Suffolk Food Hall Review

No vegan options at a 'specialist' food Hall! I had the option of a heavy three bean chilli jacket potato when we are experiencing a heat wave? No salads available and for some reason no one could make one?
Highly disappointing.

Always clean and brilliant staff. Very well organised at this testing time

Awful experience. Friend and I got followed around the store by a member of staff, this staff member clearly prejudged us and thought that we were going to steal something. The staff member was very obvious on what she was trying to do and was thinking. Being watched going around the store has caused friend to have awful anxiety and has made us never want to return to the store. Even on ringing the store to make a complaint, we have not been updated. Terrible customer service.

Only went to the farm shop but was nice enough... good deli counter, delicious vegan roll... slight shame there wasn't more organic produce though! I will go again if I'm in the area :)

Always try to visit when in the area as it's a great place to go with a wider variety of everything and a great delicatessen counter as well as fish and meat counter as well and in-store bakery

Nice farm shop with locally produced meat and vegetables, plus a selection of wines/beers and ciders. A little coffee shop and ice cream parlour. Giant bouncy pillow to keep the kids entertained.

We love this place. Whenever we visit family in Ipswich we make an effort to stop here to stock up on REAL food! The staff are very friendly, the bouncy thing outside keeps the kids entertained and they even do great coffee.

Best place in / around Ipswich to buy food, definitely!

I'm a member of the nearby Crossfit Orwell and we regularly pop into the Suffolk Food Hall post session for a coffee (& sometime cheeky cake).

Always great service and a nice selection of cakes on offer. And the views....just WOW. Nothing better than finishing a workout on a hot day, grabbing a coffee & sitting outside to catch the views, especially being so near to the bridge.

Can't recommend enough!

I Would give the food hall a 4 stars but the staff there can be a bit distant/unfriendly. You get the impression they're not loving their job and they're often looking into the distance when you order. Surprising how it makes a difference.

Innovative and well run food hall. Lovely restaurant ,especially like the views of the kitchen and countryside. Grandson loves the children's play area too.

Nice family place to go for a coffee // bite to eat. Great picture opportunities. Outside play area for kids. Strawberry milkshake was really good - Better than Macdonalds

For lovers of food and great views - this is a must visit.
The range of meats and the knowledge behind the food is second to none.

From Gifts to the Garden centre - Bread - Olives - Suffolk ham and a handy range of frozen foods.

Lovely service levels and free parking.

Pleasure to visit and often you will find a number of events that add colour to this destination that has Suffolk in the DNA.

A bit on the expensive side but a good place to go if you have kids. The bouncy pillow is a good source of entertainment for the kids.

Brekkie by the Bridge

Spectacular views
Great food
Super Service

Great place for Suffolk food and yummy pastries.

Poor, the cookhouse restaurant could not function between 1130 and 1200 am, not even for drinks or snacks, breakfast or dinner. Maybe the kitchen closes for 30 minutes?

The cafe had a 20 minutes wait for hot drinks, staff was adequate, equipment to make drinks insufficient.

Both premises not even that busy, perhaps inefficient management.

Fabulous and friendly staff
Great food and products

Sat downstairs in the caff bit. Staff mostly young but polite. Food delicious partner had a bacon and brie sandwich and loved it, I had a warm cheese scone and it was delicious. Be fore we left we bought some bread, bacon, sausages, stokes Tom sauce, juice it works out a bit more expensive but the quality is amazing. The bacon is out if this world, the bread was crusty on the outside and fluffy as a cloud on the inside just perfect and that tomato sauce omg the best!!

I 'discovered' Suffolk Food Hall after signing up for a cookery course there, what a brilliant place, for a foodie, style geek like me it provided rather too many temptations! Great views from the restaurant too, a most enjoyable visit.

Over staffed and under serviced. The burger was poor quality, service was so slow we cancelled the desert. Not even an apology. Such as shame as it s a lovely venue with great views.

Great selection of quality local produce with a friendly and helpful staff.

