Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The Top 21 Restaurants Near The Checkers


  1. Rank 2. The Walrus

    Modern British


  2. Rank 3. Mortimers

    Modern British



  3. Rank 5. Henry Robertson

    Modern British


  4. A whitewashed roadside inn in the Welsh countryside where the walls are covered in motorsport memorabilia and classic car collectibles, which is not a combination you expect from a pub with rooms. The menu runs from grill cuts to a rotating pie and mash, the sort of thing that actually suits the setting. Connected to nearby Palé Hall, it has the same easy, unfussy service without the manor house formality.


  5. Eight guests, two open kitchens, and a meal that moves you between them like a very civilized relay race. Gwen is a dark, intimate modern tasting-room in Machynlleth, run by the team behind Ynyshir, with the same moody aesthetic and commitment to local makers. The chef cooks and serves throughout, so the line between kitchen and dining room is mostly decorative.


  6. Rank 8. Ynyshir

    Asian-influenced Japanese

    A glitter ball spins over one of Wales's most talked-about tasting menu restaurants, which tells you something. Gareth Ward's two Michelin-starred room in rural mid-Wales is stripped back and Japandi-calm, but the food is anything but: around thirty courses of Asian-inflected cooking, edgy and precise, running five hours from early evening. The black-painted exterior does not suggest a country house hotel, which is rather the point.


  7. Rank 9. The Bear Inn

    Modern British


  8. Rank 10. Restaurant Sow

    Modern British

    The barn has been standing since the Tudor era, and the kitchen makes that feel like an asset rather than a quirk. This modern British restaurant sits on the Netherwood Estate, and the garden walk beforehand is worth doing: much of what grows there shows up on the plate. Occasional East Asian touches keep things from going too pastoral. There are rooms across the courtyard if the drive home feels like a problem.


  9. Rank 11. Docket Restaurant

    Modern British


  10. Rank 12. Wild Shropshire

    Modern British

    Fourteen seats, a daily changing surprise menu, and almost everything grown on the chef's own farm nearby. This intimate Modern British restaurant in Whitchurch takes field-to-fork seriously enough to have its own fields, then tilts the produce toward Japanese technique, koji and yuzu sitting comfortably alongside Shropshire soil. The team is warm without being performative, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.


  11. A Victorian country house turned hotel restaurant, tucked into a wooded hillside above the Mawddach estuary. The old billiards room is now a drawing room you pass through to reach the dining room, where the conservatory seats are the obvious move. The kitchen leans on quality sourcing and keeps things modern without fuss. Staying overnight is, by most accounts, the sensible plan.


  12. Rank 14. The Baiting House

    Modern British


  13. Rank 15. The Fanny Talbot

    Modern British



  14. Rank 17. Y Talbot

    Traditional British

    A whitewashed former drover's inn in a quiet rural village, with low-beamed bar rooms and a slightly more modern dining space beyond. The menu runs classic pub territory, fish and chips, confit duck, Welsh beef burgers, and traditional puds. Worth knowing: there is reportedly an elephant buried in the garden, which is either a great conversation starter or a reason to avoid the lawn.


  15. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Clwydian Range while you eat, which is a better view than most theatre intervals offer. This modern British brasserie on the first floor of Theatr Clwyd leans hard on Welsh produce, including the chef's own pedigree Welsh Black beef, which shows up in more than one form on the menu. The room is warm, the service runs smoothly, and the prices won't require a second look.


  16. Rank 19. Kilpeck Inn

    Traditional British

    Stone fireplaces, heavy beams, and a whitewashed exterior that looks like it grew out of the Herefordshire countryside rather than anything so deliberate as architecture. The Kilpeck Inn is a traditional village pub with food serious enough to fill the place with regulars who've stopped pretending they'll try somewhere new. The cooking leans old-school and hearty, the service is genuinely warm, and there are four rooms if you'd rather not drive back.


  17. Rank 20. Noted

    New American

    Six tables in a snug Chester dining room make Noted feel more like a dinner party than a restaurant. The menu is built for sharing and roams freely, pairing British produce with international detours: prawn toast bao, crab arancino, that kind of thing. Sundays bring a sharing roast with a distinctly 1980s sensibility, which sounds like a gimmick until it arrives. The Michelin Guide has it selected.


  18. Wood panelling, flagged floors, and open fires downstairs; proper British cooking upstairs. This Chester pub, a short walk from the city centre, pulls off the refurbishment trick without losing its pubby soul, which is harder than it sounds. The rotating ales keep the bar honest, while the dining rooms above turn out wholesome British plates with the occasional nod toward sunnier climates. The soda bread treacle tart is worth leaving room for.


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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. It runs on the scored places nearby: more good stuff within reach, higher score. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.