The Castle — Restaurant in England

The Castle in Macclesfield is less a pub and more a cozy, timeworn love letter to the art of drinking and dining. If you squint just right, you’d think Betjeman might still be brooding in the corner over a half-pint and a sonnet. It’s a place where the ghosts of good taste linger in the wainscoting, and the only thing modern is the quiet confidence with which it does exactly what a pub should do: serve excellent food and pour serious pints.

The cod cheeks—ah, the cod cheeks. These aren’t your battered beach-shack afterthoughts. No, these are little maritime miracles, crisped golden on the outside and butter-soft within, singing with brine and brilliance. They’re what Poseidon might order on his cheat day. Served with the sort of self-assurance that says, “Yes, we know,” they land at the table with the gravitas of a dish that knows it’s the best thing you’ll eat this week.

The ale selection is a quietly dazzling affair—regional, roguish, and refreshingly devoid of pretension. It’s a pub that understands the nuanced difference between quirky and curated, and it pours the latter with a steady hand.

The Castle doesn’t shout, it doesn’t preen—it simply exists at the top of its game, perfectly content to let you discover it, pint by...

Great to see the castle doing so well, although we have been mainly through the day there's a mix of ages from mid twenties to late sixties, and there's a good selection of ales, lagers, ciders, wines, and spirits and homemade pork pie the size of a bin lid, and bar snacks loose peanuts, crisps, I think there was some other choice nibbles but I can't remember what they were, on previous visits the background music was to much and too loud (not thrash metal but heavy metal type, something that was not in keeping with a relaxing drink) but thankfully our last visit (25/5/22) it was more laidback and in the background, the staff are friendly and welcoming, the owner has spent a fortune on the place and it has kept the old world feeling whilst bringing a subtle bit of the new look without it being in your face, this is our favourite pub in MACCLESFIELD and there are some good pubs left, wine bars are definitely not our thing and there's a...

When George Orwell wrote about The Moon Under Water, his perfect but fictional pub, he probably did so without ever having visited The Castle in Macclesfield. If he had done, he could simply have recommended readers to come here. It’s about as historic as a pub gets, with three small cosy rooms and a larger one at the back. It has a modern ethos with a small plates menu that caters for veggies, vegans and those like me that enjoy black pudding. There is also tea and coffee for the secular drinker that doesn’t want to try any of the three tasty cask ales that are available. Bizarrely, this pub isn’t on the list of some of the Macclesfield pub guides that I found on the internet. It’s a hidden gem down the backstreets of the town centre but very close to the train station. Every visit to Macclesfield should include a visit...