Judge Sir Donald Rattee QC dismissed a challenge to Golda "Goldie" Bechal's will brought by her surviving relatives, five nephews and nieces, who claimed they were entitled to inherit her fortune.

When Bechal died in 2004, aged 88, she left a property fortune based on commercial premises to her long-standing "best friends", Kim Sing Man and his wife, Bee Lian Man, the owners of the Lian restaurant in Witham, Essex.

The judge held that Bechal, despite her failing memory, appreciated the effect of her will, made in August 1994, in which she left almost her entire fortune to the couple.

He rejected the claim by Bechal's five nephews and nieces, Sandra Blackman, Barbara Green, Laurence Lebor, Louise Barnard and Mervyn Lebor, that she did not know what she was doing when she made the will.

Rattee said: "In my judgment, on the balance of probabilities, Mrs Bechal had testamentary capacity. The will executed by Mrs Bechal in August 1994 was valid."

The court heard that the Man family established a restaurant in premises rented from Bechal and her late husband, Simon. A friendship blossomed over several decades, in which the two families enjoyed Christmas Day celebrations and foreign holidays together.

The judge accepted their evidence that Bechal, sad and lonely after the death of her husband and the death of her son Peter at the age of 28, became almost part of their family.

They went on foreign holidays with her and there were regular get-togethers at their restaurant and at her flat in Mayfair, central London.

Kim Sing Man would even deliver Bechal's favourite Cantonese dish of pickled leeks to her home in Grosvenor Square, London, whenever he was in the capital to buy restaurant supplies.

The judge heard from counsel for the Mans that Bechal's relationship with her family was strained. She once described them as a "bunch of hooligans", said Man, 53, under cross-examination. He said she believed they were after her money.

The court heard that by the time she died, Bechal had become close friends with the Mans. The Mans, who have three children and live in Great Leighs, near Chelmsford in Essex, gave evidence that they were not present when the Barclays bank will form was filled in, nor when the will was drawn up by the bank and executed.

Man described Bechal as "an upper-class posh lady" who always dressed well and "always enjoyed her Chinese pickled leeks and bean sprouts, which I bought for her". When asked whether he had expected to be left virtually the whole of her estate, he said he never talked to her about her will.

The judge accepted that the couple played no part in the making of Bechal's will.

Her nephews and nieces claimed that, even if their aunt understood the effect of making a will, there were doubts over whether she appreciated the extent of her wealth.

But the judge said that when Bechal drew up her will, she had in mind that her nephews and nieces had been provided for to some extent in the will of her late brother, Phillip.

"It was not irrational to leave the bulk of her estate to Mrs Man, the daughter she would dearly wished to have had, and her husband," Rattee said.

"And I am satisfied by the evidence that Mrs Bechal understood that she had a substantial property portfolio."

Damon Parker, the lawyer representing the Mans, said after the hearing: "We are delighted with this result. This has been about a friend's right to leave money as she wanted."

He said the couple wanted to "register their respect" for Bechal's family and "how very grateful" they were for the public's sympathy and support.

Bee Lian Man said of her late friend: "She was a very kind lady to us, generous and warm.

"We appreciate what she has done for us. We were both very fond of her and my relationship with her was like a mother and daughter."

Asked how the result would affect them, Kim Sing Man said: "It will make no difference. Life goes on as normal."