A Delicious Decade
Ten years since its launch, Chef’s Table has a new site in Chester, a sister restaurant, and grand ambitions. Absolutely uncovers its story. If you are still looking for the perfect venue for a Christmas meal with friends or family, the answer may well be found in Chester. Chef’s Table offers a contemporary farm-to-table dining experience, with a seasonally driven menu that fuses the freshest locally sourced ingredients with bold, global flavors and experimental culinary techniques. Founded by head chef Liam McKay, the Chef’s Table concept offers an accessible approach to fine dining, providing guests with expertly crafted dishes in a refined yet relaxed setting.
The Story So Far
Debuting in 2014, Chef’s Table’s first iteration was a small restaurant with big ambitions. Tucked down a side street in historic Chester, the restaurant quickly became a favorite with locals and visitors. Their elevated contemporary dishes that utilize locally sourced produce paired with attentive service instantly drew the attention of both visitors and locals. Gaining recognition from major restaurant bodies, Chef’s Table was awarded two AA Rosettes within the first two months and was recommended in the Michelin Guide within just six months of opening. The restaurant was also selected as Diner’s Choice at the National Restaurant Awards in both 2018 and 2019. Throughout the years, Chef’s Table has also been consistently recognized at various regional awards.
Initially conceived as a café catering to those in the hospitality industry, due to national acclaim, Chef’s Table grew to focus on its á la carte offering, implementing a more refined approach. Paired with a local, organic micro-farm since opening, menus were created from daily produce deliveries. The frequently evolving menus led to Chef’s Table becoming one of the first restaurants in Chester to offer a micro-seasonal menu incorporating local produce.
Due to increased demand, in 2023 the decision was made to expand to a larger venue. The restaurant now resides on Pepper Street and features contemporary interiors, a spacious dining room able to accommodate more covers and an upgraded state-of-the-art kitchen. The new venue provides an improved dining experience for guests, with the large kitchen facilitating a more refined offering as well as seasonal tasting menus.
Since moving to the new site, Chef’s Table has strengthened its relationship with a partnered local farm, Growing at Field 28, with whom they work closely, where the annual growing schedule informs the restaurant’s menu. The new location has also seen the inception of a critically acclaimed sister restaurant and neighbor, Twenty-Eight.
The Menu
The restaurant’s seasonal menu adopts a classic à la carte approach, with service embracing a friendly, fine-dining style. Inspired by global flavors, dishes utilize fresh, regionally sourced ingredients in inventive ways, combining classical culinary techniques with contemporary gastronomic innovations. Alongside the à la carte menu, Chef’s Table also provides a lunch offer and an 8-10 course seasonal tasting menu highlighting seasonal produce and game.
The current menu includes butter-poached furikake Scottish scallops, grilled stone bass, and tempura soft-shell crab with an Indian-inspired sweetcorn and globe artichoke chaat masala broth. Also on the menu, featuring East Asian flavors, are roast togarashi spiced beef fillet, wagyu neck slow-cooked in XO, wagyu spring roll, puffed rice with Tokyo turnips, and fresh UK wasabi from Growing at Field 28. Desserts add a contemporary seasonal twist to classic dishes, with vanilla Crème Brulee being complemented by elderflower macerated strawberries, strawberry sorbet, and lovage pollen.
Curated by head sommelier, Cino Noir, Chef’s Table offers an extensive and unique wine selection. Focusing on Old World labels, the cellar includes varieties from over 20 countries including lesser-known wine-growing regions from Georgia to Japan. Led by the team’s expert knowledge, guests are encouraged to explore the vast offering and sample something less familiar.
Growing at Field 28
Partnered with a local farm Growing at Field 28 in Daresbury, a symbiotic ongoing relationship has been fostered through their shared ethos of utilizing high-quality locally grown produce. Starting as a supplier and evolving into a business partner, the relationship has grown organically over time. Now the restaurant and farm collaborate on planting schedules and align menu changes with crop harvests.
Specializing in pesticide and biocide-free produce, Growing at Field 28 provides high-quality specialist leaf, microgreens, edible flowers, and heritage vegetable varieties that are featured prominently on the restaurant’s menu. Along with Chef’s Table and Twenty-Eight, the farm also supplies many of the UK’s top-rated restaurants including 3 Michelin-starred, The Ledbury.
Sister Restaurants
When relaunching at the new site, the concept of Twenty Eight was conceived. A joint venture with Growing at Field 28, Twenty Eight is the more casual sister restaurant to Chef’s Table. Sharing a joint entrance area, the team at Twenty Eight and Chef’s Table work closely together to offer two uniquely different dining experiences with the same farm-to-table ethos at their core.
Helmed by head chef Jay Tanner (previously of Chef’s Table), the menu comprises British-style tapas in the form of seasonal sharing plates. Twenty-Eight provides a laid-back environment to enjoy inventive dishes, vegan wines, and regular events. Since launching in late 2023, the restaurant has seen critical acclaim on both a regional and national scale with stellar reviews from food critics and various award wins including Reader’s Choice at the Condé Nast Traveller’s ‘Top New Restaurant Awards’.
Working closely together the two restaurants utilize by-products of each other’s dishes to create new menu items, minimizing excess food waste. Absolutely has no doubt that whichever you choose this festive season, you will enjoy a Christmas dinner to remember.
For more details, visit Chef’s Table Chester.
