Essex Eats Awards 2024: The 3 restaurants named the best in Essex as search for winner begins

The search is on to find the best restaurant in Essex in our second-ever year of the Essex Eats awards. For weeks we've been collecting your all-important nominations and now we have our shortlist.

We have so many great places to eat and drink in Essex covering a whole range of cusines, settings, tastes and more. After receiving thousands of nominations for pubs, cafés, restaurants and takeaways across the county, it's clear we're not short of choices!

We had so many fantastic independent businesses nominated for this year's awards and we have sifted through them to find the places that received the highest number of nominations.

READ MORE: Essex Eats Awards 2024: The best restaurants, cafés, pubs and takeaways in Essex named

READ MORE: Essex Eats Awards 2024: The 3 pubs named the best in Essex as search for winner begins

The battle to be named the Best Restaurant in Essex is now down to three - and they would all be worthy winners. Now, only one can go on to become the best in Essex - and that's where we turn the tables back to you.

The shortlist for the Best Restaurant category is below:

• The Blue Strawberry, Hatfield Peverel

• Pig & Whistle Restaurant, Chelmsford

• AKA, Witham

Each shortlisted venue will be profiled on EssexLive over the coming weeks to help inform your decision. We'll be contacting each shortlisted business soon to ask them why they deserve your vote and showcase what makes them special.

You might already have your favourite or you might have just found a list of new places to visit for your next meal out - or on the sofa! You can view the full shortlist for all categories here.

You can vote for your favourite restaurant now from our shortlist using the form below or by clicking here. Votes left in the comments on social media or on our website will not be counted - all votes must be made through the poll below.