The Ship Inn in Cheshire West and Chester

Love this place, delicious food and atmosphere. Would definitely return and recommend. Staff really friendly.

We were very impressed, as were our guests, when we held a joint birthday lunch for over 40 guests ranging from 2 to 82, both family and friends. Location was perfect for us as very close to the park.Food was excellent and served with consideration. ..no mean feat for different menus ....3 courses plus cake, wine and fizz Great choice of vegetarian dishes. Many thanks to staff for their courtesy and help. All our guests have sent many thanks for an event enjoyed by all . Our grateful thanks to all. Gill and Rosalie

Great value on half price Monday!

We popped here twice during a two night stay in Chester, once for a drink and again the next night as we had booked a table for food and both times were excellent. All the staff are friendly and the food was superb yet reasonably priced, would definitely return.

I really like this place. Great value and a great atmosphere. Good deals throughout the week too. Dog friendly

Great restaurant. Food and service fantastic. A nice end after a day at the races.

Nice pub with a lovely atmosphere. Staff very polite and friendly. Wine very good so popped back for another visit. Would recommend visiting as we will be back.

Food was lovely, bit steep in price but worth it.

It was nice but I would have been disappointed to pay nearly £21 for a burger each without the offer as it’s not worth £21 alone! Friendly staff and nice setting

1st visit to The ship inn last Sunday , was disappointed as chicken was chargrilled which was usually never seen any menus to say it was chargrilled, beef looked gorgeous potatoes lovely hardly any veg disappointed gravy lovely and came separate like we asked and bit of mash girls were lovely young chap on the bar very polite

I visited on a Monday lunch-time when there was a half price food offer. A lovely restaurant/pub with great staff & a friendly, speedy service. The only reason I haven't given 5 stars is because I was disappointed in the lack of traditional 'lunch' options on the menu - the small plates weren't right for a lunch (other than the soup which I didn't want on a hot summer's day) & a main course would have been too much for me. The small plate I had was smaller than I wanted really. Also as it's table service, I didn't get to see what beers they had on tap. Maybe a bit of a confused mix between a pub and a restaurant? And maybe I'm Goldilocks?!

Brutal fish and chips! The best I've ever tasted. A perfect batter.

Had some small plates for lunch, all of them were very good and well presented. Service was excellent too.

Lovely place with friendly staff, and quirky maritime themed interior.

What a beautiful cooked meal to perfection so much flavour and well presented. Bifold window with a lovely view made it feel so open. The staff were brilliant so helpful and attentive to everyone at the wedding party.

Matt was our server and he was a lovely guy very friendly and helpful with the menu. Food was delicious and lovely atmosphere would definitely come here.

Very nice pub for a late drink.

Every time i am in chester i always pop in this pub for a few drinks it is a very friendly pub every member of staff i have always found polite and you are always greeted with a smile and a hello on entering so if you fancy a drink or something to eat i highly recommend "The Ship Inn"

Suspect it's very nice for a meal (which is why I'm not rating it lower, food looked lovely and most tables seemed reserved so people clearly like it) but not really somewhere to go for a drink. Basically a restaurant that looks like a pub - which is fair enough but not what I look for when I fancy a pint!

Always very friendly staff, great food. The beer selection is limited but good standard.

Had a fantastic Sunday lunch with a friend and the dog! She had the pork and I had the beef. Can thoroughly recommend both. There was a generous portion of meat, a range of different vegetables, potatoes and yorkshires. We were full but managed to have the sticky toffee pudding. It was great value and the dog has a doggy roast dinner as well. Can thoroughly recommend and will be back. Staff were very friendly and service was excellent.

Good food service, good nice menu.

Belatedly for Group Christmas Meal Dec 2019 (posted incorrectly at the time, sorry!) Thank you to all at The Ship Inn again for a wonderful Christmas meal experience. The staff are terrific, the communication in advance for our large group was spot on, food and atmosphere great. And a special shout out for barman Rob who sang Happy Birthday to our friend in English and Welsh! A true gent. Highly recommend The Ship Inn and we'll definitely be back!

