Pavilion Restaurant

We are looking for hardworking, enthusiastic people to join our team! If you are interested, send your CV to manager@pavilion-restaurant.co.uk

To gin or not to gin? Silly question!

Come dine with us! www.pavilion-restaurant.co.uk

Fancy an afternoon tea? Have a look at our menu and book a table today! http://pavilion-restaurant.co.uk/afternoo n-tea/

Haven't had the chance to visit us yet? Have a look at our menus and book a table today! http://pavilion-restaurant.co.uk/menu/

Got Twitter? Don't forget to follow us @pavilioncolch

Splash! 🍸 Fancy a Martini?

Wow! 2,000 likes on our page! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who has visited the restaurant and now follows our news feed. Here's to another 2,000! 🍸👌

Saturday mornings are for Mimosas and brunch!

Come dine under a forever blossoming tree and beautiful white clouds, that never bring rain. A unique dining experience at Pavilion Restaurant, book a table today! www.pavilion-restaurant.co.uk

Soaking up the sun while sitting at our riverside terrace, drinking wine and enjoying a scrumptious dessert.. what could be better?

Dessert makes everything better! Try our tropical fruits panna cotta #yum

Gin Martini or Vodka Martini? What's your favourite? 🍸

Asian Pear Mojito 🍐

Please, have a seat… after all, nothing brings people together like good food!

“You had me at sushi” 🍣 🥢#nomonomnom

Pink gin is finally here! 🍓 #MondayMotivation

Cocktails… because no great story ever started with a salad!🍹🍸

We have something very special to offer for your lunchtime meal - our Bento Boxes are to die for! Choose from fish, meat or vegetarian options! www.pavilion-restaurant.co.uk

Wow, from the minute you enter the building it’s design is our elegance. Food perfect and matched what it said on the menu. Bearing in mind it was a Monday lunch time the ambience was good, there was 5 other covers, I will be back to try the evening menu.

We went on a beautiful hot Sunday afternoon , after a recommendation from our son.



The Pavilion is just stunning.



Light , airy , full view of kitchen ,wine cellar & cigar humidor through a glass wall.



We spent the afternoon outside by the river .

The food was great and the staff friendly .

Special mention to Beth , who was attentive , informative and a great advert for the restaurant.

Visited Pavilion last night and what can I say! The decor is incredible, you would never think you were in Colchester! The food was divine, I actually woke up wanting more of the pork belly, and the Fish Curry was delicious. Staff were very attentive and professional. Absolutely no complaints and I cannot wait to visit again soon.

Popped in for lunch alone - out of towner in Colchester for a meeting. It was quiet as it was early in to lunchtime.



All staff made me feel very welcome, tables were nice, general decor too. I ordered a vege bento box and a side. Arrived promptly, well cooked and well presented. Cold drinks were very cold (good start) and a nice coffee to finish. Only slight niggle was avocado in the sushi - classic case of fashion over flavour. Everything else was spot on.



5* for the staff and venue, a good 4 for the food. Really enjoyed it and thanks for the welcome. Much appreciated when dining alone.

I cannot say a bad word about this place! Super friendly and very helpful staff, quick service, delicious and filling food and amazing cocktails! Beautiful place! I mean this is THE place! I must add that we went with our kids..and they are really fussy about their food and let me tell you they loved their dinner! And eaten it all! Which doesn’t happen very often at the restaurants � we can recommend Pavillion 200% don’t look at bad reviews - go and check it out as you will be pleased ���

Had a wonderful meal last night for my birthday. Beautiful restaurant and great food also lovely cocktails in the bar! Looking forwards to my next visit. So nice to enjoy a meal locally but feel as if we were on holiday somewhere exotic! Fabulous place x

Brilliant service, out of this world food and a stunning setting. We visited for my sisters 18th birthday today and could not recommend the staff or service more- especially when a stunning board entirely offered by the restaurant with ‘happy birthday’ And a candle - beautiful and highly appreciated touch!

The food and cocktails were really great (as was the very friendly cocktails chap behind the bar) but the service needs improvement. The table we were offered was right on the edge and I asked if we could move to a middle table only to be told EVERYTHING was booked (on a Tuesday?). Not a single smile all evening and you felt like everything was too much trouble. I used my cutlery to cut up some shared starters and so for main course asked for more (twice), it never came. I asked for tap water to take a tablet with my meal and it came when we were finished. We absolutely would go again and the food was really good, it’s just the service doesn’t like up to the billing.

