination of food. A disaster. The better half though loved the cod and the service was excellent.

fantastic atmosphere, excellent food and very welcoming owners and staff. The private function room is great for special occasions. This is a fabulous pub with gorgeous food and a must for everyone !