The Oakfield

We heard so many good reviews about this place that we have now visited twice in about a month and a half!! The food is so nice and i see why people have given it good reviews. Social distancing is really good in here they have organised themselves very well. Nothing is rushed, staff are really friendly and nothing is too much trouble. We certainly will be going back!! I recommend the raspberry chocolate torte, it is so yummy!!! 😋😋

+3

A beautiful pub, located inside the Chester Zoo. Friendly service, kid friendly and tasty food. The best option for a light bite, drink or proper lunch when visiting the Zoo.

Service was great. Such a cute little restaurant at the zoo. Food was fabulous great fish and chips. My only criticism was that you couldn’t add chicken to the Thai green curry even tho it was options on other dishes.

Mine and my wife's 1st year wedding anniversary today 25-04-25, when I booked the table I told them we got married here a year ago, when we arrived we got a complimentary glass of champagne each and a lovely card. We also got a lovely plate of the team congratulating us. Wonderful team, definitely making this a yearly anniversary for us. Thank you. Also food was amazing, cooked to perfection and hostess was fantastic and everyone made us feel 🤗 very welcome

Great food, great service, quick. Home made curry was so good. Would recommend if you're wanting a nice meal for reasonable prices. Portions were massive and very accessible and baby friendly.

Lovely food at a decent price. If you are a zoo member you get a discount. Nice warm surroundings with great decor. Staff are nice and friendly and service is a good speed. We've eaten here a few times and never been disappointed.

+2

Upon organising a trip to Chester Zoo for my wife's birthday I booked us a table at the Oakfield. On arrival we were met by staff member Jamie who presented us to our table straight away and surprised us with complimentary champagne. We were also delighted to find out her desert was also on the house. He asked if we had any allergies or food preferences. Being Vegan he presented me with a vegan menu which had many options for me to pick from. The food was amazing, which is more than we expected from a zoo restaurant and the experience definitely made my wife's birthday extra special. A great addition to the zoo. 10/10 would highly recommend planning into your visit to the zoo.

+1

I booked this restaurant to ensure I had somewhere to eat whilst visiting the zoo. After asking staff for directions I eventually found it. It is an amazing looking restaurant. Due to my dietary requirements I opted for the North Sea Haddock and Chips. I don't eat mushy peas and was offered an alternative in the form of garden peas. The fish and chips in my opinion were amazing. One of the best that I've had. Staff were super friendly. Would definitely come here again and highly recommend.

A beautiful, old school, red brick pub/restaurant inside a zoo! What's not to like! Super friendly staff, fabulous food and we sat in front of the open fire before we ate! Definitely worth a visit whether you are at the zoo or not, as there is separate access!

Was expecting a bustling, overpriced tourist trap and half prepared to walk the 30 minutes to a pub in Upton. However, despite not having the draught lager I fancied, very pleasant and tasty food, especially the deep fried Brie.

Gorgeous. You can feel the history here. The Zoos story is just magical. The photos in side show some soecial memories and moments in time

+2

Wonderful meal with friendly waiter. Lovely and clean with tables well spaced. Very quiet a relaxing. The food was well cooked. Good value not too expensive. Toilets were amazing and beautiful. Well decorated restaurant which was a good place to relax and sit down and hide from the rain.

Really enjoyed our meal. The food was excellent and the service was friendly. The building itself is extremely beautiful especially when decorated for Christmas. My only slight critism/suggestion would be to put a bit of background music on throughout the building, it sounded like a good atmosphere in the conservatory but it was a bit hushed where I was sat (room with enormous fireplace) felt a bit like a library.

Absolutely amazing food and ambience, definitely the best food in the zoo! The haddock and sweet corn soup was so filling and tasty and the toad in the hole was just fantastic. Definitely will be going back.

Just had a lovely meal at the Oakfield. The atmosphere is relaxed and I love the decorations! They are socially distancing well too. My partner and I are vegan and enjoyed the options. It was all delicious! Will be coming again.

An afternoon tea with my son, daughter in law and granddaughter - this was a belated Christmas present from them. What a lovely surprise to find such an excellent place to eat - the interior and decor are lovely, toilets spotless. The Oakfield is clearly very well organised and cared for. Service spot on - from the moment we arrived nothing was too much trouble. Afternoon tea was excellent - and our waitress would have brought more food and drinks had we asked - but we had more than enough. Delightful experience - so nice to see such high standards.

Lovely staff, lovely food. My Son took me for an afternoon tea. The egg and coronation brioche buns were the best. All the cakes tasted amazing! I need to go back!

