Chorley Restaurant Guide

This award-winning curry house from Mohammad Ali continues to punch above its weight (geddit), having expanded three times over the years to its current 205-seater size; the Ribble Valley spot offers a “really nice atmosphere and lovely food” to match, with one fan who has “been going for over 25 years, so rigorous testing” (indeed) claiming that they have “yet to find one to beat” its Lamb Madras.

2023 Review: “Completely consistent… they still do the best ever Pizza Napoletana” – this huge Italian ‘Ristorante & Pizzeria’ just outside Preston was opened in 1985 and has grown over the years to house 300 guests in one sitting, of whom about a third are in a striking glazed extension, complete with al fresco terrace.

Victor Yu’s enjoyably flash Cantonese pub conversion in the Ribble Valley guarantees a “perfect night out with good food” – and is “just as brilliant as ever” after 22 years. He opened a spin-off in Manchester last year, Choi Wan in the new House of Social food hall, inspired by Hong Kong-style street food.

“Mark Birchall’s achievement of 3 Michelin stars in seven short years in the north, speaks volumes” for the inspirational values he’s brought to revamping his Grade II 13th-century manor house a short drive north of Liverpool. “Not just a meal, it’s an experience” and one that is “superb from beginning to end” – enhanced by “the beautiful location, and the additional touches such as the vegetable garden and the cheese room”. The occasion starts in the lounge for a drink and a snack and then proceeds to the contemporary dining room – a glazed add-on with exposed rafters. “Service from an expert front of house team is spot on: very professional, very knowledgeable, and very approachable and friendly”: “not at all pretentious despite its awards”. Dinner is tasting menu style from £265 per person, or there is a cheaper four-course menu also available at lunch which is £145 per person. Practically all reports acknowledge the food as “faultless in every way” – “nothing to say about Mark’s food that’s not already been said: it is all simply pitch perfect” – “the flavours and ideas are staggering”. This said, even fans feel “it’s just a shame their prices have gone up so much in recognition of the three stars…” – “the cost is now so high, that a visit can now only be a rare treat”.

“Casual by name and feel, but the food quality is really fine dining” – the more casual option for eating at Mark Birchall’s triumphant manor house operation operates in a contemporary structure, with brick walls and pitched timber-frame roof and “its setting is beautiful as you come around the lake to the barn”. “Good value for a Michelin-starred restaurant”, it carries its ambitions quite lightly with food that’s straightforwardly high quality – “top notch ingredients are seasoned to perfection”. Top Tip – “the set lunch an absolute bargain for food and service of this level/calibre”.

“Quite what Aughton has done to earn all these good restaurants, and even more Michelin stars, is beyond fathoming” and although Tim & Mag Allen’s award-winning four-year-old venue is “obviously somewhat in the shadow of its illustrious neighbour Moor Hall, Solo remains an excellent (and much more affordable!) alternative”. “Tim Allen genuinely seems to enjoy both cooking and engaging with his customers and he brings a sense of calm when other staff members seem to be rushed off their feet (although still attentive and enjoying themselves). The food (concept, presentation and delivery) is outstanding and offers excellent value. Every course is exquisite from amuse bouche to petits fours demonstrating his skill for combining unusual and unheard of ingredients (finger lime and meat radish anyone?) to create perfect and complementary flavours and textures”. And in July 2025, the restaurant closed to herald ‘an exciting new chapter’ to reopen in November 2025. The upgrade PR promises ‘a more modern, crisp, fresh new look’, ‘a new Chefs’ Table’; a redefined food offering ‘providing more flexibility through shorter and expanded menu options’; ‘a more casual, and shorter, tasting menu style experience’. (But we’ve left its current high grades in place on the basis that most likely things will only get better).

2022 Review: “Great food and also a sense that they are putting back into the community” inspires support for this pub-with-rooms on the village green. Run as a youth-focused social enterprise, supporting young people to access training and paid work experience, it has won a string of awards over its almost ten years in operation. In summer, its ‘Incredible Edible Beer Garden’ comes into its own: almost an acre in size and with lots of interest as well as outside seating.

2023 Review: “Simplicity” combines with “top quality” at Carlow-born Breda Murphy’s deli-restaurant, a popular destination in the Ribble Valley since 2006 for her Anglo-Irish home-style cooking. “At first it feels overly conservative, but every dish is perfectly cooked, often with a small and interesting twist such as thick-cut lime and soy-cured salmon.”

“Really great, inventive food prepared to exacting standards by a talented chef” makes this two-year-old from a strong team headed by Oli Martin (ex-Northcote and Hipping Hall) a “real gem”, serving “ambitious tasting menus (for £79 per person at dinner, no à la carte) with strong presentation and good blends of flavours that are precise but not excessive”. (Giles Coren of The Times also heaped praise on “supremely gifted and thoughtful chefs (and) proper northern hospitality” in his November 2024 review).

2024 Review: “Went here after reading Jay Rayner’s Nov 2022 review. Superb!” – this no-frills café near the Central Lancashire University campus (from Hong Kong natives Fai Tsang and her husband, Wai) is “very much a café rather than a restaurant but you can (need to) book”, thanks to brilliant Cantonese cooking that’s worth rolling up your sleeves for. Top Menu Tip – “The roast duck and siu yuk are delicious with the crisp skin contrasting the tender meat. Soy chicken is very flavourful and the brisket tender, tasty and well spiced”.

2024 Review: This crowd-pleasing pub once served as a hospital, but since its takeover and refurb’ by the Brunning & Price group some years back, it’s now a proper country gastroboozer (also with a handful of rooms); on the menu – high-quality British dishes abetted by some more exotic influences from around the world.