Norton Restaurant Guide

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’.

Olivier Troalen’s Gallic staple on the Cheshire outskirts “continues to be a top, most reliable choice for a high-quality dinner, year after year” (indeed some reporters have spent “over 20 years eating there”). “Chef is the owner with wife managing front of house”. “The menu is very French and very extensive”: no worse for being a little old-school, and a “treat when you fancy a return to the 1970s/1980s (it’s a kind of Oslo Court of the north)” with “a lovely northern Gemütlichkeit” to the place. Top Menu Tip – “do leave room for the Gâteau Paris-Lymm – an exemplary large choux bun, filled with a praline crème pat with hazelnuts, berries and salted caramel”.

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.

“Local restaurant which has been there for years and always produces high-quality fare with excellent service”, from the “consistently awesome Locke brothers”, Matt & Adam. “There’s a wide choice of dishes – nothing too ostentatious, just good cooking”, “well-executed and reasonably priced” in a “modern European” idiom. It’s popular, so “booking is necessary”.

“Fabulous food with unusual flavour combinations, lovely staff and great service” make this neighbourhood bistro from Chris Edwards & Owain Williams “well worth the trip to the student quarter of Liverpool”. “Seasonality is the key here” – but “don’t come here for a romantic dinner-for-two: it’s buzzing!”. Top Tip – “the amazing early-bird dinner menu”.

2021 Review: South African-born chef Ernst van Zyl and partner Liz Kellett have taken over (and substantially refurbished) this Warrington pub, which opened at the end of 2018. This new place has 60 covers, five rooms and a huge beer garden. Scant survey feedback as yet, but based on his previous gaff – The Lord Clyde in Kerridge – there’s reason to hope for notably accomplished food in this village pub.

2022 Review: Liverpool’s first vegan chippy – a plant-based Chinese venture on Lark Lane – opened in November 2019 serving noodles, rice dishes, spring rolls, etc, alongside more traditional dishes like battered sausages and chip butties. For grab-and-go it’s going down a storm in The Pool!

“Been several times and it is just the perfect neighbourhood bistro…” – no-one would seek the roots of a famous chain in Hoole (a gentrified but easily-missed inner suburb near Chester’s train station), but Gary Usher’s well-known Elite Bistros group has grown from these modest beginnings: a small backstreet operation founded in 2011. What is it that makes this “local brasserie style restaurant” a cut above? It’s the “consistently good food, wine and engaging and knowledgeable service”. “The ambience might depend on the clientele for that evening, as it’s fairly small – upstairs was very quiet on our visit, but that made it easy to have a conversation with our friends without competing noise”.

“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”.

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”.

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.