Nantwich, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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.

“Almost next to Cholmondeley Castle gardens”, the ‘Chum’ is an “interesting conversion of a village school” (complete with “much educational memorabilia”) into a “quirky but deservedly popular inn” serving an “excellent selection of comforting local food”. It also “prides itself on having 366 gins at the bar” – “their own is excellent”. Top Menu Tip – “the steak-and-kidney pie is stonking, but not for the faint-hearted”.

Stuart Collins racked up a stellar CV (via stints with Gary Rhodes, Michael Caines and Gordon Ramsay) before launching this “very intimate” fine-dining outpost, which landed like a foodie comet in this market town just east of the Welsh frontier in 2017. Still warmed by the mediatic glow of Stuart’s cameo on the Great British Menu, its classically informed cooking (FOH is overseen by wife Frances) revolves around an £85 tasting menu which now plays out over ten courses, rather than nine, making a “favourite difficult to decide” (but what matter when it’s all “simply superb”?).

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''.

2021 Review: Just a short drive outside Chester, a smartly appointed “bar and bistro in an old family grocers shop retaining much of the original features and fittings of the Georgian building” (The Gunnery). “A straightforward menu is well realised” and weekend brunch is a feature.

This unusually grand and “busy gastropub” near the gates of the Duke of Westminster’s Cheshire estate is “probably the best Brunning & Price”. “We’ve eaten here many times over the years, and while the food has had its ups and downs, recently it’s been of top quality” – “it’s best to avoid weekends though, as it can get very busy: the price of success!” Top Tip – lovely garden in summer.

“Great food, with all the elan of an Elite Bistros venue, but in a pub!” – Gary Usher’s crowd-funded boozer is “a pub AND restaurant, as opposed to a ‘gastropub’, and it does both jobs very well”. “Staff here are real stars and make everyone feel very welcome” and serve a “longer and more exciting menu than Kala and Sticky Walnut – amazing value for the creativity and quality of cooking”.

“An interesting, well priced menu, with friendly and prompt service” continues to inspire fans of Mel & Martin Board’s converted coaching inn, by the village’s ancient church (which they launched three years ago after a £2m refit). It also has a fan in the form of the Mail on Sunday’s Tom Parker Bowles, who is in his May 2024 review approved of a “rather lovely pub, recently refurbished, and smart but not showy” (although he cautions that although it serves “what appears to be an upmarket gastropub menu… what appears is rather more cheffy… if it’s pub grub you‘re after, you’d best look elsewhere”).