Review of Donkey and Buskins, Layer-de-la-Haye, Colchester

So before I get into the nitty-gritty of this review, you’ll be wanting to know if the Donkey and Buskins is a good or a bad place to visit. It’s neither – it’s excellent.

On a spring evening in 2016 my wife and I found ourselves with a rare night without the kids. I’m a fan of Real Ale and suggested to my wife that we try the Donkey and Buskins for dinner. Knowing I could definitely benefit from the exercise, my wife suggested that we walk from Blackheath to Layer-de-la-Haye. I wasn’t initially a fan of the idea, but I know to do what I’m told and before long we were an hour down the road having seen some beautiful parts of Friday Woods and Layer, and we were almost at the Donkey and Buskins.

On arrival we were greeted by some friendly ladies working behind the bar, ordered a couple of pints of St Peter’s ‘Gold Rush’ and enjoyed our first well earned pint of beer (which was very well kept). Shortly afterwards, we were shown our table for two and made our choices from the menu. I opted for the Beef Wellington with dauphinoise potatoes and my wife went for a lamb in herb crust with homemade Scotch egg. A little while later our food arrived, well presented and with a real feeling of quality home made food. Needless to say the meal was excellent with the beef being very tender and the pork nicely cooked with a pink undertone…just as it should be.

After the meal, we moved into the garden to enjoy the last half hour of sunlight. Lots is going on outside the pub to improve the garden area and we could see the potential. We finished the evening in the inviting bar area before taking a cab home for the night.

I can’t praise the establishment highly enough. It’s everything that a good British pub should be. We will be going back as soon as we can.