The best restaurants in Hedingham and Maplestead Braintree East of England

Popped here today, after exercise class at Halstead Leisure centre, for breakfast. Today we had wild mushrooms on sour dough toast with a poached egg and it was delicious and great value for money. Always clean cafe and great service. If I had to offer and improvement I would have liked a few more mushrooms but I am greedy!!! I would recommend this cafe highly, for breakfast

Wow it's a hidden gem 💎 the owner and staff brilliant. The accommodation was clean and lovely 😍. We wil be back

The people serving were really helpful , we tried different things that were on the menu. The place inside is spacious and has charm. Will visit again

The coffee and cake are really delcious at this cafe and the farm shop is very good too with a big choice of fresh and frozen food.

Always get a great breakfast here

Always good food and good size portions

Visited The Old Moot House for the first time to try their new smokehouse menu. Firstly the welcome was extremely warm and genuine, and we chatted over a drink in the bar whilst looking at the menu. There was a good selection to choose from, and we opted for the smoked meat platter. It was phenomenal! The quality of the cuts was excellent and the flavour simply delicious - the meat just melted. The sides were very nice, especially the potato cakes. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave enough room for dessert, but will be back to sample one (as well as a cocktail, when I’m not driving). Highly recommend this charming restaurant.

We're visiting from America and stayed in the thatched cottage next to the White Lion. Cindy and Neil were the best neighbors we could hope for. They've been kind and hospitable. Every evening, they light a cozy fire in the fireplace and turn on some relaxing tunes. It seems as though the White Lion is an important gathering place for the village. The patrons seemed to all be like happy family members, but were also very welcoming to outside guests. We enjoyed their chili on rice, nachos and a classic smash burger. They had quite a few other options on the menu as well, ranging from fish & chips to a variety of pizzas. They also had a kid's menu. Of course, they had a broad selection of beers and ales (and soft drinks for tee-totalers like us). It was just a great place all round to spend a few hours and relax.

The best Indian food in Halstead. Chicken Tikka Makhani (butter chicken) and Kuka Co Co Paka (Napalese) are amazing. We usually get takeaway, however do go there on the odd occasion. The restaurant does struggle with service during busy times, as it did last night, which is unfortunate. We were there two hours and would have preferred to have been there half that.

Pizza edge was over cooked soggy horrible worst pizza I've ever had made me feel sick don't recommend this takeaway

Always enjoy a Gandhi, no complaints

Big portions and great service from the two ladies. Really good value for money and the best quality Chinese in the area in my opinion.

Best ploughman's I ever had. Who knew it could be spread so well? Just this man. The plate Steve produces is second to none, and watch your step 🪜 as you probably never thought to finish the main combo with picallily x beetroot on your fork—save the last blue cheese and grapes for the final smidge of chutters. Never will have a winner like it. Absolute gold. 🏆

A very oldie worldie character pub, without a doubt the best in the village. Decent drinks (not the biggest selection, but decent none the same) but the food is great. The burger and chips is like nothing I’ve had before, I don’t even like chips but I always end up ordering some, even if I’m just there for a beer! My only gripe is the pub sometimes doesn’t feel all that clean, I appreciate it’s an old building and the owners are very Eco, but that’s my feeling.

Six of us went to celebrate Mother's Day. The drinks came relatively quickly. The food however took ages. It was not necessarily the waitresses fault to be fair. They were helpful and perhaps at times frustrated themselves. The food took ages to come out of the kitchen. The staffed mushroom as a starter was OK but took a while to be served. The mains took forever. Two of us ordered an apple crumble with ice-cream instead of custard and were served with custard no ice-cream. No money taken off the bill despite a long wait. We sat at 12:30 and left a little fed up at 15:30. Menu was quite uninspiring too. Given the local competition, I would suggest they up their game if they do not want to be left behind. All in all, it was a rather disappointing lunch.