Came here for lunch and the food was great. I recommend the Sunday roast! The staff were very accommodating and friendly.

Absolutely lovely meal, the fish and chips well I say fish I mean shark! It was massive and the home made chips were amazing! My partner had the prawn pasta the prawns were cooked perfectly and my daughter loved the tomatoe and basil pasta all in all a great great meal would recommend. Having the park around the corner was just a great touch this place needs more recognition the staff were brilliant three ladies on very happy with the service very polite go there!

Chester Restaurant, Pub. Beautiful setting, the menu is complete, the Fish & Chip's is good, the prices are correct. Go for it ..

Excellent food. Wide choice. Very interesting decor. Great experience.

Have gone here every year after the races as you always get great food and the service is second to none. Would highly recommend.

Contacted The Ship to see if they could accommodated a party of 30 for a school reunion and they couldn’t have been more helpful, particularly as I live in London so everything had to be sorted out by email. Prices were reasonable and the food was fantastic. Nothing was too much trouble for them and I can’t recommend them highly enough. This is a great venue and we’ll definitely be going back there for our next get together.

Lovely food and friendly staff. Great service. Thank you

Great food here as usual, friendly staff and reasonably priced. Good selection of drinks.

Just excellent 👌. Service was attentive without leaving you too long or being in your face, food was very very good. Beer selection was a good mix of.local and national. Setting is great. Signage at the front cheapens the place but don't be put off as the interior is very nice. Will be back.

We came here last nite, always a lovely vibe of very mixed ages, and always love that dogs are made so welcome. The food tasted amazing, there was no rush between courses, staff was knowledgeable and friendly, definitely recommend 👌

My wife and I went for the first time on a Monday lunch time and found the place to be immaculate, the staff polite and attentive, and in lovely surroundings. We found it filled up quickly so booking even on a Monday is advisable. At the time of our visit the food was 50% off and I would have happily paid full price. I had a burger (not going to win an award for this but nonetheless very decent for a pub burger) and my wife had fish and chips which she also enjoyed. I would happily cone back again and intend to do so in the future.

Wow what a fantastic foodie pub, A busy hidden gem, we have been to Chester so many times and this has to be the best place for fresh good quality food. A really good menu, almost impossible to pick which starter to have. As there are so many unique suggestions. We will make sure to book again on our next mini holiday to Chester. Relaxed and dog friendly downstairs, but lovely tables and seating. Thank you so much for making our last evening dinner so fabulous.

Great place for a relaxing drink and meal the pies are amazing and tasty. Lovely atmosphere very welcoming staff brilliant friendly and helpful. We had a lovely evening we would recommend to go and try we will be back

We ordered the bacon and cheese burger, and it was very very tasty. The fries were crunchy. The staff was also very nice, making it a pleasant dining experience.

Superb lunch overlooking the river with great service. Definitely worth a visit. Loved it!

Never been here before for a drink but I've walked past it a few times and not been in as you can't see the bar through the window, it looks more like a restaurant. Plenty of room inside, staff were very pleasant and helpful. From what I could see it has a reasonable range of beers and wines There's a large room upstairs and it has a view the park and a small sandstone Roman temple dedicated to Minerva which is worth a look at if you're going there.

Took the family including dogs in for a lunchtime meal, turns out it's 50% off all food on a Monday which was a nice suprise!. Food was excellent and a nice pint of Madri for me . The waitress was lovely and so friendly and helpful. Dogs were very welcome and the staff looked after them too . Highly recommend

Great fish and chips Very tasty beer Nice atmosphere Definitely recommended

Excellent pub in a great location. Staff were really good as well naturally friendly and welcoming

Reserved our table using the pubs own webpage link, just remember to let them know if you are bringing a dog as there are tables not suitable for dog owners, however the manager found us nice table which we were made to feel most grateful for. Anyway onto the food, it was 2pm on a Sunday and obviously we all opted for the Sunday roast beef, which unfortunately was very thickly sliced and very tough plus the vegetables was very undercooked and sadly mainly cold. Shame as the pubs has great but sadly we were all left feeling quite letdown, must try harder .

