The Old Sessions House

Booked this place for my partners pre birthday lunch and we weren’t disappointed.
We all went for the 2 course Sunday lunch which was nice without being spectacular. The service though was absolutely first class. Attentive without being intrusive, took my friends plate back to the kitchen when she saw he was feeding his baby and then brought out a freshly plated dinner when she saw he had finished — superb!
Very reasonably priced too. Will be back…

We went here with some friends on New Years Eve and all the meals were great. I wasn’t super hungry and so only ordered the mushroom appetizer (but got to try some of the dishes the rest of the group ordered). The mushrooms were very flavourful and the fish & chips I got to try were also very good.
I wish I had known about the «Chancellor» which is a roast prime rib & veggies for 4 people that you have to order 24hrs in advance. We were sat at the table right by the kitchen and so I got to see this dish sent out — it looked amazing and I would for sure head back here to try that next time.
Service was very good and the prices are fair for the quality of the food.

A visit to The Old Sessions House was the perfect end to a lovely Sunday in Knutsford.
Live music was playing throughout the pub when I entered which was a brilliant touch. The staff were very friendly and inviting and found us a table straight away on what was a very busy Sunday evening.
I instantly recognised the menu here as being very similar to that at Beef & Pudding in Manchester — and as part of New Moon Pub chain I knew it wouldn’t disappoint.
We were in the mood for some real home cooking so opted for comfort food — two cottage pies with crunchy red cabbage, cooked in the pan, just lovely. I even had room for a sticky toffee pudding which was warm and gooey. My absolute favourite!
This place does feel like a home away from home. Definitely go if you’re in the area.

Four friends and I booked in for a Tuesday night catch up.
On arrival, having not seen my friends for months, we chose to have a drink in the bar area and catch up a little before moving to our table for a meal.
I queued at the bar for ages! Admittedly, the guy manning the bar was incredible — he was doing 4 things at once and desperately trying to serve the queue of thirsty, impatient punters. I know he was run off his feet, but the wait was unacceptable. The cocktails we ordered were extremely watery and didn’t taste like they had a drop of alcohol in them — perhaps it was forgotten in the panic.
We were shown to our table. It was at least 20 mins before anyone came over to take a drinks order. And even longer before we were asked for our food choices. By this point we were all starving!
The food eventually arrived. The risotto was mushy, there was hardly any vegetables in it. It was also very salty, meaning we got thirsty again, meaning another wait to order a drink. The pies arrived on a plank with the accompanying potato and veg in separate dishes — my pie-​eating friends asked for plates to tip their pie, mash and veg onto so they could enjoy the flavours together, rather than awkwardly dipping into each dish.
On a positive note — the space is great, especially the table opposite the kitchen. It’s a light and airy space with quite a comfy booth. You can see the excitement of the kitchen and still feel part of the lively restaurant and bar.
Despite the surroundings, it’s all about the food and the service for me. This visit left me disappointed. Hoping the next one will be better.

Finding ourselves in Knutsford a few weeks ago after an impromptu trip to Tatton Park, my husband, daughter and I found ourselves hungry and with no plans for lunch.
After a stroll around town my eagle eyes spotted The Old Sessions House and remembered that it’s part of the same group that has Beef and Pudding in Manchester City centre, somewhere I still wanted to visit. My husband had been the week before and wasn’t smitten but we thought it’d be good to give another of their places a try.
Old Sessions House is very much a restaurant pub rather than a boozy pub, with the majority of the space set up for dining. As such, the menu is much more refined than your average pub grub, although some of the classics like pie and fish and chips do still appear. If you’re there at lunchtime as we were, they have both the main menu and a lighter lunch menu consisting of sandwiches and wraps etc.
As it was lunchtime I fancied something pretty light so went with the gunpowder rubbed smoked salmon with buttermilk soda bread from the starter menu as our waiter had said it was a pretty good portion. No kidding, for a starter it was extremely generous and there was the perfect ratio of bread to smoked salmon. The salmon had been cured beautifully and wasn’t overly smoked, with the chilli, cumin and black pepper rub giving a subtle but delicious extra dimension to the dish. The bread was really fresh but seemed to be a fairly ordinary style, rather than the advertised soda bread which I expected to be slightly more substantial and with that much needed crispy crust to balance against the silky salmon. Still tasted good though.
The waiter that looked after us was absolutely great and had a very natural ease and friendliness about him, doing a great job of checking everything was ok without being too intrusive. Staff were also more than happy to provide everything we needed for our baby daughter and catered accordingly.
If I happen to be in Knutsford again any time soon I’d happily return.

I’ve got to say that I do like a day out in Knutsford! This leafy bit of Cheshire paradise has a great feel to it and you can tell it’s fairly upmarket in terms of their day to day shopping options — even all the charity shops are like boutique shopping experiences with quality used goods you actually want to buy!
I was impressed to see a branch of Mughli in town but we were on the hunt for something a little more «traditional pub lunch» and went for the Old Sessions House. My always knowledgable foodie wife informed that it was run by the owners of Beef and Pudding (new moon pub co) in the city centre and thinking I’d already been there 3 days earlier then why not check this place out and start to get part of the full set!
Overall it’s probably ideal for the area, very upmarkety pub with a price to match. It reminded me of the bars and pubs in Alderley Edge where everything is made to look old but is actually pretty new — they could do with a good 50 years of settling to make it truly authentic but this is a personal feeling on the ambience.
Overall the menu was a good mix of pub lunch classics, with a larger main menu of which I ordered the burger and chips (£12.50 with cheese). Overall it was ok although the advertised brioche bun seemed to be substituted for a bap from the supermarket across the road. When I asked to have my burger cooked medium I did get a bit of a (friendly) lecture off the waiter about hygiene and safety of not having my meat cooked all the way through… no wonder a lot of my dining companions at B&P last week thought their burgers were absolutely hammered as must be a company wide thing — hope they don’t get to any of the decent city centre burger joints anytime soon… The chips were good though.
Overall it was a nice place to stop off for an hour and enjoy some lunch but (like the places in Alderley Edge and Spinningfields) it’s not the sort of place I’d be wanting to eat in regularly as it’s all a bit try too hard and not executing anything massively special.
*Like beef and pudding — they also do ‘dirty Thursdays’ gourmet junk food night*