Had a lovely lunch here in the cafe with beautiful views over the river Orwell. You can see the Orwell bridge and watch the boats sailing down the river. There is indoor and outdoor seating. There is an outside play area for children with a trampoline, climbing frame and ice cream hut.
The garden centre has lots of plants and inside there is a gift/ garden furniture area. The foodhall has got a great range of locally sourced foods. Its good for finding unusual foods not usually found in your supermarket. The staff are all very helpful.

Having tried Breakfast and Afternoon Tea, just planning when to book for Dinner.
Had a wonderful breakfast here over Xmas period. Lovely, tasty, local produce served. Great relaxed atmosphere and amazing views up the River Orwell. Pleasant, cheerful and attentive service.
Have recently had Afternoon Tea, birthday gift vouchers from my daughter. Again, wonderfully tasty, home baked food. A feast! Thoroughly recommended.

I could spend a fortune, the food is all local produce with new things to try! The Cafe and restaurant is well worth a stop by as well!

2 hugely disappointed kids today as it would seem that the ever popular bouncy pillow has ceased to be. Apparently it has got a big hole in it and is an ex bouncy pillow. The worst type of bouncy pillow I'm informed by the kids.
"Worse than no bouncy pillow at all."

Food hall is fun but choice is limited. Seems like a lot of fudge/chocolate or sauce. It's not a place you could do a weekly shop. Rather collect a few expensive nicer bits while the kids bounce. Or not.

Excellent. Very tempting. The fresh Merigues are a must buy!! Hold on tight to your purse because you will spend. The food and variety is amazing. Lovely views from the outside seating area. Love love love this place.

Fun place for the family with young children, great for us adults who what to stock up on provisions or just meat for the BBQ. Great friendly staff very helpful, with Gary the butcher's guidance on their in-house specials. Their own burgers, stakes and Jones sausages a real treat but don't forget to leave me some!!!!

A cornucopia of delights! Christmas has arrived,find special gifts housewares and decorations. The food hall has a wide range of foodstuffs,plus an instore butchers, fresh fish, bakery and delicatessen. It also has a very good cafe and l can recommend the Cookhouse restaurant for lunch and afternoon tea it also has unrivalled views of the river. Well worth a visit.

Wonderful experience I always have at the Suffolk food Hall. Good quality of food and the staff are very polite and friendly.

As a vegan, my expectations when shopping in general stores or eating out are always modest. Unfortunately, my expectations weren't met by the Suffolk Food Hall.

It was very disappointing when I visited on a Wednesday morning. Too little care taken seems to have been taken over quality of fresh produce on sale. The prices would have been acceptable if the fruit and veg had been fresh. But virtually all the veg was passed its best. The cauliflowers were turning, the mushrooms looked many days old, and so on. Even the locally grown turnips were soft.

I persevered, though, and decided to buy some bread. Because the bread had premium pricing, my expectations were high. The white loaf was acceptable, but no better than a Sainsbury's bloomer at under half the price. The sourdough was ... well, it had the consistency of the white loaf, not of sourdough, and it wasn't very sour at all.

Given the poor range of bread available, (and having been before when the range on offer was much greater) I've concluded that the place probably exists for weekends, which is when the fresh produce is put out for the throngs of shoppers.

It's not like a local version of London's Whole Foods Market that I was rather hoping for, but more like a larger version of those food shops tacked onto many garden centres selling overpriced 'value added' food items. So far, an opportunity missed.

Most disappointed with size of piece of Sea Bass.. Piece was approx. 60mm x 40mm & 25mm thick.

Food heaven - I could spend my entire pay check here

Went to the new Gelato hut, lovely ice cream including dairy free options

Very clean and tidy, staff very polite and professional but the let down was the high prices and the quality didn't match the price

I'm afraid to say the 2 star's were for the view especially as the sun was shining glorious day . We were given vouchers for Xmas for Afternoon Tea and were looking forward to it unfortunately very disappointed as none of the sandwiches were to my husband's liking as no choice was given prior the cakes were also of not as good standard as would have expected and then we had to ask for more tea but it seemed everyone around were automatically being brought theirs. We weren't the only table complaining. Such a shame

We often take a walk down the picturesque lane from wherstead village to get an ice cream, hot drink or some delicious food from the deli counter or maybe some fresh baked bread. Climbing and bouncy pillow for the children and water bowls for dog's.