Excellent service and amazing food! I booked a a large party of 25 people for a celebration. We pre-ordered and the food was absolutely incredible. Service was fantastic, the team are so attentive and make the pre-ordering and organisation really easy. The Ship is a real treasure of Chester, highly recommend. A huge thanks to Grace and Rachel who were brilliant throughout and on the night. We will be back!

Great night, great staff and great food.

Lovely place, great food and service. Very relaxing!

Very good service, very nice food, it is a very good place to eat if you come to Chester

Me and a pal of mine came down from essex, for the weekend, looking for somewhere to go out and eat on a sunday, and we came across this place, we was very happy that we made a good choice in coming here, we ordered a beef roast and it was delicious 😋 👌 😊 so big credit goes to the chef and the management team. Anyone comeing here won't be disappointed.

Upstairs the atmosphere is not good at night. They are some Roman blinds.

Food was delicious, was overcharged when checking the receipt for extra beer & crisps we didn't have but it was amended. Was very noisy more drinking pub atmosphere than nice food atmosphere which is a shame considering the excellent high quality food.

I had a great lunch at The Ship Inn. The spiced cauliflower soup was excellent! It's location made it very convenient as I was doing a self-guided walking tour around Chester.

Excellent little pub serving delicious food and a great selection of drinks. Very dog friendly and lovely staff. Highly recommended.

This has been an excellent pub for years and it still is. However it must be said whatever genuis thought the addition of two massive tellys and piped music has managed to introduce that 'airport waiting lounge' ambience that was so amiss in what was once simply a nice waterfront dog friendly pub with a real fire.

Last experience. Had a chicken burger , ended up on the toilet for about 5 hours. Previously as all Mc Donald's the food especially the chips are cold . I only keep going back as its convenient and a toilet break.

Had a birthday party organised in this place, everyone enjoyed the food and the staff were very helpful. Food is fresh and of high quality.

Excellent. I highly recommend this place. Food was excellent as was the service, in very pleasant surroundings.

Went on short notice for a Sunday afternoon meal (17th Dec). They managed to squeeze us in (phoned to book 2 hours previous). Having never been before I didn't know what to expect, but I'm glad we went. The interior is great, really warm, homely, big log fire keeping out the winter chill. The staff were brilliant, really attentive without any falseness that you get in some places. The food was fantastic. Roast Beef Dinner and a Steak and Ale pie with mash. The roast Beef was well cooked and sliced nice and thick, the Gravy was fantastic and the veg was perfectly cooked, hot and crunchy. The pie (my order) was well filled, the meat was really tasty, and the pastry was great, again, good veg, tasty gravy , and a big helping of lovely fluffy mash. Deserts.... We almost said no as we were quite content after the main. But we folded and ordered Raspberry cheesecake with raspberry ripple and a Sticky Toffee pudding with custard. Both were generous portions and tastes great. Nice hot custard on the sticky Toffee pudding. 👍 All in all, a great meal, would definitely recommend. (Would also recommend booking for a Sunday)

