Linden Stores Review

Opened in November 2023 in the popular Cheshire town of Knutsford, Linden Stores is a restaurant and wine bar, promising seasonal British food and exciting wines. Now in its third iteration, following previous stints in Audlem and Islington, the restaurant was awarded its first AA rosette in March 2025 (and therefore a listing on this very website). I was consequently feeling optimistic about my chances of seeing some good cooking on show, as I rocked up for lunch with my wife on a cold but pleasant October Friday.

There's naturally no dedicated parking here given the town centre location, but we parked at the Tatton Street pay and display car park, which is a three minute walk away, and pretty cheap as an added bonus (£1.60 for three hours). The welcome on arrival was perfectly warm and we were shown to our table in the downstairs area of the restaurant (the kitchen and a few more tables are situated upstairs).

The restaurant has a fairly rustic air with plenty of wood on show (and plastic plants), but there's an abundance of light coming in and I really liked the feel of the place. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the table size which was pretty small, particularly given the sharing plates concept here. That said, we weren't crammed in like sardines by any means and there's plenty of space between the tables.

On offer at lunch is a carte menu based around various snacks and sharing plates, and also a tasting menu consisting of a selection of dishes from the carte, which we opted for. Drinks wise, the wine list is interesting and there's a decent range of cocktails and other drinks too.

The non-alcoholic selection isn't massive; my wife tried the two mocktails on the menu and didn't enjoy the first (an apple bellini which was full of sediment) but did enjoy the second (an orange and fig spritz), although the restaurant only charged us for one of them fortunately. I didn't have anything pre-meal and just stuck with the wine flight.

Lunch began with the first two courses listed on the tasting menu; house focaccia with chicken skin butter, and a sharing plate of cured coppa meat with quince, parsnip crips and a cheesy sauce. I love good focaccia but the bread in truth wasn't great; it had been warmed up but didn't taste like it was baked fresh for that service, with both the texture and flavour being below par for me. The coppa was nice though, with the accompanying quince and cheese sauce making it an uncomplicated but tasty plate.

Next up was a butternut squash and Yorkshire blue cheese croquette each. Croquettes regularly appear on sharing menus, but this was genuinely one of the tastiest I've had for a while with a lovely deep cheese flavour, and the accompanying roasted garlic aioli was an added bonus.

We then moved to a fish course of trout en papillote served between the two of us, sat atop some samphire, leeks and sweetcorn and accompanied by a beurre blanc sauce. This was another decent dish; the fish cookery was solid and it was a tasty plate. Last of the savoury courses was duck leg served with turnip, beetroot and a star anis jus. A duck leg isn't an ideal choice for me for a sharing dish (it's kind of hard to split the meat evenly), but again the cooking was good and overall I enjoyed the dish.

The last course was a dessert of Yorkshire parkin, dulce de leche ice cream and a butterscotch sauce. This was nice enough, I wasn't blown away by the parkin (it's a tough thing to elevate) but the ice cream and sauce were pleasant. If you fancy something less sweet, there's also the option to take cheese for the final course at an additional supplement.

To finish we had a couple of good cappuccinos which were accompanied by a piece each of tasty chocolate and orange fudge, bringing an enjoyable lunch to an end. Overall we did enjoy the food, there were no major issues with any of the courses and the cooking was competent throughout. But, in truth, I was hoping for a bit more excitement on at least one or two of the dishes; there's nothing we ate that I'll still remember in a couple of weeks.

Service throughout was good, we were well looked after by our waitress and the wine flight was interesting too with some really varied wines from across the world. None of the wines were poured at the table which is understandable in this kind of venue; our waitress did her best to explain each one but if I could offer a quick and easy tip, it's always worth showing the customer the bottle as part of that explanation (I didn't see the bottle for any of the wines).

Pricing wise, I did think the bill (complete with an unrequested "optional" charity donation and 12.5% service charge) was pretty punchy for the level of food received, and that would go some way to explaining why there were only three tables in for lunch, although I'm sure it's busier in the evenings.

Overall, this was a perfectly enjoyable albeit uneventful lunch. I wish the team all the best moving forwards and although there wasn't quite enough to tempt me in to rushing back any time soon, I'd have no objection to eating here again in future.