Beautiful decor and tasty food. Service was good, although out of a group of 5 we had two lots of two doing the sharing dishes and one eating a ‘main’. Appreciate dishes come at different times but all the sharers had finished by the time the ‘main’ meal came out (after some chasing for a status on when it would arrive). We also had two people running late for our 6:30 booking and when we explained they would arrive shortly, we were told the restaurant needed the table back by 8...we were there until 9:30 in the end and no one kicked us off the table (there were still plenty of tables available anyway). So yes, hosting and kitchen service not brilliant, but wait staff friendly, and lovely atmosphere! Will give it another try.

Was a lovely place, i came yesterday with my wife as it was my birthday.....



We ordered gyozas which in my opinion was amazing...



We also ordered sushi, now I've been a chef for 18 years with michilen star level..... And the sushi was above room temp!!!



Not good for someone who should how to serve it!!

I really love the food here, but the service? Please sort it out.



I had a 6:15 pm booking with my husband and 2 children.



We were seated in the far side of eff, probably because we had children, which is the modern day version of leprosy. But they are 11 and 9 and eat raw fish, which features heavily on the menu, and there is also a good wine list, which my husband and I can find reasonably tolerable. So give us a chance? Don’t throw us in the corner and forget about us please...



After waiting over 10 minutes we were asked for our drink orders. We then summonsed our service person to order our initial dishes.



After these were cleared we expected a service team member to visit us, but they did not. We asked a member of the clearing team hovering nearby to tell their colleague but after 15 minutes I went searching. After finding our primary serving person having the craic with his/her equally blasé colleagues I requested their presence and they attended some 5 minutes later.



So we munched our way through some more seriously tasty food before requesting the bill. At this point I decided I’d see if I could get the bill before our taxi arrived. A gamble, however I figured if they were chatting in a corner and we left the building they might want to take our money after all.



The taxi arrived after 12 minutes which is pretty good for a Saturday night but the bill still hadn’t. After a heads up they rustled it up quick smart which goes to show they can get things done when it suits them...



Verdict - great food, lovely fit out, please get some strong management in to improve the service which should be seamless at £50 + per cover even in an early booking like this.

After reading the comments we thought we would give it a try. No real problems with our service and food, but we did eat at 12 pm and the place wasn’t busy, so let’s hope the teething problems have settled. The only thing I would say is we bought our 4year old a main meal as not every parent wants to feed their children chicken nugget/burger and chips. Would definitely return.

Went for birthday meal tonight. Stunning decor and tasty food but that’s the only positives�. No one to greet on arrival, no acknowledgement or nod from bar staff. Drink order taken after 15 mins wait, drinks took ages to arrive. Food order taken, took forever for starters to arrive, it’s all freshly cooked but prawn roasts and duck rolls only take minutes to cook!!! From ordering, main courses took 46 minutes. It’s wok food, not slow cooked !

Portions are not large, Hubby and son still hungry but too late to eat 1030pm when have work 730am tomorrow.

Staff NEVER smiled all evening. Didn’t check tables after food served, didn’t offer to replenish drinks. Generally the service lets this place down. Has great potential in the right hands.

Summary. Send staff on hospitality course, get extra chef to speed things up and SMILE. Meal for 4 £172, 2 courses, total 7 drinks. Honest worth.....£100 maximum

Sadly disappointed. ���

We had a reservation on Saturday at 8pm. We arrived at 7.30pm to have a cocktail in the bar first. My first impressions were not great, the bar was very busy already. The bar staff looked hurried and harassed. The party next to us were making a complaint about their bill, not a great start. Decided against ordering a cocktail as watched the bar man attempt to make one for someone else and it was a painful experience. Found a seat in the bar area. Unfortunately table was sticky and dirty. We were welcomed and were shown through to our table at 8pm, table 24. First impressions again were not great. We were squashed in between two other couples. Now I am not a big person and I struggled to squeeze myself into my seat. We were handed menus and a wine list and told our waiter would be with us shortly. 5mins later said waiter appeared, looking again harassed and hurried. He told us we were waiting to order! Our response was yes please, but first can we see the taster menus. My husband ordered a pint of beer, this came back as a half. We sent that back and asked for a pint. This was bought to us with an apology. Still awaiting the taster menus! Waiter appeared again to apologise for the delay and said he would be with us soon he had a few bills to organise. We asked again for the taster menus. I also ordered a large glass of wine. 10 min later taster menus finally appeared. But no glass of wine and no offer of taking our food order or an explanation of the menu as to how much we should be ordering. By this time we had had enough and got up and walked out. I didn't receive my glass of wine. This was 8.35pm. Very very disappointed.

