Haywards Restaurant
“Confident cooking of top-drawer ingredients” - AA Inspector
EPPING, ESSEX
Our Inspector's view
Occupying a converted coach house on the fringes of Epping Forest, this smart, family-run, air-conditioned restaurant looks the rustic-chic part with its high vaulted ceiling, polished wooden tables and floors and tasteful, local photographs of Epping Forest. Service is attentive, and the focus here is high quality food that is imaginatively composed and isn’t afraid to doff its cap to places further afield. The kitchen draws on regional ingredients to deliver a repertoire of sprightly ideas, kicking off with roasted mackerel, potato and apple salad, pickled cucumber and relish, or roasted breast and confit leg of quail, fricassée of peas and broad beans and goats’ cheese. Follow on with pan-roasted duck, duck leg croquette, roasted beetroots and raspberry, but if fish is your thing, then go for roasted fillet of halibut, roasted fennel and purée with verjus sauce. Finish with buttermilk and stem ginger mousse, poached rhubarb and orange gel, or go tropical with coconut parfait, mango sorbet and purée with lime gel. The restaurant opens on just four days a week.
Awards, accolades and Welcome Schemes
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Facilities – at a glance
Credit cards accepted
Gluten free menu
Private dining
Service charge
Tasting menu
Features
- Seats: 48
- Private dining available
- On-site parking available
- Wheelchair accessible
- Accessible toilets
- Assist dogs welcome
- Closed: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 26 December to 12 January
- Wines under £30: 18
- Wines over £30: 105
- Wines by the glass: 20
- Cuisine style: Modern European
- Vegetarian menu
Also in the area
About the area
Discover Essex
Essex is full of pleasant surprises. It has the largest coastline of any county in England, with its fair share of castles, royal connections and scenic valleys. Take Colchester, for example, which was built by the Romans and is Britain’s oldest recorded town. Its castle contains the country’s largest Norman keep and yet, a stone’s throw from here, East Anglia’s newest arts centre promises to put Colchester firmly on the map as Essex’s capital of culture.
Tidal estuaries are plentiful and their mudflats offer migrating birds a winter feeding place. Essex was known as the land of the East Saxons and for centuries people from all over Europe settled here, each wave leaving its own distinctive cultural and social mark on the landscape. Walking a little off the beaten track will lead you to the rural retreats of deepest Essex, while all over the county there are ancient monuments to explore:
- the great Waltham Abbey
- Greensted, thought to be the oldest wooden church in the world
- the delightful village of Pleshey has one of the finest examples of a former motte-and-bailey castle
- Hedingham Castle, magnificently preserved and dating from the 11th century.
Nearby stays
Places to Stay
Nearby experiences
Recommended things to do
Why choose Rated Trips?
Your trusted guide to rated places across the UK
The best coverage
Discover more than 15,000 professionally rated places to stay, eat and visit from across the UK and Ireland.
Quality assured
Choose a place to stay safe in the knowledge that it has been expertly assessed by trained assessors.
Plan your next trip
Search by location or the type of place you're visiting to find your next ideal holiday experience.
Travel inspiration
Read our articles, city guides and recommended things to do for inspiration. We're here to help you explore the UK.