Yet another visit to the restaurant,food was excellent as usual ,only difference was it was a fixed menu due to being half term,I had crispy duck salad followed by beef roast,both very tasty especially the gravy ,our server was excellent.Another great day at Chester zoo ,The Oakfield restaurant didn't disappoint,Sunday roast was excellent.Very nice building ,food was very tasty lots of gravy , service was excellent,local chester gin .They have a reduced menu on Sunday also they don't serve custard with any deserts which meant no desert

Cosy (despite the size) new gastropub at the zoo with a great menu, well executed. Really enjoyed the pulled venison wrapped in cabbage leaf. Staff very friendly and helpful in dealing with some dietary restrictions in our group.

I am in awe of this place !! Such a beautiful building to start with, we sat in the Library Room, amazing fire place, clean, and well decorated! From service to food the whole thing is 5*. Best food I've ever eaten. Let alone in the middle of a zoo! The Curry was absolutely divine, and my pudding (Cambridge Burnt Cream Shortbread) made to perfection!! Top compliments to the chief and kitchen staff. The waiting staff were all amazing , very polite and so helpful with any questions we had. I would definitely recommend to add this place to you list of things to do at the zoo.

A great day out for all the family and would recommend my only negative was some of the animals we could not see. but I cant blame to zoo for that is suspect the weather was a little cold and some of the animals stayed inside. But we still had fun.

We visited The Oakfield on a last minute decision on Tuesday. They had a Wedding on and were very busy, but Magda managed to squeeze us a table in. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was nice. Lovely place if you're wanting a sit down meal, rather than fast food. Magda was very attentive to us, and even though we could see she was very busy, she did everything with a smile on her face.

Great food, great service loved it for our little boys first birthday

First time here. Excellent food. The staff are brilliant so helpful and friendly. Highly recommended but you may need to book at busy times...we didn't but was still able to be accommodated.

Gorgeous afternoon tea in a great atmosphere and Mark who looked after us was brilliant! Such a good price for afternoon tea where the drinks are unlimited and you can order extra sandwiches. They cater for allergies too.

Always go here when at Chester zoo. Fish and chips are bang on! Lovely period interior with fascinating pictures on the walls . Nice discount with the pass too!

Had a lovely time visiting the Oakfield. Decided to stop here for a coffee and bite to eat. We were served by Rose who was friendly and very attentive, would come back again :)

Twenty pounds per person for a group of 10 with Chester zoo member discount. Some meals were very good: seared sea bream with chorizo cassoulet, slow cooked beef, burger and nice fries. Others were fine but not in the same league: the chicken and ham pie was salty and the sweat potato and chickpea spiced stew. Lovely location and service was good but slow

I've been twice. The first time the service was really good, the food excellent and the atmosphere nice. The second time the service was very poor. 40 minutes for the drinks to arrive after asking twice. Food was 45-50 minutes (we were told 30 minute for food). Food was good though. Both times we've visited have been for lunch and it wasn't that busy.

The food was tasty but cold and portion sizes were pretty small however it was quite flavorful. Being the only real restaurant in a tourist area I expected it to be a little nicer and little pricier but for what it was it was pretty expensive. However; the atmosphere was amazing the service was beautiful and friendly and we came to celebrate our 2 year anniversary together and I told them my partners favorite animal was a bat so they brought out a mini Swiss roll with a bat drawn in chocolate! As pictured below. Which really just made the day way better! Beautiful location and truly amazing staff unfortunately the food was just lacking a bit. Thank you

Very nice building, big food portions.

Lovely venue. Attentive, friendly staff. Good food and selection of drinks.

Been here a few times during my visits to the Zoo and love it every time. Food is great every time as is the service. The ambience is usually good. But the MVP is the surroundings. I love the history of the place and the building itself is fantastic.

It was a really nice meal and lovely staff however the steak Ciabatta was a rip off; 4 tiny bits of steak is ridiculous for £18. The fish and chips was great for the price though. I would go back however just be more careful with food choice, also alot more 'regular' priced if you have membership

We dined here mid week & the place is very nice. The food was reasonably good but the service wasn't the best. We had to ask for menus & the servers were pretty slow/unattentive even though it wasn't particularly busy.

