Haywards — Restaurant in Epping Forest

We’ve been coming to Haywards for almost ten years now and despite many changes to staff in the kitchen and front of house the standards have never dropped. Under the guidance of owners Amanda and Jahdre they have still manage to produce amazing food with friendly and professional service.

Our latest visit was Saturday lunchtime where on arrival we received a lovely welcome from Amanda before she escorted us to our customary table 10. After a little catch up she told us that Jahdre had created for us a special menu that would showcase all the new dishes on the menu. This was a fabulous gesture and one we gladly accepted.

We started with homemade Granary Sourdough bread and a selection of snacks including a cauliflower cheese veloute , harissa arancini , goat’s cheese and tomato canneloni.

This led us to out first course a Chicken and Ham Hock Terrine with celeriac remoulade , toasted brioche and a homemade piccalilli. This was followed by the Fillet of Pollock with a crab bisque , hispi cabbage. and parsnips. Both dishes were an absolute delight and the flavours complimented each other perfectly. Amanda paired the courses with a Framingham 2021 Riesling from New Zealand.

We now moved onto the main course which was a heavenly and rich Braised Pork Cheek with a white bean cassoulet and gremolata topped with a piece of pork crackling. This was paired with a Grand Garant 2020 Fleurie from France. We decided to follow this with a Cheese Course.

We then finished with dessert which was a Chocolate Mousse with mascarpone sorbet , coffee cremaux and lime gel a twist on a tiramisu. The pairing for this dessert was a beautiful Australian Muscat from the Rosewood Vineyards that tasted like a light pedro ximinez. Apparently we wasn’t finished there as chef Jahdre sent out an Orange Soufflé with grand marnier caramel and cinnamon ice cream. This was a delight and the flavour combinations worked perfectly together.

A coffee and petit fours brought to an end another fabulous dining experience at Haywards with fantastic food , perfect wine pairings and great service. If i ever needed another reason why i think this is the best restaurant in Essex then today’s visit did everything to enhance that. Looking forward to many more visits this year which will at some point include our 150th.

Thank You Amanda and Jahdre for a fantastic lunch and look forward to seeing...

Found a piece of METAL in my food. Visited in April for my birthday, booked by my friend for the six course tasting menu. I received my fourth course and I was chewing when suddenly I bit into something very hard and my teeth started aching. When I spat it out I saw it was a METAL HOOK. I showed the manager what I had found and told them that my teeth were aching- she then went into the kitchen and upon return told me it was from the kitchen utensils. She had said it has never happened before and that I won’t find another one in the remains of my plate trying to reassure me. She said she could make me another one if I wished. I asked for another plate as this is something that should have been insisted to me rather than trying to persuade a customer to finish a meal they had found metal in. It doesn’t matter to me as a paying customer whether it was the first time that has happened as the point is it HAPPENED to me and could have been extremely severe if I had swallowed it! No discount was offered and we were still charged and still paid for all six courses- even the one I had found metal in. It is not the job of the customer to tell the manager they are not happy with paying for a course they found metal in and caused their teeth to ache (this is common sense) which is why we did not sit there telling them we are not happy about paying for the dish we found metal in/debating with them. No gesture of goodwill was offered, not even a drink. Will not be returning due to this poor service and traumatic experience which is a shame as after reading the reviews I was very excited to visit. For someone who enjoys fine dining and goes regularly, I have never had an experience where I have found metal in my food and then paid the full amount at the end, leaving with toothache due to the fault of the restaurant. I’ve never found metal in my food even at cheaper restaurants. Do better when you face situations like this no matter how rare/often...

Whilst others may enjoy it, this was a disappointing experience for us. It took 1 hour and 40 minutes from arrival to get our main and 2 and a half hours to finish what was 2 courses plus a few bits they serve between courses. The restaurant was only 50% full so perhaps making it into a long evening is part of the experience, but for us its just to long. They are trying to create a more classic fine dining atmosphere, but we didn't think the food was up to it. A crab salad starter compressed into a mould would have been very nice but for the fact they poured a 100ml of juice into the bowl which caused the thing to break up and turn into a sort of soup with salad and crab bits floating around. Perhaps it was considered part of a fine dining experience but it wasn't and it was not good. Venson was ok but not special and friends duck was delivered in chunks rather than classic slices which put them off a little. Side dishes were bowls of vegetables comprising of broccoli, carrats and potatoes. We can understand the point about local veg and saving miles etc., but surely a fine dining chef could make more of them than serving them as if they had been simply boiled up. Fine dining usually means small portions of nicely cooked food, so when you get 2 small slices of venison you really want to square the meal off with some lovely veg. Not the case here sadly. The staff in front of house tried very hard and were great but I think they were let down by what came from the kitchen and how long it took to get it out of...