Hale Barns, French - Restaurant Guide

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”.

This “French-style fine-dining experience” in Cheshire has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, serving “the kind of traditional Gallic fare you want to eat – frogs’ legs, coquilles St Jacques, onion soup, profiteroles”, all of it “meticulously presented”. Chef-patron Oliver Troalen trained in Paris and began his UK career at the French Embassy in London (ever the diplomat, he “didn’t bat an eyelid when a friend asked for her steak to be served ‘burnt’!”).

A “lovely location” for a “lovely meal” – chef-patron Joseph Rawlins (who braved Gordon Ramsay’s shouty tutelage) and partner Gaëlle Radigon, who oversees the “very friendly” staff, are the masterminds behind the top-class French cuisine at this converted barn in the Cheshire sticks, and where it’s “a bonus to take apéritifs outside in the sunshine” before you dine.

2023 Review: Rachel Winter Jones and Marc Molé opened this new French spot in a fascinating historic building owned by the local council – built as a Victorian jewellers and clockmakers – in April 2022 (too late to inspire any feedback in our annual diners’ poll). Marc, an architect from Paris, and Rachel, a lawyer with a 20-year career at the World Bank, met on a blind date in a bistro in Paris and here that’s exactly the style of cuisine they are emulating. Open from the morning onwards for coffee and pastries.