Simon Wood closes Wood Chester to focus on a tasting menu format

The chef says he is changing the focus of his food offer, moving to a set tasting menu format alongside a three-course A Taste of Wood menu, and that this means it is now moving in the wrong direction for what the hotel restaurant should be.

“We have made the decision to change the focus of what we offer at Wood and in Manchester we are adapting to cope with changes forced on us by the COVID-19 pandemic whilst also refining the dining experience to offer our guests the very best of my food,” Woods said in a statement.

“This means that we are stripping the menu back to focus on my five seven and ten course tasting menu alongside a three-course, fixed priced A Taste of Wood menu. This has meant that the restaurant in Chester doesn’t quite fit into this plan anymore.”

“The operating restrictions have meant that a different, mote casual offering is more suited to the hotel and that as we take our brand in the opposite direction, we have taken the decision to step away from Hotel Indigo Chester.”

“It has been a great experience, we loved getting to know the city and working with the team at Castlebridge who own and manage the hotel – but in what has been an extremely tough time, we have all had to make the right commercial decisions.”

Wood Chester opened in June 2019.

Wood Manchester will reopen on 10 July moving away from a la carte and instead serving the new five, seven and 10-course tasting menus along with a fixed priced A Taste of Wood menu offering an choice of three starters, three mains and three desserts.

Woods also operates Woodkraft restaurant in Cheltenham,​​ which launched in 2018 and which is due to reopen on 4 July.