This past weekend, we were invited to review Chester Townhouse Hotel. Chester is one of my favourite UK cities and I love any chance to spend time there, so I was looking forward to a stay at this city centre hotel.
Chester Townhouse is a boutique hotel located on Lower Bridge Street, close to lots of Chester’s best bars, restaurants and shops. It was a great base for our break in the city – we mainly ate, drank and shopped.
The hotel has on-site parking for £12.50 per day but it was full when we arrived so the friendly receptionist directed us to a nearby car park, where hotel guests get a discount. Hotel parking is always a bit of a stress for Tom so we were pleased it was easy to find somewhere safe to leave the car.
Chester Townhouse Hotel Review
We were in Room 6, at the top of the building. It was clean and comfortable but quite basic. Chester Townhouse is a three star hotel so I wasn’t expecting the wow factor, but they do advertise as a luxury hotel so it was a little disappointing.
The only little luxury in the room was that we had bathrobes. There wasn’t any hand soap in the bathroom but there were bottles of shower gel and body lotion, which seemed strange.
We found that the real attraction at Chester Townhouse was the 1699 Bar and Brasserie on the first floor.
We had a delicious hot breakfast – eggs florentine for me, full English for Tom. The bacon was good quality stuff and you could tell everything on the plate was freshly cooked. There’s also a section of tea and coffee, plus a continental selection available at no charge, which looked and tasted fresh.
It was rainy that morning but I peeked out at the garden behind the breakfast room. It looked like a lovely place to sit and eat breakfast or sip wine in the warmer months.
After breakfast we got ready for a day of shopping and checked out. We had a lovely morning wandering around Chester in the Winter sun.
We returned to the hotel at lunchtime for Sunday dinner at 1699 Bar and Brasserie.
I wish we’d been able to sit in the front room, which has more light. There are plush sofas and a roaring fire, which creates a lovely cosy ambience. This would be an ideal place to sit and have a coffee or wine and snacks with your friends.
The dining room further back doesn’t have the same ambience but the food made up for it. We both went for the topside beef roast dinner and it didn’t disappoint. The veg was plentiful, the roasties came separately, and the beef portions were generous.
The cauliflower cheese puree had a powerful taste and the roasted parsnips and chantenay carrots made the dinner feel like a real winter warmer.
The menu at 1699 is British-led with options like lamb rump, gnocchi and even Asian chicken broth.
We thoroughly enjoyed lunch and just had to try the desserts: sticky toffee pudding and creme brûlée served with macarons and meringue. They were beautifully presented – I’ve never had creme brûlée with such elegant, tasty garnishes!
All in all I’d say Chester Townhouse is a handy place to stay if you’re not going to spend a lot of time in the hotel itself. We thought the food was fantastic but the rooms let it down a little bit, which was a shame. The location is great and I feel like it could be a bit grander inside!
The hotel has a lot of potential so I think if they spruced the rooms up and added a few luxury amenities, they could potentially earn themselves another star.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we were guests of Chester Townhouse. Opinions are my own.
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