I was hugely impressed when we walked in last night, the restaurant is stunning. The food was also fantastic. Unfortunately, this was all massively let down by a completely shambolic service. Our waiter (Scottish guy) was lovely, but it seemed to be him taking all the orders from all the tables, and then food was brought out by various different people. It took an hour for our first dish, literally one plate of food, to be brought to the table, and some other dishes arrived 30 minutes later! We were missing two of our dishes and didn't get those until about 30 minutes after we had finished eating everything else! Waitresses repeatedly came to the table with food that was not ours. Even our desserts took half an hour to arrive, and when they did, the waiter apologised for the wait saying there had been a table mix up. I think The Pavilion has huge potential to be one of the best restaurants in Colchester but it really needs to change its ordering/service system so it actually works otherwise people are not going to keep coming back.

Beautiful place ... lovely outside area tranquil and pretty ... apart from the few people outside shouting and swearing which made us go inside � Shame about service and when buying a Gin and tonic I expected a small bottle of fever tree tonic to be given to me ... but instead used left over from bottles behind the bar .

Staff clothing should all be the same or at least classic.

Food was nice we were recommended 5 dishes each ... after two shared we felt 5 between us was enough especially at £6.95-£7.95 .

The one meal we did want they no longer had anymore left but wasn’t told that until he waiter came and took our order .



It Sunday night so not very busy but took over 20 mins to get the bill .

Wasn’t asked if we wanted the dessert menu or other drinks .

Very disappointing that the class and prices of the place, you expect good service.

I’m sure it’s just finding it’s feet as a new place so hopefully it will improve .

£127 and we went home hungry, upset at the experience and gutted we wasted our time. Most of the night was spent waiting for someone to serve us or waiting for minuscule plates of food. When they did arrive they were tepid. Sushi starters were tasty but the counter at Sainsbury’s does it better! If you’ve spent £3.5 million on a refurb remember to get a sufficient amount of staff that actually know what they’re doing. Really wanted it to be good but it was shocking. Complained to a waitress who said they had staffing issues. Such a shame.

The restaurant itself is fab, lovely inside - very different. The food, what we had was also tasty, but they just couldn’t get it right. We asked for traditional service, as recommended on the menu, so starter and main, but everything kept coming out at once with no break. We kept sending things back and asked for a break and when we finally got our mains my husband only got chips and no meal and the curry’s were so full of chilli we couldn’t eat them! Definitely wouldn’t go back unless they changed the concept of it all and definitely wouldn’t recommend it other than the lovely decor inside.

Real disappointment with our evening here. Mum’s birthday meal. Decor was fabulous but food was late (over 45 minute wait for some of party to get their first bite of food) dishes forgotten from our order, dishes cold when they arrived, wrong wine brought to table... and really nothing was that great when it arrived. Seafood just generally chewy, veg spring rolls had no veg in, just big slabs of batter so were sent back. We went on a Saturday evening so I suspect part of the problem, other that the food not being great, is that the kitchen can’t cope with the number of covers it has at full capacity. An idea to help them would be to reduce the number of the dishes on the menu, do them well, and have some sharing platters as part of starters so that everyone can get at least something to eat to begin with. We were comped 50 percent off our food bill.

Wow, from the minute you enter the building it’s design is our elegance. Food perfect and matched what it said on the menu. Bearing in mind it was a Monday lunch time the ambience was good, there was 5 other covers, I will be back to try the evening menu.

We went on a beautiful hot Sunday afternoon , after a recommendation from our son.



The Pavilion is just stunning.



Light , airy , full view of kitchen ,wine cellar & cigar humidor through a glass wall.



We spent the afternoon outside by the river .

The food was great and the staff friendly .

Special mention to Beth , who was attentive , informative and a great advert for the restaurant.

Visited Pavilion last night and what can I say! The decor is incredible, you would never think you were in Colchester! The food was divine, I actually woke up wanting more of the pork belly, and the Fish Curry was delicious. Staff were very attentive and professional. Absolutely no complaints and I cannot wait to visit again soon.

Popped in for lunch alone - out of towner in Colchester for a meeting. It was quiet as it was early in to lunchtime.



All staff made me feel very welcome, tables were nice, general decor too. I ordered a vege bento box and a side. Arrived promptly, well cooked and well presented. Cold drinks were very cold (good start) and a nice coffee to finish. Only slight niggle was avocado in the sushi - classic case of fashion over flavour. Everything else was spot on.



5* for the staff and venue, a good 4 for the food. Really enjoyed it and thanks for the welcome. Much appreciated when dining alone.