Lovely place for our Xmas meet. Tasty food and great beer

Unfortunately we found dinner at the Ship Inn to be deeply uninspired and disappointing. We dined upstairs, where there was a distinct lack of atmosphere, eating at a badly marked table with noticeable cobwebs and marks on the walls, lights and ceiling. I had the burger and chips. The chips and burger bun, lettuce and bacon were all good. The burger was apparently a 6oz steak burger - this clearly wasn't the case; it tasted identical to an end-of-night burger van burger and was severely disappointing. For £16, this isn't good enough. One of our party had the vegan moussaka and said it was atrocious. The desert was apparently very nice (I didn't have any), but I suspect a microwave was involved (as with the mains I feel). The only highlight was that service was attentive and polite. I wouldn't recommend dining at the Ship Inn - the food just wasn't anywhere near the standard you'd expect for a Saturday evening meal. The Ship has three floors and had 3 wait staff on our floor alone. I recommend that time and money should go into refurbishing and updating the interiors and improving the quality of ingredients. It's in a lovely location with a lot of competition from neighbouring pubs in a beautiful city - it needs to do better.

Great food, lovely atmosphere and very helpful and friendly staff. Highly recommended 👌

Thank you to all at The Ship Inn again for a wonderful Christmas meal experience. The staff are terrific, the communication in advance for our large group was spot on, food and atmosphere great. And a special shout out for barman Rob who sang Happy Birthday to our friend in English and Welsh! A true gent. Highly recommend The Ship Inn and we'll definitely be back!

First time visiting The Ship Inn and it won’t be my last. Great menu choices, friendly and accommodating staff - what more could you ask for. The only reason I haven’t given the food five stars is that my rump steak was a bit chewy. It was cooked to perfection (medium rare) so it could have been the cut of meat itself. However it did mean that almost half of it went home with my friend as a treat for the dogs.

Great service in a smashing old pub

Brilliant night, food excellent, again staff really attentive all evening. Well done Ship Inn for catering for such a big party

Amazing place so cozy and food tasted homemade and fresh.

Fantastic food and staff. Really nice place

We’ve been to The Ship on many occasions; a quick drink, Sunday lunch, a nice dinner. We’ve always loved it, so we decided to host a special occasion for 60 friends and relatives there. It was superb! The beautiful room overlooking Edgar’s Field was the perfect venue, and the food and service were outstanding. No detail was overlooked and we even had our own playlist. I cannot thank Lance and his team enough. Highly recommend.

Great service and vegan options. Dog friendly.

Rump and red Monday is a great deal! Staff were very happy to swap the glass of red for a pint instead. Meat was delicious and cooked to perfection for both the steak and bourguignon! Lovely atmosphere and friendly staff, right over the river from main Chester city so great location away from the city. 2 meaty main meals and 2 pints of bitter came to £55 which is average price these days for 2 meals we find, but definitely not average food.

We enjoyed an amazing family meal at the Ship for our wedding anniversary in the upstairs private dining room. The service and the food were excellent, and a special thanks to Sian who went the extra mile to make sure everything went smoothly on the day. We will definitely be back.

Just try the hostelry yourself. It's good.

Lovely pub. Well furnished and pleasant atmosphere. Staff friendly and helpful.

Lovely pub great food great beer Dog friendly highly recommended

The inn advertises a quiz and dine night with 20% off if you do both. Very false advertising as they limit the number of guests who can quiz and dine. We dined but said we were staying for quiz but no places booked up for weeks was the reply. Very disappointed false advertising should have said booking advised. They get you in for the food which by the way was good but beware you have to pay full price and no quiz. Spoilt our mini break to Chester.

The food was very good as was the price. The service very friendly and helpful. Would go again when next in Chester.

Always pleasant, with decent beer and food.

This is a great pub for families and dog lovers alike. The food is tasty, service is good and the staff are always a delight . As a very regular customer , I can highly recommend.

Smallish local pub, good food and local beers.

The usual warm welcome at The Ship for me and my fellow dog walking friends when we popped in for coffee and lunch. Tasty light bites and good coffee with treats and water for our dogs. Professional and friendly staff.

We come to the Ship on a regular basis and always have a warm and friendly welcome. The Ship is in a great location close to the river and a small park. It has a lovely atmosphere - a very relaxing ambience - and is a great place to come with friends and family. The menu caters to most tastes and the food and service are always excellent . It is our go to pub after a long walk!

