We checked 12 Chester restaurants, from Noted on Bridge Street to Sticky Walnut in Hoole, for prices, opening hours and hygiene ratings. Updated October 2026.
Here are 12 of the best restaurants in Chester for 2026, with prices, opening hours and booking for each: the Michelin Guide’s Noted on Bridge Street, Upstairs at the Grill on Watergate Street and The Jolly Gardeners in Boughton, long-running independents such as Chez Jules (since 1997) and Sticky Walnut in Hoole (since 2011), and one worth the drive to Frodsham.
Prices come from the menus each restaurant had online on 24 October and change often.
Bridge Street, the Rows and Pepper Street
1. Noted, Bridge Street
Noted is the newest name in this guide. It opened in October 2025 and was added to the Michelin Guide in March 2026.
The chef is Andrew Sheridan, and Michelin’s inspector notes that his first job in a professional kitchen was in this same building. The restaurant describes itself as a 16 to 18 cover room serving British produce “with creative international influences”, some of it grown at its sister restaurant, SOW, in Worcestershire.
The prices below are from its sample menu.
Open Mon 5pm to 9pm; Tue to Sat 12pm to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm; Sun 12pm to 3pm, for roasts
Price small plates £10 to £13; large plates £23 to £28; duck pancakes for two £52; three-plate lunch £19 a head
Booking online or by phone
Call 0331 630 9620
Address 63 Bridge Street, CH1 1NG
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 13 November 2025
Website restaurantnoted.co.uk/about
Good for Michelin Guide, 16 to 18 covers, three-plate lunch, Sunday roasts
2. Carbonara, Bridge Street Row
Carbonara calls itself a “Roman Specialities Restaurant & Bar”. It is up on the Rows at No 49 Bridge Street and opened in July 2021.
Its site says the team was raised in Rome and worked in Chester kitchens for more than ten years before opening their own place. Its menus are on the website.
Open Mon to Thu 12pm to 10pm; Fri and Sat 12pm to 11pm; Sun 12pm to 10pm
Food last orders 9.30pm, 10pm on Fri and Sat
Booking online or by phone
Call 07984 589407
Address 49 Bridge Street Row East, CH1 1NW
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 29 August 2026
Website carbonarachester.com
Listing Our listing
Good for Roman cooking, on the Rows, restaurant and bar
3. Chef’s Table, Pepper Street
Chef’s Table opened in 2014 and moved to its current home on Pepper Street in August 2023. It describes itself as an independent modern British restaurant cooking with produce from Field 28, its own market garden in Daresbury.
Menus change every four to six weeks, and the prices below are from its menus page. There are separate gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan menus, and children are welcome, with a children’s menu.
The lounge next door serves a shorter menu, and Baked @ Twenty Eight, its bakery and deli, opened alongside in June 2026. The site does not publish opening hours, so call ahead.
Price prix fixe lunch £40 for two courses, £45 for three; six-course "Taste of the Menu" £75, served from 6pm; wine flight £50
Booking cancellations within 48 hours are charged
Call 01244 403040
Address 7-15 Pepper Street, CH1 1EA
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 17 February 2026
Website chefstablechester.co.uk
Good for children's menu, gluten-free menu, dairy-free menu, vegan menu, card only, own market garden
4. The Brewery Tap, Lower Bridge Street
The Brewery Tap is a pub with a full kitchen inside Gamul House, the early 17th-century home of Sir Francis Gamul, a former mayor. Its own history page says Charles I stayed here in September 1645, while Chester was under siege.
Spitting Feathers, the brewery, opened the pub in 2008, and the restoration of the great hall won CAMRA’s Conversion to Pub Use and Conservation Award in 2009. The prices below are from its autumn menu.
Open Mon to Sat 12pm to 11pm; Sun 12pm to 10pm
Price pies £18.50 to £20.95; 10oz rump steak £24.95; set menu £21.95 for two courses or £26.95 for three, Mon to Sat
Call 01244 340999
Address 52-54 Lower Bridge Street, CH1 1RU
Hygiene rating 4, Food Standards Agency, 1 March 2024
Website spittingfeathers.co.uk/brewery-tap-our-story
Listing Our listing
Good for brewery tap, 17th-century great hall, CAMRA award, set menu Mon to Sat
Watergate Street and the Roodee
5. Upstairs at the Grill, Watergate Street
Upstairs at the Grill is a steakhouse that says it was “born in 2002 & inspired by the legendary steakhouses of New York”. It is listed in the Michelin Guide.
