Recently, I was invited to visit the Marriott Hotel at Waltham Abbey and sample their revamped Thyme Restaurant menu which prides itself in making delicious courses with locally sourced ingredients.

I am quite enjoying all these recent invitations to try out local restaurants, not only because of the food but also because of the chance to get dressed up and have some adult time with hubby. We got our glad rags on, slapped on a bit of lippy (me not hubby) and set off in plenty of time to allow for any Friday night traffic on the M25. 

We had a lovely, friendly welcome by the concierge Edgar and were shown to our table by the window. The courses looked delicious and as I wasn't drinking I was delighted to see a selection of mocktails on the drinks menu.

For starters I opted for the crab cakes and Patrick had garlic stuffed prawns. For mains I sampled the Ballotine of chicken and Patrick had a rump steak with a peppercorn sauce. The chicken was my favourite of the two savoury courses, it was plump, juicy and full of flavour and came with a delicious, crispy but fluffy potato rosti and spinach. I, of course, tried some of Patrick's steak for the purpose of this review and it was soft and succulent; cooked perfectly medium  - rare as he requested. Patrick's order came with chunky chips which were full of flavour. Patrick enjoyed both of his courses although felt that the prawns were a little messy and that a little bowl of lemon water was perhaps needed to wash his hands after.





For dessert I couldn't decide between ice cream or the chocolate brownie. Our lovely waitress Jade who was so helpful, friendly and approachable advised the brownie was her favourite and suggested me ordering that and her getting me a scoop of pistachio ice cream on the side. I WAS SOLD. Pistachio ice cream is my favourite and is why I wanted to order ice cream in the first place and now I was having two desserts. Heaven.

The brownie came with mascapone and a coffee liquor and it was heavenly. Everything you want a borwnie to be. Thick, moist but dense, full of flavour and satisfying. Yum. I was especially happy to have a scoop of cold pistachio ice cream to dunk my warm brownie into. Patrick had a delicious cheese board the portion size of which was very generous.




Overall, we had a lovely meal at the Marriott. The restaurant itself is very spacious and has a lovely chilled atmosphere, it wasn't noisy and you don't feel like you are all dining on top of each other which is something I detest when eating out. The staff were friendly and attentive and the hotel itself was lovely.


I did also film the evening for my Youtube channel which you can watch now by clicking below.