The Chelmsford brunch restaurant dubbed ‘the best place to eat in Essex’

Sometimes you hear about a restaurant, and see it shared all over social media so much that you start to think – surely this can’t be worth the hype? The build up of a place that’s talked about so much can sometimes be the downfall – but when that place exceeds your already high expectations, you know it’s pretty special.

I have been lusting over the brunch at Fête Grays Yard in Chelmsford for what feels like an age. I’ve had friends and EssexLive readers tell me it’s the best place to eat in Essex, but despite my passion for trying out new food spots in Essex, I hadn’t yet made it down.

As I wandered around the city with my best friend who lives in London and was visiting me for the weekend, I knew the time had come to finally give Fête a try. It wasn’t quite breakfast time anymore but not yet lunchtime and I hadn’t eaten yet that day so was looking for something good. Fête immediately came to mind, and I was thrilled when they could find us a table.

Read more: The Essex pub dubbed the best place in the county for dinner

The restaurant is tucked away off Springfield Road in the former Laura Ashley store opposite Nando’s. It serves brunch, lunch and weekend small plates which all look amazing, but I had been particularly coveting their brunch dishes.

We took a seat by the door as we waited for our table to be ready and the first thing we noticed was how stylish the decor was, with marble tables and a dark green tiled bar. It’s a large space that has been thoughtfully decorated and is a lovely place to sit in.

As we waited we perused the menu – even though I knew the dishes I had my eye on. I was absolutely astounded by how much of the menu I wanted to try. The brunch menu is huge with everything from your classic benedicts and avocado toast to the more unusual breakfast kebab and fried chicken kichi waffles.

When we were seated we were again amazed by the selection of drinks – again I wanted to try them all. I went for the iced chocolate chai which was absolutely delicious. It was like a smooth cinnamon and chocolate milkshake. My friend went for a watermelon iced tea which I also tried and it was very fruity and refreshing.

When it came to ordering food I knew what I wanted. I’ve been drooling over pictures of the Nutella French toast with cornflakes, creme fraiche and honeycomb and the hash browns for ages, and I needed to find out if they were as good as they looked. It was the grilled cheese that my friend ordered, and I’d also seen pictures of this so was glad I’d be able to sample that too.

As the food arrived the look of it definitely didn’t disappoint. The hash browns, which we were sharing, were covered in a huge heap of manchego cheese, the grilled cheese was like a vision of carby cheesy heaven and the french toast was all I could ever dream of with Nutella oozing out and big chunks of honeycomb on top.

But the true test was did it taste as good as it looked? Well, I think it actually tasted better. I have never eaten anything like that French toast, it was literally the food of my dreams.

It was very sweet but I had to eat every bite. I might need to apologise to everyone else who was in the restaurant because I don’t think I stopped making yum noises while eating it.

They did not scrimp on the Nutella and I was covered it in it by the end – I even somehow found some on my forehead when I got home. The hash browns were great to have on the side to stop the sweetness overload and went really well with the manchego.

Me and my friend always share our food with each other so luckily I got to sample the grilled cheese too and it was somehow crunchy and gooey all at the same time – I’ll probably go all out and order that as a main and the French toast as a dessert in the future.

I cannot speak more highly of Fête – the dishes are clearly incredibly well thought out by their chef. My main dilemma is just how I’m going to sample all of the amazing dishes on offer when I can’t stop thinking about that French toast!

Fête Grays Yard is at 10-13 Grays Brewery Yard, and is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays 9am to 5pm, Thursday and 9am to late on Saturdays.

This article is part of EssexLive’s series Essex Eats where a member of our team reviews an independent food business in the county. We don’t tell the business we’re coming and we don’t tell them who we are while we’re there. Every meal for EssexEats is paid for by us and not gifted. Check back every Thursday and Saturday for our top pick that week of a great food spot in Essex.

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