Where to Eat in Chester: From the Rows to the Canal Basin

Chester's food scene has two centres of gravity: the historic core inside the walls, where restaurants tuck into the Rows themselves, and Hoole, a short walk or bus ride northeast of the centre, which has become the city's most talked-about food street over the last decade. Neither is far from the other, and a day that starts with lunch inside the walls and ends with dinner in Hoole is a perfectly normal way to see both sides of it.

Inside the walls

Shrub, on Eastgate Row, is built directly into the Rows at gallery level and serves plant-based small plates that won Best Restaurant in Chester in 2024, with recognition from the Good Food Guide and OpenTable's Top 100 the same year. It takes walk-ins, though not every table is bookable, so arrive flexible on a busy evening. A few doors along on Northgate Street, Covino runs a single-chef kitchen turning out French-inspired small plates alongside a wine list running past 130 bottles, in a room small enough that booking ahead genuinely matters. On Watergate Street, beneath the Rows, Stile Napoletano has been making Neapolitan pizza since 2018 under chef Giacomo Guido, and picked up a UK top-three ranking in the 2025 50 Top Pizza list; it closes on Tuesdays and publishes occasional seasonal closures, so check its own site before a special trip. For something grander, La Brasserie at the five-star Chester Grosvenor, right by the Eastgate Clock, runs all-day modern European dining with 2 AA Rosettes and a Champagne Sunday service.

Down at the canal

Telford's Warehouse, in a converted Georgian canal warehouse at Tower Wharf, is Chester's best pub for cask ale and a proper kitchen menu, with a glass frontage over the Shropshire Union Canal basin and outdoor tables that make it one of the better warm-weather spots in the city. It also runs a live music programme most weeks and an annual beer and cider festival, and it takes walk-ins rather than bookings.

Out to Hoole

Sticky Walnut, on Charles Street in Hoole, is the restaurant that put the neighbourhood on the map in the first place. It is part of chef Gary Usher's Elite Bistros group, holds 2 AA Rosettes, and runs a genuinely seasonal, produce-led menu under head chef Luke Richardson in a small room that fills up fast; book ahead through the restaurant's own reservation system, and note it is closed Monday and Tuesday. Hoole is a fifteen to twenty minute walk from the centre, or a short bus or taxi ride, and Sticky Walnut is the anchor for a wider strip of independent food and drink along the same road.

Booking, generally

Chester's better independent restaurants are small by design, which means booking ahead is the rule rather than the exception at Sticky Walnut, Covino and La Brasserie, while Shrub, Stile Napoletano and Telford's Warehouse all leave genuine room for walk-ins, particularly earlier in the evening or on a weekday.