Absolutely amazing Sunday Roast, to die for! Fresh, hot food, and plenty of it. Lovely restaurant, we sat upstairs and were lucky enough to have fantastic weather, full length windows rolled back to show beautiful views over the park and river. Live,y staff, very helpful and nothing too much trouble.

Lovely pub with great pub food.

Excellent everything was very good would definitely go there Again and will do 😄

Great place with friendly staff and atmosphere

Manager ignorant and arrogant YUK atmosphere unpleasant place to frequent Manager happy to have the place full of smelly barking dogs/ Definitely anti children 👦 Dog peed up a cosy chair the place resembled a vets waiting room than a pub!! If you are prepared to sit amongst barking of dogs hostile environment - This is the place for you. Would rather have beans on toast at home.

Wow, what a disappointment our recent visit was. Haven't been in a year and honestly, it has gone downhill, in my opinion. Yes it could have been an off day for them but from the experience we won't be returning. Food was diabolical. Both of our meals. Standards have gone down. Quality of food and flavours. First time sitting upstairs too and there were a fair few vacant tables. As soon as we had our drinks brought to us, staff needed to arrange our table, moving it to fit a family of six next to us. We had picked to come here not just for the lovely food experiences i had previous but because it was quieter than a lot of places around town being a Saturday afternoon. I would have rather moved away altogether rather than re arranged next to them. We were asked every couple of minutes if we had decided what to order. Each time i explained we needed longer. I eventually said I would let them know once we had decided. We took so long because the menu options were poor. Also, for two starters and two soft drinks coming to £25 and for what it was...ridiculous! The Ship Inn is no longer a recommendation of mine.

Tried to book on the off chance on a Sunday lunchtime. They were really accommodating and honest, about the availability, and got us in. Service was rapid. Food was solidly good. Sunday lunch was generous and the steak pie was generous. Plus it's dog friendly. Clearly a popular weekend lunch spot as there was only 1 table slot available after ours

Lovely dog friendly pub. Food was very good and not too expensive. Staff were friendly and attentive to us as diners and our 🐕

Visited on a race day, and even though the restaurant was busy, the service was outstanding. Food was fresh, plentiful and tasty. A good menu with plenty of options for vegans. Would visit again

A really convenient place for my 92 year old friend to meet her other two friends. The young staff were attentive, polite, courteous and friendly. Thank you very much. Would recommend although the food is a bit on the pricey side for what it is, hence loosing a star.

Good selection of beers here and the food is great. Feels like a bistro pub and gets busy with a good atmosphere.

Beautiful place, ambience and the food is good

Beautiful restaurant, with fabulous 1st floor setting with open windows which were a blessing on hot evening. Staff friendly and welcoming. The menu was so delicious that it was a tough choice. All the food was lovely. Slightly disappointed at value for money for my steak & onion ciabatta at £16; not worth that money, though tasty.

Amazing pub, food was really good and tasty ,) service was great. Cosy atmosphere,

Good food, good range of ales and warm, friendly service. Not the cheapest place to eat, but worth it.

Came for lunch after dog walk along the river. Food was really good service really good as well.

Excellent food and equally good service

Great pub but don't bother with the disappointing overpriced food. Great location, interior and park out side for families.

What a lovely place, lovely staff, amazing atmosphere. Just perfect! Highly recommended. You won’t be disappointed!

Pre booked a table. I didn't have a starter but my partner had thewikd garlic mushrooms served on ciabatta bread, however, her idea of the dish was the dish served on crispy crusty bread. She was disappointed as the sauce had made the bread moist and not crisp. My main was the Vegan Moussaka which was OK not a particularly large portion served with flatbread and a small bit of salad..disappointed. My partner had the steak and ale pie with chips, again disappointed with the chips which she said had a funny taste?? Overall a disappointing visit to the Shop Inn. Service was good and prices now average for restaurants. Would we return, probably not...sorry.