According to TripAdvisor, that is.
The best restaurants in Essex in 2024, as voted for by TripAdvisor, are an interesting range. Essex is home to a wide range of cuisines: Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian restaurants are everywhere. It’s also home to some quite wealthy people who go to some quite expensive restaurants. None of these are represented in the top 5. What is represented is traditional Essex food, served well at low- to mid-priced venues, with a bias towards the kind of place where you go for a nice day out, especially seafood at the seaside.
The top 5 are:
- The Seafood Shack in Southend: a friendly Seafood Restaurant, bar & Grill situated on Southend’s seafront, specialising in fresh and tasty seafood.
- Mrs Salisbury’s of Maldon. Founded in 2014, Mrs Salisbury’s epitomises the Great British tea room.
- The Maldon Smokehouse: more seaside seafood
- The Rose and Crown in Stansted Mountfitchet: a good local pub with homemade food
- Harbour Lights Seafood Restaurant in Walton-on-the-Naze: a fish, seafood & oyster Restaurant situated in the idyllic Titchmarsh Marina
It does suggest that those who give good reviews on TripAdvisor are not representative of Essex people as a whole, but rather are looking for familiarity and comfort food. All of the top 5 offer food that your grandparents would have eaten in their childhood.