The Saracen's Head

The Saracen’s Head was excellent. The welcome, the room and the food was superb. My breakfast was certainly one of the best I have ever had. We had evening meals two nights and they were also brilliant. They use local produce which was fresh and tasty. Well do to you and your team

The food is very tasty and the chap who normally serves is very personable. However, we did have a very disappointing Sunday lunch mainly due to the awful service. It took a long while for the main course to arrive, although that didn’t bother us too much. We finished the main course and then waited a a good 15 minutes, and several vain attempts to catch the young waitress’s eye, to ask to see the dessert menu. So I went to the bar and got a menu. It then took nearly an unbelievable 20 minutes more to put our order in. I think the young waitress realised the service was pretty bad because every time I caught her eye, she looked away. In the end I had to shout across the restaurant so she had to come over and acknowledge us. I asked if our crumbles would be much longer and she said “he’s doing them now “. I thought that meant plating up but it obviously meant he was just about to put them in the oven!! We then waited what seemed an age. That was then over 50 minutes from when we had finished our main course. We gave up waiting and went. All we ask is that you keep talking to us and tell us what’s happening. In fact we discovered a delightful tea shop in Itteringham village which had the most divine home-made Victoria sponge cake. People,generally speaking, don’t mind waiting, as long as somebody both acknowledges the fact that they have been waiting ages l, and meets their gaze with a smile so they don’t feel invisible or frustrated. Surely it’s just just good customer service. It’s a shame because we really like this place.

As this place is recommended by Sawdays we were looking forward to something special. First impression was good. We arrived at 4pm and were showed to our room. Nothing particularly wonderful but a comfortable bed and adequate bathroom and a lovely view if you stood on tiptoe. The evening meal however was disappointing. At a cost of over £40 each I expected better. The pork and black pudding croquettes were mostly pork with very little black pudding, the Risotto main course was ok but a bit bland and the pancetta although delicious was rather small. However, what really hurt was the cheese board. At £11 I expected more than just two tiny pieces of cheese. What we got was very tasty but it was difficult to find among the crackers and grapes. Next morning the breakfast was fine although the service rather slow. I don’t think we’ll go back.