Food was decent, location is nice, took us ages to get served though

You absolutely need to reserve a table for The Oakfield, and upon arrival, you can see why. The building and its location within the zoo are stunning and promise a real treat. Sadly, the promise of the setting wasn't met by the experience. The food itself was fine – there was nothing to complain about, but it wasn't memorable or special either. It did the job, but didn't feel like it matched the grandeur of the surroundings. The most disappointing aspect by far was the service, which was severely lacking. Despite seeing at least four staff members on the floor, they seemed completely inattentive and disorganised. Our main courses were brought to the table before our drinks had even arrived, and we had to prompt the server to bring them over. When it came to ordering pudding, we were simply ignored. The staff avoided eye contact, seeming preoccupied with polishing cutlery and talking amongst themselves. It felt like we were an inconvenience. Overall, the impression was of a young and inexperienced team with no real focus on service delivery, which resulted in a thoroughly lacklustre and frustrating meal.

The food was good, the young staff who served us on the night were hardworking, however a well planned special occasion was not the event it should have been. Despite numerous planning visits in advance we were treated as if we had just turned up on the night and seated in a cold corner of the conservatory with none of the beautiful decor and ambience of the dining room as planned and promised. We were told nothing could be done to rectify the mistake or personalise an apology to the person celebrating a special occasion with members of their wide family. Based on comments in one of the earlier reviews re the venue cancelling a birthday event for other customers I would recommend careful consideration as to whether this venue can deliver on the commitments it makes.

We ate at The Oakfield today, as a birthday treat for me. Initially the staff were very accommodating, seating us by windows in the conservatory, getting a high chair quickly for our son and taking his order first. My son’s food came quickly. Everything after that was pretty poor. Our drinks, ordered within 5 minutes of us being there, took 25 minutes to arrive. They were only brought when the waiter came to take our menus away - even though he’d not taken our food order - and we prompted him that we’d not ordered food or had our drinks. He apologised and said they were short staffed - at the time there was only 3 other tables dining. Our orders were taken and my husband was told they didn’t have what he’d ordered (a vegetarian burger). He instead chose the vegetarian version of a Caesar salad that was on the menu. This turned up with anchovies on it. Now I know that’s standard in a Caesar salad but my husband had explained he was vegetarian and the server had assured him it was a suitable option for him. He was then told to pick something else and told there was only 1 option by the waiter. He waited a further 15 minutes - we had been there an hour at this point. From the point of ordering our food to it arriving, my son’s empty plate had also sat on the table, stacked and clearly not being used. This remained on the table for the duration, despite 4 staff coming over at different times. When my food arrived I ordered us more drinks. These hadn’t come by the time my husband’s food arrived. He then asked about them. A further 20 minutes passed, so I went in to see what had happened. The drinks were never put through. After an hour and a half, and having had our order messed up 3 times. We asked for the bill. They did give us 10% discount and took the drinks off the bill. But this almost didn’t feel adequate given the poor service, which really didn’t seem warranted for the “busy” atmosphere. I’d really looked forward to today, and sadly I would think twice about taking an hour and a half out of my zoo trip to visit again. I certainly wouldn’t jump to recommend.

Avoid if you have food allergies! We were asked as we were seated whether we had any food allergies. We told the man that both our daughters had allergies. He asked whether we had EpiPens in case of an emergency. This should have been our warning! We were given the allergy book which we checked for both of the girls meals. When our order was taken, we were again asked about allergies. We gave the girls four allergies- child 1 egg and dairy child 2 cashew and pistachio nuts. Not feeling confident in the milk and egg allergy for any of the meals listed on the menu, she ended up eating hummus and flat breads. Service was extremely slow. 40 minutes for food to arrive (hummus and flatbreads, no cooking. Pesto and veg gnocchi- quick. Two burgers, 1 adult, 1 child- quick). When other tables around us who arrived after us began getting their food (about 30 minutes after we ordered), my husband politely queried it. We were told our food would be out soon. I said not a problem, our food was probably being cooked separately due to allergies and we were told no that wouldn’t be the reason, that they couldn’t accommodate this in such a large kitchen. When our food eventually arrived, it was decent, nothing special. Quite disappointing as we had booked this as a treat for our anniversary and based on the good reviews. Then the bill arrived, it said peanuts for our daughter instead of cashew and pistachio. We queried this and were told it was just to alert the kitchen of an allergy. I said that this was pointless as she was fine with peanuts as tree nut allergy is completely different to peanut allergy. My husband queried whether her meal could have contained her allergens to which we were told that was our responsibility as we were given the allergy book. Somewhat ruined the rest of our day watching for potential reactions and certainly upset our 5 year old who kept telling us that she had a pain in her tummy which we had to insist was fine to avoid her becoming overly anxious.