Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Braintree
Hardens guides have spent 34 years compiling reviews of the best Braintree restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 5 restaurants in Braintree and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Braintree restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Braintree Restaurants
1. The Square and Compasses
British, Traditional restaurant in Fairstead
Fuller Street - CM3
Ignore the “standard pub-grub menu” at this cute 17th-century village hostelry on the Essex Way long-distance footpath, and “choose from the specials board every time” – it’s “packed with great dishes using locally sourced ingredients”.
2. The Windmill Chatham Green
British, Modern restaurant in Little Waltham
Chatham Green - CM3
“A real find in mid-Essex”, this dining pub showcases “beautifully presented” cooking that’s “bursting with flavour” from Tom Clarke, who trained under Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir and was head chef at L’Ortolan in Reading. He took charge two years ago with his business partner Nancy Witte, also ex-L’Ortolan, who mixes “delicious cocktails” and oversees the front of house in style.
3. Galvin Green Man
British, Traditional restaurant in Great Waltham
Howe St - CM3
“Pub grub done the Galvin way” is to be found in the chef brothers’ home county at their “beautiful pub, restaurant and garden, set in stunning countryside” (if “in the arse end of nowhere”, according to a day tripper from South Woodford). “The cooking here is very good with something of a European vibe (with pub standards to fall back on if you choose to dine in the bar rather than the more formal restaurant setting)”. “The staff always make you feel welcome, and the landlady, Katie, is particularly charming”. Top Tip – “an unusual highlight is Christmas Day lunch, which is well thought-out and nicely cooked (Chateaubriand or halibut if you hate turkey!)”.
4. Moto Pizza
Pizza restaurant in Chelmsford
24 Baddow Road - CM2
“Who needs Pizza Express” when you’ve got this bottomless Neapolitan pie joint – a “great concept” (since exported to Colchester) where you press the button for service and “pizza slices keep coming round” in a form of culinary roulette; since no two slices are the same, “you get to sample loads of exciting flavour combinations” that “one would not ordinarily put on a whole pie” (“the sweet chilli chicken with honey is a favourite!”).
5. Kintsu
British, Modern restaurant in Colchester
11a North Hill - CO1
Paul Wendholt’s tiny operation serves a 9-12 course tasting menu at £80 per person, with servings varying in size (from bite-size snacks to full plates). We received too few reports for a full rating this year, but one promising review continues to justify its inclusion as a tip when in the area: “exceptional tasting menu food and that you can chat about while watching the preparation of the dishes. Ambience is less exceptional, but then you are engrossed anyway”.
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