Fete, Chelmsford, Essex: ‘It absolutely dares to be different’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

There’s something so endearingly adventurous and devil-may-care about this menu that makes me love the placeFête in Chelmsford has made a big splash on the Essex food scene, snapping up local plaudits for this quaint, neighbourhood restaurant in a cobbled courtyard. Quaint isn’t a word I use often, but nor do I eat at many places with a spacious upstairs bar area that doubles as a yoga studio. Go for the spice bag potatoes with tropea onions and roast chilli, stay for the 45-minute flow yoga with Amanda.Actually, scrap that: do not even dream of pulling shapes after eating too many spiced onions. Leave it a couple of hours. Still, whatever it is that chef Tobias Godfrey and his co-owner and partner, Laura Day, are offering, the locals are clearly loving it, because on a Friday night a couple of weeks ago, the place was orderly bedlam. Word has clearly spread that Fête was last month named runner-up restaurant of the year in Essex Life’s 2025 food and drink awards, and ladies wearing Friday-night tops were dining in droves and ordering rounds of matcha margaritas and maple martinis. Continue reading...

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