The steaks are British, and the prices below are from its autumn and winter menu. There is a private dining room for the evening and a terrace.
Open daily from midday
Food lunch and early-evening menu Mon to Fri 12pm to 4pm
Price steaks from 8oz rump £21 to 16oz Chateaubriand £95; 10oz ribeye £34; starters £10 to £17.50
Booking online for tables of up to six; call for larger groups or the private dining room in the evening; terrace tables on request when booking
Call 01244 344883
Address 70 Watergate Street, CH1 2LA
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 8 October 2025
Website upstairsatthegrill.co.uk
Good for steak, Michelin Guide, terrace, private dining room
6. Moules a Go-Go, Cuppin Street
Moules a Go-Go has been “serving Chester since 1999” and calls itself “a family-owned and operated independent continental style bistro and bar”. The mussels come from a farm on Anglesey and are served in pots in four styles: classic, Harlech (bacon, leeks and cider), Spanish and Thai.
There are steak, chicken and vegetarian dishes too. Prices are from its menus page, and the hours are those on its contact page, headed spring to summer.
Open closed Mon; Tue to Thu 12pm to 9pm; Fri 12pm to 10pm; Sat 11am to 10pm; Sun 11am to 9pm
Price set price menu, 12pm to 5pm Tue to Sun, £16.95 for one course, £20.95 for two, £24.95 for three; mains on the main menu £21.95 to £32.95
Call 01244 348818
Address 6-12 Cuppin Street, CH1 2BN
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 4 March 2026
Website moulesagogo.co.uk/about-us
Listing Our listing
Good for Anglesey mussels, set price menu, vegetarian dishes, family-owned
7. The Architect, Nicholas Street
The Architect is a pub restaurant inside the city walls, looking over the racecourse on the Roodee. It is run by the pub group Brunning & Price.
The pub’s site says the Georgian house was designed by Thomas Harrison, architect of the Grosvenor Bridge and much of Chester Castle, as his own home. Its old rooms are now small dining rooms, with a newer garden room and terrace beside them.
Access for disabled diners is through the front car park and main entrance. The pub asks people not to bring prams into some of the tighter dining rooms.
Food Mon to Thu 12pm to 9pm; Fri and Sat 12pm to 9.30pm; Sun 12pm to 8.30pm
Price mains on the daily menu £12.95 to £34.95
Call 01244 353070
Address 54 Nicholas Street, CH1 2NX
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 5 June 2026
Website brunningandprice.co.uk/architect
Listing Our listing
Good for racecourse views, terrace, garden room, accessible toilet, high chairs, very limited parking
Northgate Street
8. Chez Jules, Northgate Street
Chez Jules is a French restaurant that Jason Ellison opened in 1997. Its history page says the building was put up as the city fire station in 1911 and became a law court in 1971.
It is close to Storyhouse. Cinema Night is on Wednesdays from 6pm: a glass of wine, a starter, a main course and a film for £27.50 a head.
Prices are from its menus page on 24 October.
Open Mon to Sat 12pm to 10pm; Sun 12pm to 9pm
Price prix fixe every day 12pm to 6pm, £20.95 for two courses or £25.95 for three; Tue two courses and a bottle of house wine each £32.95; Cinema Night Wed £27.50 a head
Call 01244 400014
Address 71 Northgate Street, CH1 2HQ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 15 January 2026
Website chezjules.com/about
Listing Our listing
Good for French, daily prix fixe, Cinema Night Wednesdays, near Storyhouse, former fire station
9. Porta, Northgate Street
Porta is a tapas bar run by brothers Ben and Joe Wright, who grew up in Oscroft, east of Chester. The Chester bar is the first of their four (the others are in Altrincham, Salford and West Didsbury).
They have traded on this site against the city walls by the Northgate “in one guise or another since 2006”. The site says the building is Grade II listed, with a bar upstairs and a cobbled outdoor area.
Prices are from its Chester menu.
Open closed Mon; Tue to Sat 12pm to 10.30pm; Sun 12pm to 9pm
Price tapas £3.50 to £13.50; baked bomba rice £16
Booking no bookings, walk-ins only, for groups of any size
Call 01244 401178
Address 140 Northgate Street, CH1 2HT
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 14 March 2026
Website portatapas.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for tapas, walk-ins, Grade II listed, bar upstairs, cobbled outdoor area
Hoole and Boughton
10. Sticky Walnut, Hoole
Sticky Walnut calls itself “Hoole’s neighbourhood bistro”. It opened on Charles Street in 2011 and was the first restaurant of Gary Usher’s Elite Bistros group.
