Red Lion Chester — Restaurant in Great Britain

I find Chester a fascinating city to visit due to the outstanding eclectic mix of architecture stretching through many centuries. I stopped off at the Red Lion pub on my last trip purely by chance. It was in the right place at the right time and the menu on the wall outside had a choice of food that everyone I was with gave a nod of approval. The pub itself is part of the architectural fascination , dating from around 1600 in one of the main thoroughfares of the city. The pub is not huge but although busy, I was able to find a table easily enough. The interior is traditional pub style although they have the occasional TV screen in place for avid sports fans.

The menu offers a vast array of traditional pub food whether you are in before midday for the breakfasts, fancying something “lite” or taking on a mega mixed grill. Menus are also online if you are the sort of person who is that organised. I adhere to a ketogenic diet (No carbs) which usually just means leaving out the chips in pub meals. So I ordered the Mega mixed grill, while the rest of my clan made similarly meaty choices. The Haloumi chips caught my eye so I added some of those to my order.

Staff were polite and helpful, When I asked for no chips, I was offered a side salad as an alternative, which is always nice. As part of the order process I was asked the obligatory “How would you like your steak”. This usually a source of irritation, given that in almost every case with pub fare and no matter what I say, I get a steak that is more like a biscuit and turned into some form of carbon. I was warned up front that as they were very busy food would probably be thirty minutes.

The food on surrounding tables looked appealing and drowning in my own dribble like an expectant Labrador, I tried to maintain conversation while the smells of delicious sizzling things surrounded me.

The food arrived earlier than expected, staff were again helpful and attended to any needs for sauces and cutlery etc. I was very happy to find that despite my earlier steak related reservations, this one was cooked perfectly, was well seasoned and was very tasty. The same went for everything else on my plate and other peoples. The chicken, sausages and gammon were all cooked but moist and tasted good. The sausages were even real meaty sausages rather than the normal sawdust in a balloon I have experienced at too many places. Halloumi is one of my favourites and these fried haloumi chips were great.

I will be in Chester frequently over the coming years and intend to make the Red Lion pub my regular lunch venue. It will take me many visits to work my way...

I visited here with some family today and waited 1 hour for food after ordering, as well as informing the staff that me and my girlfriend both had an allergy upon ordering food at the bar.

We received cutlery after about 40 minutes of waiting, a further 20 minutes past without any sign of our food, so we asked a staff member if they could check on our food, after asking we were informed that there would be a wait due to the allergies.

We did not think that this was acceptable as the area was not busy at all, there were tables who came in after us and ordered after us who had received and finished their food before we had even received cutlery. As the lady who informed us about the wait walked off and said “unless you want to have an allergic reaction” under her breath, however it was loud enough for us and a number of other people to hear this. This made a number of other guests look over at us making us feel uncomfortable and very judged, this should not have happened and as a direct result of the comment made towards us we decided to leave as myself and girlfriend did not feel safe eating here.

As staff members of Mitchell and Butler we do understand the importance of allergy safety and appreciate that areas need to be cleaned before cooking, but this should not be used as an excuse for food taking over an hour to arrive and being treated as rudely as we were.

We paid for our drinks and left, would not visit again, the staff member in question was rude and no apology was offered at any point. The rest of the staff looked as though they would rather be elsewhere rather than at their jobs. The service was very slow and I felt like we were an inconvenience to be a customer in their buisness.

I’d appreciate to hear your comments and feedback on this issue and that customer service training is required for this employee as no customer should be made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in any buisness no matter what their dietary...

Awful experience! After we managed to find a table, We've ordered some starters to share. It was approximately 7.15pm. Food arrived within 15 minutes and was OK. Nothing to complain about, a bit greasy and just warm, but we did not expect much more as we decided to have a simple pub grab that evening. When it came to ordering our mains, we were unable to do so via app. I went to the bar and asked why, and I was told that kitchen is now closed. No earlier explanation, no info on the website or in house that the kitchen closes earlier, no heads up when we received our food, no one notified us that they are closing the kitchen soon.... NOTHING! apparently they closed the kitchen at 7.30pm, so just after we received our starters. So we ended up not being able to order our mains at all and we just left the venue. If we knew that the the kitchen closed earlier we would have order everything together, or simply we wouldn't even dine there. Ended up heading somewhere else to continue our meal. Except 1 guys behind the bar that was trying to help, everyone else seemed to be having a "staff party". I get it, everyone is entitled to enjoy their evening, but don't jump behind the bar end serve customers after having a few drinks... very unprofessional . Such a shame, as the reviews are good and we were looking forward to the ambience and the atmosphere of this...