Cheshire, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“The food is something to shout about” at this “great country pub” that has served the village for more than 250 years – “it’s all cosy, warm fires in the winter and a great sunshine patio to catch the sun on a summer’s evening”. (“We class it as our local, but it’s more about food than a local pub, although it’s great to sit at the bar and chat to the friendly staff”).

This “atmospheric old pub” in rural Cheshire from the Chester-based Brunning and Price group is a “great” place to drop by for “nice food from a menu with a wide choice”. It’s a handsome red-brick building with plenty of exposed beams, and an attractive canopied garden.

2023 Review: Ex-Manchester House chef, Aiden Byrne’s attractive pub is cutely situated opposite said St Mary’s Church in one of the scenic commuter towns on the Cheshire/Greater Manchester borders. Steaks, burgers, pies and the likes of lobster and chips typify its quality gastrofare; and they also serve pizza and snacks from their garden ‘shack’.

“Slightly different comfort-food dishes” grace the menu at this “attractive gastropub” – with a “relaxed atmosphere” in an old school building. Steak ’n’ kidney pie is the pick of the main dishes, while the “excellent desserts” include an appropriately ‘Old School Ram Roly-Poly Pudding’. There are more than 300 gins behind the bar, along with a “good range of real ales”.

2024 Review: “An excellent local restaurant with talent in the kitchen (Miarisuz Dobies) and professional front of house” (his wife); regulars are “never disappointed” by the French- and Central European-inflected food (including five- or seven-course tasting menus), with “every detail wonderful and made in-house”.

2023 Review: “Theatrical presentation” is a longstanding feature of the Pear family’s stalwart fixture of four decades’ standing, whose ‘Dinner at 8’ package was an early adopter of the tasting menu format, with a 7-course menu delivered in a single sitting (you arrive at 7.30 pm). Fans say “Covid hasn't affected the consistent high quality of this unique dining venue. And to the famous ‘Dinner at 8’, can be added the growing popularity of their afternoon tea”: “a choice of gentleman’s or lady’s gives a useful mix of sweet and savoury, including the legendary homemade desserts. Ample portions (take-home boxes cheerfully provided), well served and a good range of teas''.

“If only all local areas had one of these!” – this small, neighbourhood bistro in the slightly obscure backstreets of Hoole (an easily missed, gentrified suburb beyond Chester’s train station) rose to fame when it was founded in 2011 as the launchpad of social media celeb Gary Usher’s Elite Bistros group. Neither the group nor this small site generate as much attention as once they did, but all feedback remains positive for its professional, friendly style and very affordable, focused modern bistro dishes (your meal might run Miso-glazed belly bacon, followed by Confit duck leg, with warm ginger parkin to send you on your way).

Another characterful pub in the Brunning & Price chain (a red-brick former warehouse with plenty of reclaimed décor including a bar made of old mahogany doors) in an appealing canal-side location between the train station and city centre. It’s a “noisy” and sociable sort of spot and the food is of “good dependable quality”.

2024 Review: Feedback is more limited than we would like, but is enthusiastic over this grey-hued boutique hotel dining room, run from afar by game expert Mike Robinson. Chef Dan Regan oversees the preparation of a menu that majors in 40-60 day, dry-aged beef steaks from a selection of sirloin or ribeye cuts.

“An ex Michelin Star dining room with its eye on repeating the award for the new chef” – this “very traditional” dining room deep within the Duke of Westminster’s old dowager hotel next to the city’s ancient medieval walls (built in 1865) has a serene (its windowless) and “romantic” aura that’s either timeless or old-fashioned, depending on your tastes. “Service is personal, slightly relaxed in a good way, but still has some formality”. And when it comes to the food, chef Elliot Hill (who replaced Simon Radley in 2022, who had been in post over 20 years) seems to be hitting his stride better now, with many positive reports here this year. There’s either a five-course menu for £90 per person, or longer tasting menu for £115 per person. The wine list here is heavyweight too, although “with limited cheaper options reflecting the nature of the restaurant”. Top Tips – there’s a three course ‘choice’ menu for £75 per person (excludes Saturdays). Top Menu Tip – “The venison dish is a particular highlight with ‘hedgerow’ components (my partner who doesn’t usually eat venison absolutely loved it!)”