The site displays a two-rosette award for culinary excellence. The head chef is Luke Richardson.
Mains on the sample main menu run from a girolle and truffle risotto to monkfish on the bone.
Open closed Mon and Tue; Wed to Sat 12pm to 2pm and 5pm to 9pm; Sun 12pm to 5pm
Price mains £25 to £34.50, plus a 10% discretionary service charge; early-doors bistro menu two courses for £20, at set times; market fish menu Wed nights £29 for two courses
Call 01244 400400
Address 11 Charles Street, CH2 3AZ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 27 January 2026
Website stickywalnut-bistro.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for two-rosette award, early-doors menu, market fish Wednesdays, children eat free Sundays (terms apply)
11. The Jolly Gardeners, Christleton Road
The Jolly Gardeners is a pub in Boughton, a short walk east of the city centre. The Michelin Guide lists it and says the red-brick and mock-Tudor building dates from the 1850s and has been refitted from top to bottom.
The pub describes itself as an independent freehouse with no brewery tie, and its kitchen cooks over a charcoal grill. Prices are from its menu.
Open Mon to Fri 12pm to 11pm; Sat 11am to 11pm; Sun 12pm to 10.30pm
Food Mon to Sat 12pm to 9.30pm; Sun 12pm to 9pm
Price small plates £9 to £14; mains £20 to £24; cheeseburger £12
Booking whole ground floor kept for walk-ins; upstairs dining rooms can be booked
Call 01244 835391
Address 33 Christleton Road, CH3 5UF
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 15 October 2025
Website jollygardenerschester.co.uk
Good for Michelin Guide, independent freehouse, charcoal grill, walk-ins
Worth the drive: Frodsham
12. Next Door, Frodsham
Next Door is ten miles north-east of Chester on Frodsham’s Main Street and is listed in the Michelin Guide. The Michelin inspector notes the 17th-century building has been run by the same family for three generations and was for many years a butcher’s shop.
The restaurant says it opened in spring 2017 and that its menus follow the seasons. On Friday and Saturday evenings there is an à la carte menu.
Open Wed to Sat, lunch 12pm to 2pm and dinner 6pm to 9.30pm
Price daily market menu, at lunch and on Wed and Thu evenings, £36 for two courses or £40 for three; evening tasting menu £90, matched wines £52
Call 01928 371053
Address 68 Main Street, Frodsham, WA6 7AU
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 26 November 2025
Website restaurantnextdoor.co.uk
Good for Michelin Guide, seasonal menus, tasting menu, à la carte Fri and Sat evenings
How we chose
The list leans on the Michelin Guide, how long each place has been trading, its own history and its Food Standards Agency hygiene rating; nothing here rates below 4. The Chester Grosvenor’s restaurants, Arkle and La Brasserie, are not here: Bespoke Hotels stopped running the hotel after RAAC concrete was found in the building, and Grosvenor said it would close on 30 September for a refurbishment expected to take around two years once work starts. Hours and prices change, so check with the restaurant before you set off.
Run a place that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@chesteronline.co.uk.
For more to do locally, see things to do in Chester, what’s on in Chester this month, and every restaurant in our Chester business directory.
Frequently asked questions
Which Chester restaurants are in the Michelin Guide?
Noted on Bridge Street, Upstairs at the Grill on Watergate Street and The Jolly Gardeners on Christleton Road in Boughton are all listed in the Michelin Guide. So is Next Door in Frodsham, ten miles away. None of them holds a star. The Chester Grosvenor, home of Arkle and La Brasserie, was due to close on 30 September 2026 for a refurbishment of around two years.
Which Chester restaurants do not take bookings?
Porta, the tapas bar on Northgate Street, is walk-ins only. The Jolly Gardeners in Boughton keeps its whole ground floor for walk-ins, though its upstairs dining rooms can be booked. Most of the others in this guide take bookings online.
Where can I get a cheap set lunch in Chester?
Moules a Go-Go’s set price menu starts at £16.95 for one course, served 12pm to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday. Noted’s three-plate lunch is £19 a head. Chez Jules serves a prix fixe menu every day from 12pm to 6pm at £20.95 for two courses, and Sticky Walnut in Hoole has an early-doors bistro menu at two courses for £20.
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