I cannot say a bad word about this place! Super friendly and very helpful staff, quick service, delicious and filling food and amazing cocktails! Beautiful place! I mean this is THE place! I must add that we went with our kids..and they are really fussy about their food and let me tell you they loved their dinner! And eaten it all! Which doesn’t happen very often at the restaurants � we can recommend Pavillion 200% don’t look at bad reviews - go and check it out as you will be pleased ���

Had a wonderful meal last night for my birthday. Beautiful restaurant and great food also lovely cocktails in the bar! Looking forwards to my next visit. So nice to enjoy a meal locally but feel as if we were on holiday somewhere exotic! Fabulous place x

Brilliant service, out of this world food and a stunning setting. We visited for my sisters 18th birthday today and could not recommend the staff or service more- especially when a stunning board entirely offered by the restaurant with ‘happy birthday’ And a candle - beautiful and highly appreciated touch!

The food and cocktails were really great (as was the very friendly cocktails chap behind the bar) but the service needs improvement. The table we were offered was right on the edge and I asked if we could move to a middle table only to be told EVERYTHING was booked (on a Tuesday?). Not a single smile all evening and you felt like everything was too much trouble. I used my cutlery to cut up some shared starters and so for main course asked for more (twice), it never came. I asked for tap water to take a tablet with my meal and it came when we were finished. We absolutely would go again and the food was really good, it’s just the service doesn’t like up to the billing.

Beautiful decor and tasty food. Service was good, although out of a group of 5 we had two lots of two doing the sharing dishes and one eating a ‘main’. Appreciate dishes come at different times but all the sharers had finished by the time the ‘main’ meal came out (after some chasing for a status on when it would arrive). We also had two people running late for our 6:30 booking and when we explained they would arrive shortly, we were told the restaurant needed the table back by 8...we were there until 9:30 in the end and no one kicked us off the table (there were still plenty of tables available anyway). So yes, hosting and kitchen service not brilliant, but wait staff friendly, and lovely atmosphere! Will give it another try.

Was a lovely place, i came yesterday with my wife as it was my birthday.....



We ordered gyozas which in my opinion was amazing...



We also ordered sushi, now I've been a chef for 18 years with michilen star level..... And the sushi was above room temp!!!



Not good for someone who should how to serve it!!

I really love the food here, but the service? Please sort it out.



I had a 6:15 pm booking with my husband and 2 children.



We were seated in the far side of eff, probably because we had children, which is the modern day version of leprosy. But they are 11 and 9 and eat raw fish, which features heavily on the menu, and there is also a good wine list, which my husband and I can find reasonably tolerable. So give us a chance? Don’t throw us in the corner and forget about us please...



After waiting over 10 minutes we were asked for our drink orders. We then summonsed our service person to order our initial dishes.



After these were cleared we expected a service team member to visit us, but they did not. We asked a member of the clearing team hovering nearby to tell their colleague but after 15 minutes I went searching. After finding our primary serving person having the craic with his/her equally blasé colleagues I requested their presence and they attended some 5 minutes later.



So we munched our way through some more seriously tasty food before requesting the bill. At this point I decided I’d see if I could get the bill before our taxi arrived. A gamble, however I figured if they were chatting in a corner and we left the building they might want to take our money after all.



The taxi arrived after 12 minutes which is pretty good for a Saturday night but the bill still hadn’t. After a heads up they rustled it up quick smart which goes to show they can get things done when it suits them...



Verdict - great food, lovely fit out, please get some strong management in to improve the service which should be seamless at £50 + per cover even in an early booking like this.

After reading the comments we thought we would give it a try. No real problems with our service and food, but we did eat at 12 pm and the place wasn’t busy, so let’s hope the teething problems have settled. The only thing I would say is we bought our 4year old a main meal as not every parent wants to feed their children chicken nugget/burger and chips. Would definitely return.

Went for birthday meal tonight. Stunning decor and tasty food but that’s the only positives�. No one to greet on arrival, no acknowledgement or nod from bar staff. Drink order taken after 15 mins wait, drinks took ages to arrive. Food order taken, took forever for starters to arrive, it’s all freshly cooked but prawn roasts and duck rolls only take minutes to cook!!! From ordering, main courses took 46 minutes. It’s wok food, not slow cooked !

Portions are not large, Hubby and son still hungry but too late to eat 1030pm when have work 730am tomorrow.

Staff NEVER smiled all evening. Didn’t check tables after food served, didn’t offer to replenish drinks. Generally the service lets this place down. Has great potential in the right hands.