By far the best place for food in the Ipswich area. Top selection of meats and fresh fish that can be easily ordered.

Excellent selection of food, drink, home wares and plants. Very friendly and helpful service.

Lovely shopping experience and good menu to choose from in the restaurant.

Great choice of local produce. Delicious cheese scones. Pleasing service.

The quality of the food from Suffolk food hall is outstanding!! Went there the other day and brought some wild venison sausages and black pudding and I can honestly say it was the best black pudding and sausages I have ever had !!! Love love love Suffolk food hall

Coffee was nice. Oat milk was a free extra. Noisy in the upstairs section of cafe

Normally would rate Suffolk Food Hall but they have virtually zero COVID 19 controls in place. No limits (or perceived limit) on how many people in the food hall itself (it was packed). No hand sanitizer available on the door and no greater to set out guidelines. No one way system in place.

I was a bit surprised to also see the outside inflatable in full use, kids climbing all over, again with no visible sanitisation or employee controlling. A large plastic surface (ideal for COVID 19 to lurk), many children and of course children not able to controllably distance themselves.

For an increasingly busy venue, I was a bit shocked and concerned at the lack of COVID controls in place.

Would seriously not recommend visiting until they sort their act out!!!

Parked up for trail run, done my run & had a lovely coffee afterwards, what a beautiful location. Will definitely be returning

You can always rely on SFH to have a big stock of unusual items as well as good meat and fish.

Beautiful setting; superb food and friendly staff. The only thing I didn't like was the cycle parking - invest in some sheffield stands, they are much more user friendly

Good, lovely food, efficient, pleasant service. I'll be back!!

Had a really good tea for two. A late Xmas present that The Food Hall honoured this late.

Food hall is well stocked with some tasty food. Excellent Coffee Shop. Plenty of parking available and space for children to run around.

Food good but took ages to arrive. Polite staff but far too few on service duty.

Great service and outstanding food.
Would recommend to add more to lunch menu.

Whenever we are in Suffolk we visit the Suffolk Food Hall for the total food experience we have come to expect from this location. The restaurant is attractive and serves a great choice of high quality produce with a magnificent view from every window. The food hall itself sells a fantastic variety of local produce and we are particularly keen on the locally produced bread and the selection of meat, fish and cheese. We like to take our visitors there so they too can appreciate all that this retailer has to offer as it adds something special to the feeling of what Suffolk is all about.

Amazing food, delicious. Lovely, friendly staff and great customer service. Some of the nicest wines we have found here too, amazing views and one of our favourite places to visit in the area. We would highly recommend this place.

Restaurant; Had surprisingly good food the other day , but noise is still deafening; why don't they put some noise-deadening tech, e.g, baffles in?

Great space outside for kids with lots of shade but food market is stuffy, uninspiring and really expensive. I am all for shopping locally but this was excessive! Ice creams 2.50 a scoop, plus 50p for a flake!!!!! There are much better in the area

Unimpressed by service and food. Struggled to get a window seat as "tables for 4 are for 4 not 2" Food was very average. Request for well done burger resulted in a fully cooked burger charred to a black crisp on outside. Ice in drinks that we hadn't requested. Miserable looking staff. 2 stars for an amazing view of you manage to persuade them to let you sit by the window!

Never consistent which is a shame

We used to go to SFH regularly esp the Cookhouse and take guests there as well. When we first arrived 3 years ago it was usually great. The food is usually good but portion sizes and value vary greatly, the location and the view is epic,

Things have been very up and down and depend on the day / the hour / the staff. This is a very odd concept as surely a business can provide great service all the time - or at least genuinely act to make the customers happy.

We find 2 things in the Cookhouse very annoying :
- being spoke to by the manager with distain when politely asking if we could sit at the window ( there is a way to ensure customers come back or not !)
- this bizarre no food between 11.30 and 12 : there is not 1 single other restaurant I know that does this.

