Cosy Club — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Third visit since September 2024 with 2,3,4 diners, so not a big party. A large open "L" shaped area with formal dining tables up against the windows and an area round the bar area for more casual drinking. The venue has a wooden floor, shutters on the windows, pictures on the walls, and an external first floor seating / dining area. A lift service from ground floor entrance up to the first floor dining floor if required. Everything thereafter is on the one floor. The atmosphere feels rather colonial as if it were set somewhere hot and exotic rather than Chelmsford and I look forward to visiting when the balcony and windows are open. A full table service for the diners. The place manages to create a respectable distance between drinking customers and dining customers even when it is busy. The ambient noise can be high because of the hard floors and walls. There are no partitions at all in the venue and when we dined on a Saturday evening I found it hard to hear what my guests were saying especially with the music turned up and the noise of the busy bar. The younger people in my party did not have my problem. If my experience could be improved in any way I might suggest some moveable / demountable partitions which would give individual tables a sense of privacy and damp out some of the ambient noise. They will not affect your ability to adapt the room for different party sizes or affect fire routes as they can be moved about as you wish. They would only need to be as high as the diners heads so staff and security can still see what is going on at the tables, just the diners would have a more secluded experience. Maybe. The lunchtime sessions have so far been my most enjoyable as the music was low and the ambient noise was low. There were fewer casual drinkers and about 80% capacity dining. The experience felt a lot more exclusive and expensive than was reflected on the bill. Food and service good on all 3 occasions, even when busy, with a 2 course meal costing under £30 before drinks. Courteous service from all we met from the duty manager on the front desk through to Amy...

Visited on a Thursday evening with a party of 6 people. In summary:

Venue/atmosphere/service – 9/10 Food 5/10 (but 8/10 for the Dirty Chicken Burger)

This is a lovely place in terms of décor/style/layout/character. You really feel you are going out for a treat evening. The décor and atmosphere makes the place feel classy and the waiting staff are great – friendly, helpful and efficient.

Drinks – we had four cocktails (see photos). Cocktails looked great but with the English Garden cocktail it was hard to taste the gin. Raspberry and Vanilla Martini got top marks and Mojito was fairly standard.

Food – between us we had Olives and Sourdough Sharing Bread to start, followed by the Seared Seabass, Sunrise Bowl with Avocado, House Beef burger, Dirty Chicken Burger, two small plates of Bang Bang cauliflower and Fried Halloumi as our mains.

Starters - The Sourdough Sharing Bread was warm and delicious with salt scattered over the top. The olives are very plain and somewhat harder than I would have liked.

Mains - The Seared Seabass with noodles was lovely but both people in the party thought it was let down by insufficient noodles. The Sunrise Bowl wasn’t listed as a “light” dish so I was expecting a more substantial main course salad– there was too little rice and very little avocado (two pieces underneath the salad). The dressing on the salad was tasty but too much of it given the lack of rice etc to soak it up – I was left feeling hungry and price for the salad was relatively expensive for what it was. The House Beef Burger and fries were fine but nothing special and over-priced (better off with Byron burger). My daughter was expecting to have more food than she received with the two sides of Bang Bang Cauliflower and Fried Halloumi eg the cauliflower she said was delicious but only 3 pieces. The person who had the Dirty Chicken Burger was the happiest and said it tasty and huge and...

Rang Cosy Club last week to check they have a lift as my sister & I were planning to take my mum there for mothers day & she is in a wheelchair, yes brilliant they have a lift, so I went ahead and booked on the phone and made a booking for 3 people at 1.45. We were really looking for to this as we had been here before for a family night out last year also my mum hadn't been out seen Christmas as she has spend 6 weeks in hospital. We arrived to be told I had booked afternoon tea? I hadn't been told this when on the phone but it was fine. My mum was just happy to be out, then we were told it was in the bar area on high stall which my mum would not be able to get on, the guy rudely added it was all in the email which I hadn't seen, I check my emails then & yes my fault I didn't see. My sister asked if we could sit on the table in the stair area which had a nice seat & table, yes the man said, after getting my mum get out off the wheelchair into the seat we looked at the mothers day afternoon card on the table, which was just tea & a scone I went back to the guy to ask about sandwiches but no once again he said its was all in the email! We decided to go as we all needed something more then a scone, unfortunately we tried 4 other restaurant's but couldn't get in anywhere. I am just disappointed I wasn't told this on the phone when making the booking & very disappointed by the guy in the Cosy club whos only word was "it was all in the email" I know he was busy as it was mothers day but he had no compassion. I will not be returning to...