Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Great Dunmow
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Great Dunmow restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 15 restaurants in Great Dunmow and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Great Dunmow restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Great Dunmow Restaurants
1. The Windmill Chatham Green
British, Modern restaurant in Little Waltham
Chatham Green - CM3
The Windmill is hidden away in the charming Hamlet of Chatham Green near Chelmsford and the Racecourses, with the Essex walk just a stone's throw away.As a dog-friendly, family-run restaurant and pub, Tom and Nancy welcome you to discover exceptional, modern cuisine ser...
2. The Three Hills, Bartlow
British, Modern restaurant in Bartlow
Dean Road - CB21
In a village about 30 minutes’ drive south of Cambridge, this “excellent village pub with rooms” is praised as a “fab restaurant with very friendly staff”. You can choose between the orangery dining room, bar and large outside terrace; early morning breakfast (including a Champagne option) is also a feature.
3. Smith's Brasserie
British, Modern restaurant in Ongar
Fyfield Rd - CM5
Established in 1958, this Essex institution is well known for its “excellently cooked fish with some imaginative and well-executed dishes”, served in “generous portions” by “well-trained and extremely welcoming staff who provide great customer service”. It’s “always buzzing with a great atmosphere” – “and if you’re lucky you might spot Rod Stewart… a regular”.
4. The Square and Compasses
British, Traditional restaurant in Fairstead
Fuller Street - CM3
You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere at this country pub north of Chelmsford (and dating from 1652) – “a perfect venue for those that enjoy a country walk followed by a decent lunch”. “It really delivers on food” (generously portioned pub grub). “Great beers too!”
5. Galvin Green Man
British, Traditional restaurant in Great Waltham
Howe St - CM3
“The Galvins’ rural outpost” – on home turf for the Essex-born-and-bred chef brothers – is much commented-on: a “great gastropub deep in the countryside”, where it’s “an oasis in an area with very little in the way of good eating”. The “smartly decorated” fourteenth-century venue is “well worth the trip” for its “consistently excellent food”, “special atmosphere” and “lovely views over an extensive garden”.
6. Pig & Whistle Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in Chelmsford
Chignal Road, Chignal Smealy - CM1
In a village a short drive outside Chelmsford, this converted sixteenth-century pub has fine countryside views and provides a traditionally comfortable destination, complete with linen tablecloths, candles and cut glass. It wins good all-round feedback (if not a huge volume of reviews) and its modern brasserie fare (with steak, beef Wellington and cote de boeuf to share a highlight) helps it regularly feature in Essex food awards. (Owners Brendan Curran & Justin Mullender are also known for the quality of their put-downs on Tripadvisor!)
7. Eat 17
British, Modern restaurant in Bishop’s Stortford
23 Potter Street - CM23
2021 Review: “In the heart of Walthamstow Village”, this “great neighbourhood spot” – a Spar supermarket with kitchen attached – wins praise for its “quality” cooking (“the 2019 Harden’s description of pub-type grub underplays its standard and originality”). “Very relaxed and welcoming for young children”, the venture’s best-known innovation is bacon jam, which you can buy by the jar in various flavours. Other branches have opened in Hackney and, most recently, Hammersmith (somewhat better-served areas, so these respective branches are somewhat less of a local lifeline).
8. The Cuckoo
British, Modern restaurant in Radley Green
2023 Review: “A good-to-find culinary outpost in an area with few interesting eating spots” – this “welcoming” gastropub is well worth remembering: “a steady hand in the kitchen meets good ingredients, and if food and wine both tread a relatively safe path, it’s no less enjoyable for that”.
9. The Lion Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Boreham
Main Rd - CM3
2021 Review: “A short drive from Chelmsford” in “the heart of Essex” – this “highly recommended” inn is large enough to host weddings and conferences, with a spacious Victorian-style conservatory for dining that has a “real vibrant buzz”, along with “decent good-value food and very friendly service”.
10. The Cricketers
British, Modern restaurant in Clavering
Wicken Rd - CB11
2022 Review: Jamie Oliver’s parents Trevor & Sally retired from this sixteenth-century village gastropub after 44 years in November 2020, so it has recently changed hands: it’s now a part of the 12-strong Chestnut group of pubs. The Olivers always ran the Cricketers well, but regulars say “(even in the tepee) the food is possibly up a notch”.
11. The Blue Strawberry
International restaurant in Hatfield Peverel
The Street - CM3
You “can’t go wrong” at this stalwart off the A12, where a rendered timbered façade gives way to a conservatory and covered patio. For over two decades it has been turning out traditional and consistent cuisine and, as ever, “the Beef Wellington is the pick of the menu”.
12. The Fox And Hounds Restaurant & Bar
French restaurant in Hunsdon
2 High Street - SG12
Chef James & Bianca Rix celebrate 20 years at their smart pub/restaurant this year, recording high levels of feedback and satisfaction for their “much better than usual pub operation” – “food and service are great and it’s reasonably priced”. Top Menu Tip – “the clams and fish are always good”.
13. Moto Pizza
Pizza restaurant in Chelmsford
24 Baddow Road - CM2
Press the green light for service, and then “eat until you can eat no more” – the “simple but effective” formula at this bottomless Neapolitan pizza joint, also with a Colchester spin-off; the “deliciously thin” pies support “fantastic food combinations” (but perhaps best to “go for lunch so that you have the rest of the day to digest all of the offerings!”).
14. The Dog & Pickle
restaurant in Moreton
Church Road - CM5
2023 Review: “Off-the-chart pub food” – ranging from standard classics and “excellent roasts” to “fantastic, restaurant-style” European dishes – makes this 500-year-old Essex village boozer an appealing option for both locals and visitors.
15. The Hoop
British, Modern restaurant in Stock
High Street - CM4
This “lovely old Essex pub” with a white wooden facade serves food that is “well above average for pub grub” – and its popularity means it “gets overcrowded and noisy” at times. Originally three weavers’ cottages from 1460, the building was converted two centuries later using beams salvaged from naval vessels docked at Tilbury. Top Menu Tip – “the skate wing is delicious”.
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