It is always of interest to me when and how complaints or suggestions are responded to on review sites. Sometimes here the replies are cordial - in the past they have been very arrogant and rude. And they are also not consistent : some are replied to , others ignored.

YES THE VIEW IS GREAT - but it is not enough when there's grit in the oyster. It has the potential to be great but one cannot bank on it.

Often we have the conversation of " shall we got to SFH ?" and say : well who knows what it'll be like and then we don't feel like risking it.

KEEP THE FOOD GREAT ALL DAY
PUT POLITENESS AND SERVICE AT THE FOREFRONT
STOP MAKING EXCUSES - CUSTOMERS EXPECT GREAT STANDARDS IN A PLACE LIKE THIS

Then the customers will come back.

Great choice of gifts, delicious food items, fantastic meats and bakery

We have been going to Suffolk Food Hall for quite a while now and we love it.

As soon as you step inside the door, the smell just pulls us in and makes our mouths water.

The bakery has such sumptuous goodies - from the delicious Foccacia to the wonderful freshly baked loaves of bread. The meat from the butchery is delicious and so amazing to cook with. The deli has such amazing treats too - in fact wherever we look, there is always something in the Food Hall tempting us.

The staff are friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable.

Be sure to visit Suffolk Food Hall and taste the best of Suffolk.

Fabulous food hall with lots of products sourced to support small farmers and producers. Love the choice of products on the deli counter and the fresh meats and fish available. Staff are always helpful and friendly. Definitely one to add to your must visit list.

Range of produce always good but no social distancing in place!

This is a superb centre of the finest of Suffolk food, fresh and beautifully presented and knowledgably served by the helpful staff of each specialist section. A wide choice is arranged on each stand with twice a week caught fish of sushi freshness, beautiful and diverse breads, a great choice of cheeses and an amazing selection of bottled, tinned and pre-packed specialist items. Add to the attractions of all this an excellent restaurant with amazing panoramic windows over the river, a top rate garden centre and gift shop of many various attractions and it makes for a great visit every time. Oh, and don't forget the many cookery and other classes they run there too, I know I did the 'Cooking for Men' session !!

If you are near go it's great place beautiful food to eat and buy. Glad I don't live nearby I would be skint!

Always spend to much here. Great food though. Love the tasters. Best sausage rolls ever. Actually its just about all good.

Really enjoyable afternoon out. A nice cup of coffee with a friend followed by a walk around food hall stocking up on a few essentials.

Excellent visit, friendly staff and wonderland of trinkets and fine Suffolk good. Bravo all

We placed an order for a hamper to be delivered to a member of staff who was retiring. When the driver arrived, there was no response from our employee who was in the garden, but the driver called me and all was sorted! The service and the hamper were brilliant - thank you.

Restaurant service was woeful, waited 10 minutes to be seated, a further 20 minutes for our food and drink orders to be taken (and when they did, they forgot one food item and got a drink wrong), then a further 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive (they were two cans...). Food was okay but nothing special. Two stars because supervisor dealt with issues well and it was only their second day returning after Covid lockdown.

Had a toasted sandwich today, awful, sure it had been microwaved, hard and chewy

Recently bought a lovely food hamper utilising the click and contactless collection service - all ran very smoothly and the hamper was lovely. Very easy to use and would recommend as a gift.

Good selection of quality produce but a little overpriced

Would of been ok If we was not followd around the shop as if we was going to nick something by a staff member won't be going back

Great range of fresh fruit and veg, bakery, and an amazing butchery.

We arrived and asked if a table for two was available, to which the waitress just bluntly said "no" and walked off. Fair enough if you can't sit us, but at least pretend to be apologetic when our entire days plans are now messed up, or at least tell us when one will be available. Incredibly rude and I expected better, I work in an establishment with a much lower prestige and would never treat a customer so rudely.

Always a pleasure to walk through the shop - great range of products and gift items - fantastic meat and fish counters and delicious bread. Well organised children's playarea too.

A good quality food and litle bit more but worth it go again

Decent food, on the pricey side but probably due to quality ingredients.

Really good brunch, very tasty and very well made. Costs a bit more but worth it for quality. Best I ve found locally.