Summary. Send staff on hospitality course, get extra chef to speed things up and SMILE. Meal for 4 £172, 2 courses, total 7 drinks. Honest worth.....£100 maximum

Sadly disappointed. ���

We had a reservation on Saturday at 8pm. We arrived at 7.30pm to have a cocktail in the bar first. My first impressions were not great, the bar was very busy already. The bar staff looked hurried and harassed. The party next to us were making a complaint about their bill, not a great start. Decided against ordering a cocktail as watched the bar man attempt to make one for someone else and it was a painful experience. Found a seat in the bar area. Unfortunately table was sticky and dirty. We were welcomed and were shown through to our table at 8pm, table 24. First impressions again were not great. We were squashed in between two other couples. Now I am not a big person and I struggled to squeeze myself into my seat. We were handed menus and a wine list and told our waiter would be with us shortly. 5mins later said waiter appeared, looking again harassed and hurried. He told us we were waiting to order! Our response was yes please, but first can we see the taster menus. My husband ordered a pint of beer, this came back as a half. We sent that back and asked for a pint. This was bought to us with an apology. Still awaiting the taster menus! Waiter appeared again to apologise for the delay and said he would be with us soon he had a few bills to organise. We asked again for the taster menus. I also ordered a large glass of wine. 10 min later taster menus finally appeared. But no glass of wine and no offer of taking our food order or an explanation of the menu as to how much we should be ordering. By this time we had had enough and got up and walked out. I didn't receive my glass of wine. This was 8.35pm. Very very disappointed.

I was hugely impressed when we walked in last night, the restaurant is stunning. The food was also fantastic. Unfortunately, this was all massively let down by a completely shambolic service. Our waiter (Scottish guy) was lovely, but it seemed to be him taking all the orders from all the tables, and then food was brought out by various different people. It took an hour for our first dish, literally one plate of food, to be brought to the table, and some other dishes arrived 30 minutes later! We were missing two of our dishes and didn't get those until about 30 minutes after we had finished eating everything else! Waitresses repeatedly came to the table with food that was not ours. Even our desserts took half an hour to arrive, and when they did, the waiter apologised for the wait saying there had been a table mix up. I think The Pavilion has huge potential to be one of the best restaurants in Colchester but it really needs to change its ordering/service system so it actually works otherwise people are not going to keep coming back.

Beautiful place ... lovely outside area tranquil and pretty ... apart from the few people outside shouting and swearing which made us go inside � Shame about service and when buying a Gin and tonic I expected a small bottle of fever tree tonic to be given to me ... but instead used left over from bottles behind the bar .

Staff clothing should all be the same or at least classic.

Food was nice we were recommended 5 dishes each ... after two shared we felt 5 between us was enough especially at £6.95-£7.95 .

The one meal we did want they no longer had anymore left but wasn’t told that until he waiter came and took our order .



It Sunday night so not very busy but took over 20 mins to get the bill .

Wasn’t asked if we wanted the dessert menu or other drinks .

Very disappointing that the class and prices of the place, you expect good service.

I’m sure it’s just finding it’s feet as a new place so hopefully it will improve .

£127 and we went home hungry, upset at the experience and gutted we wasted our time. Most of the night was spent waiting for someone to serve us or waiting for minuscule plates of food. When they did arrive they were tepid. Sushi starters were tasty but the counter at Sainsbury’s does it better! If you’ve spent £3.5 million on a refurb remember to get a sufficient amount of staff that actually know what they’re doing. Really wanted it to be good but it was shocking. Complained to a waitress who said they had staffing issues. Such a shame.

The restaurant itself is fab, lovely inside - very different. The food, what we had was also tasty, but they just couldn’t get it right. We asked for traditional service, as recommended on the menu, so starter and main, but everything kept coming out at once with no break. We kept sending things back and asked for a break and when we finally got our mains my husband only got chips and no meal and the curry’s were so full of chilli we couldn’t eat them! Definitely wouldn’t go back unless they changed the concept of it all and definitely wouldn’t recommend it other than the lovely decor inside.

Real disappointment with our evening here. Mum’s birthday meal. Decor was fabulous but food was late (over 45 minute wait for some of party to get their first bite of food) dishes forgotten from our order, dishes cold when they arrived, wrong wine brought to table... and really nothing was that great when it arrived. Seafood just generally chewy, veg spring rolls had no veg in, just big slabs of batter so were sent back. We went on a Saturday evening so I suspect part of the problem, other that the food not being great, is that the kitchen can’t cope with the number of covers it has at full capacity. An idea to help them would be to reduce the number of the dishes on the menu, do them well, and have some sharing platters as part of starters so that everyone can get at least something to eat to begin with. We were comped 50 percent off our food bill.