The Cross Keys

Walk into The Cross Keys and you'll immediately clock why this Duke Street stalwart has pulled in 550-odd reviews. There's something refreshingly unpretentious about it—no craft cocktail menu trying too hard, no Instagram bait. Instead, you get honest pub fare, real ales that rotate properly, and a room full of people who've been coming here for years. The kind of place where the bar staff remember your order and the atmosphere shifts from post-work wind-down to genuinely buzzy come evening. It's got that Chester charm without any of the tourist theatre you'd find nearer the Rows.