Next to Chester’s iconic Eastgate clock and at the front of the city’s poshest hotel (owned, like much of the city, by the Duke of Westminster), this posh pavement brasserie “has the hustle and bustle of a busy, big city destination” and even fans may concede that “the real reason to visit is the ambience (especially at Christmas time)”. It’s sometimes recommended in reports for a grand afternoon tea. On the downside, its brasserie fare can seem “overpriced” and service can take its time.

“A lovely find in Chester” – in 2025 Liam McKay celebrated his 10th year as chef-patron of this well-liked destination, which moved in 2023 to a more prominent new address, at the side of the Grosvenor Shopping Centre (next to its sibling ‘Twenty Eight’, see also). There is an à la carte menu, but it’s known for its longer six-course tasting menu at £75 per person. “The set price selection of small plates is superb value”; (“we saw some diners finish the set meal then repeat their order!”). “Many ingredients are grown at the restaurant’s own smallholding”.

A “light and bright room with an intimate feel” is the backdrop to this “great version of a steakhouse”, where February 2025 visitor, The Daily Mail’s Tom Parker Bowles, found some “eminently respectable” cooking, not least the bone-in sirloin with “depth and heft and grunt”. The “interesting, eclectic collection of steaks” ranges from British and Irish beef to guest favourites dry-aged in their fancy maturation chamber, with “confident staff explaining each cut and course”, and also ferrying over “on-point” sauces, plus “plenty of sides to get stuck into” alongside the protein.

With “outside dining in a great location overlooking the racecourse”, this “elegant Georgian building” by the city walls also benefits from a “cosy pub atmosphere inside”. There’s a “varied menu, ranging from fish ’n’ chips, beef bourguignon and burgers to more interesting fare like gnocchi or veggie Malaysian curry”, and the “staff are pleasant and efficient”, in typical Brunning & Price style.

The now-national Brunning & Price chain made relaunching this very fine pub – owned by the Duke of Westminster and right by the gates to his Cheshire estate, Eaton Hall – their second project and very successful it has turned out. It remains a highly popular destination, aided by its fine interior and lovely garden with “lots of outdoor seating”. “The menu is reliable and varied, with something to suit all tastes and appetites. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and eager to please”.

2024 Review: “Fabulous breakfasts to start the day with excellent omelettes; flavour-packed soups; and great coffee” (“with that rare accompaniment, a glass of iced water”) are all highlights of the “imaginative creations from the open kitchen” at this funkily decorated, brick-walled bar/diner, which is “open all day” – a model of “simplicity with highly efficient service”.

Now landed in Knutsford town centre since 2022, this wine-bar restaurant originated in North London before relocating initially to the village of Audlem, thence here. Chef Chris cooks with sustainable and sometimes foraged ingredients while his partner, Laura, serves wines from small independent producers. Too limited freedback for a full rating, but one local fan says it’s “a small, friendly restaurant serving excellent food”.

2024 Review: Opposite a twelfth-century church, this “really good” village outfit is “exactly what you’d want from a good-quality pub”: a “relaxed, friendly and chatty” spot turning out some “perfectly judged” food (not least fish ’n’ chips, though the desserts are also “technical and brilliantly flavoured”).

“Less formal, and more economically preferable to its big brother Chefs Table next door, the food is simpler, and it’s very good” at this “excellent modern British” two-year-old, which sits on Pepper Street in a unit on the Brutalist side of the Grosvenor-Laing shopping precinct. “There is a wide choice of dishes using fresh locally sourced ingredients” that are affordable and excellent value.