Fete, Chelmsford, Essex: ‘it Absolutely Dares To Be Different’ – Restaurant Review | Grace Dent On Restaurants

Fête successful Chelmsford has made a large scatter connected nan Essex nutrient scene, snapping up section plaudits for this quaint, neighbourhood edifice successful a cobbled courtyard. Quaint isn’t a connection I usage often, but nor do I eat astatine galore places pinch a freely upstairs barroom area that doubles arsenic a yoga studio. Go for nan herb container potatoes pinch tropea onions and roast chilli, enactment for nan 45-minute travel yoga pinch Amanda.

Actually, scrap that: do not moreover dream of pulling shapes aft eating excessively galore spiced onions. Leave it a mates of hours. Still, immoderate it is that cook Tobias Godfrey and his co-owner and partner, Laura Day, are offering, nan locals are intelligibly loving it, because connected a Friday nighttime a mates of weeks ago, nan spot was orderly bedlam. Word has intelligibly dispersed that Fête was past period named runner-up edifice of nan twelvemonth successful Essex Life’s 2025 food and portion awards, and ladies wearing Friday-night tops were eating successful droves and ordering rounds of matcha margaritas and maple martinis.

Fête’s vessel of ‘balm-like’ burrata besides features figs, basking honey, pistachios and beetroot.

Fête’s roadworthy to taking nan Chelmsford eating segment by large wind has been mostly ignored by adjacent trendy London, which is simply a segment that celebrates only itself. Essex is only a fewer miles away, but nan awesome and nan bully are scarred by excessively galore stories of section restaurants boasting helium balloon arches, bottomless brunches, walls of integrative greenery and Gemma from Towie drinking Aperol spritz, not to mention excessively galore old-fashioned, and decidedly “old hat” state pubs serving venison connected celeriac puree to lads pinch caller hairsbreadth from Turkey. The cool, metropolitan crowd debar these places unless a London cook takes nan helm.

For what it’s worth, I love some these aspects of Essex, which whitethorn explicate why I was truthful pleasantly jollied by Fête’s eclectic menu, wherever Taiwanese chickenhearted bao sits broadside by broadside pinch Kashmiri scallops, and wherever duck-fried atom pinch kimchi and mac and food pinch guanciale nestle cosily together connected nan mini plates menu, each casual like, arsenic if they aren’t from wholly different continents.

Perhaps Fête, which is unfastened each day, and serves this lengthier, much analyzable paper connected Friday and Saturday evenings, has caused specified a operation because it perfectly dares to beryllium different, focusing connected big, hearty, pan-global flavours, alternatively than immoderate constrictive theme. For alleged “small plates”, nan portions are whopping, too, and we ordered acold excessively much. Take nan vessel of pale, wobbly, balm-like burrata laden pinch figs and basking honey, which besides featured generous amounts of pistachio and layers of beetroot, and came pinch a slab of sourdough toast. Next up, a giant-sized beef tartare, made alternatively strangely pinch wholly unnecessary mayo, that had a great, acidic wound of capers and cornichons, and turned up connected different large portion of bread. Godfrey intelligibly sets retired to propulsion arsenic overmuch flavour connected a sheet arsenic possible, truthful this tartare besides came pinch crispy kale and wobbly ovum yolk.

Fête’s ‘irresitible’ and ‘ridiculously generous’ information of duck-fried rice.

The thought of that duck-fried atom proved irresistible and was, again, ridiculously generous, and came topped pinch a fried egg, kimchi, XO sauce, chilli and kimchi furikake. One cannot uncertainty Godfrey’s devotion to taking his customers connected a whistle-stop circuit of nan full culinary cosmos, but bent connected to your hats for nan cogwheel changes erstwhile your battered sausages pinch mustard are followed by a Taiwanese bao pinch a broadside of wintertime tomatoes successful cashew cream. There’s thing truthful endearingly adventurous and devil-may-care astir this paper that makes maine emotion nan place.

The front-of-house are jolly, friends and, supra all, intelligibly happy. The room zings pinch an enthusiasm that speaks of a bunch of mates having nan clip of their lives, and who can’t rather judge that their dream of serving scallops successful Kashmiri curry alongside a French-style vegan courgette cassoulet is really paying dividends, and that they’ve go nan hottest spot for miles astir arsenic a result.

Is nan cooking perfect? No. By doing truthful overmuch connected each plate, location are flaws, and tweaks to beryllium made, if you’re being picky. A portion of kingfish pinch burnt butter, preserved citrus and capers, for instance, was overcooked and nan mega-chunk of beef tartare wasn’t hugely balanced. Yet I was still smiling by nan clip we were handed nan dessert database and its banana parfait, sticky toffee pudding and location sorbet, earlier opting for nan cocoa fondant pinch honeycomb and burnt food ice-cream. Sure, by this point, we’d eaten acold excessively much, but we still recovered room for this portion of hedonism.

Fête is simply a invited portion of unpretentious hospitality happiness. The only measurement isn’t Essex, but if it were, I wouldn’t complain.

• Fête 10-13 Grays Brewery Yard, Chelmsford, Essex, hello@fetegraysyard.co.uk (no phone). Open Tues-Thurs & Sun 9am-4pm (last orders; 3pm Sun), Fri & Sat 9am-9pm (last orders). From astir £25 a head; meal from astir £40 a head, some positive drinks and service