Linden Stores – A fabulous Foodie Find #Blog

Victoria Hayes
15th February 2022

You would be forgiven if you weren’t exactly sure where Audlem is. You would also be forgiven if you knew Audlem, but had not yet spotted Linden Stores. It’s unassuming frontage and relatively recent arrival on the Cheshire Food scene are currently guilty of hiding a real foodie gem. 

UNCOVER IT IMMEDIATELY.

Nestled between Nantwich, Crewe and a stone’s throw from the Shropshire border, Audlem is best known for it’s location on the canal but it should be best known as the home of Linden Stores.

Linden Stores is the passion project of husband and wife owners, Laura Christie and Chris Boustead.

Laura (Front of house) and Chris (Head Chef) met in 2011 in London, where they worked for some of the most exciting restaurants in the capital and opened the original Linden Stores in Islington in 2017. They have since moved to Cheshire with their son and some time assistant Ollie and taken Linden Stores with them, opening in the beautiful village of Audlem, November of last year.

It’s a wonderful hybrid creation of wine shop/village store, restaurant and neighbourhood hang out.

The intimate atmosphere is cosy and welcoming, we are offered water and places to hang out coats which leaves the impression of visiting a friends house and is instantly puts you at ease.

Our server asked if we’d been before and explained both the menu and the wine list to us. The dishes on the menu are all small plates designed to be shared and they recommend that you order 2/3 each. Dishes come out as and when they are ready, rather than all at once. 

Let’s take a moment to talk about our server at this point. Service in a restaurant is the deal breaker. You can have the most wonderful food, but you always remember if the service was rubbish. In this case, we were blown away. Not only was Christine chatty, welcoming, and hilarious. Her knowledge of the dishes and wines on the list was almost hypnotising. We trusted her completely to select for us, taking into account our likes and dislikes, allergies etc. By the end of our first conversation, we already felt like we had made a new friend. She was ably assisted by Alice, who was clearly in a great mood and loving her job.

The wine list is extensive and fascinating, this is no bog standard list. The choices are thoughtful, different wines and if you are keen to gather more wine knowledge as  I always am, this is a great place to try something new. Laura, the owner also runs wine tasting evenings at Linden Stores and I would lay money that they are wonderful.

And so, on to the food. The star of this show is…sauces.

Every dish looks lovely, features wonderful local British produce  and they are clearly all well thought out, but what elevates every plate is the fantastic sauce.

Tell us a more comforting mouthful than bubble and squeak croquettes with Bovril mayo on a grey and rainy evening. Bovril mayo. It’s genius, unctuous, earthy and we could eats a bucketful. The croquettes are crunchy on the outside, soft and delicious inside.  You could just pop in and have these as a snack, if you are feeling low…these will lift your mood. 

We also had the rich, smooth whipped chicken liver parfait, served on crisp, salty crostini and topped with pickled Shropshire apple. The fresh acidity of the apple cut through the rich pate and made this a mouthful of bliss.

The beetroot cured rainbow trout comes with a horseradish crème fraiche, which is to die for. This dish has a light hand at work, each flavour is balanced beautifully. fresh and gorgeous with a glass of Eschenhof Holzer Organic  Wagram Grüner Veltliner. This wine was available by the carafe while we were there (most wines are by the bottle only, a select few are available by the glass or carafe). The beautiful colours in this dish from the trout, to the vibrant beetroot, were complemented with a drizzle of bright green basil oil. Not too much, just the right amount.

In complete contrast to the trout, but firmly in the divine comfort food column, the Roasted Cauliflower, Cornish Quartz with truffle crumb. Well, what is there to say? If cauliflower cheese had a handsome older sibling, this would be it. Creamy, is the word. We were definitely fighting over, not sharing this plate.

Finally on the savoury side, a plate so pretty we almost didn’t want to eat it. Partridge breasts, cooked to perfection, on top of smooth, silky butternut squash puree with rainbow chard and decorated with blackberries.

Yet another heavenly sauce, and the urge once again to lick the plate was strong. Sadly my mother taught me better than that, but it didn’t stop us swiping up extra licks of sauce with our fingers and oooo ing and ahhh ing to each other.

Along side we had a bowl of fried and smoked spuds. Crispy, moreish and with a deep smokey flavour, we forced ourselves to finish the bowl despite feeling totally full. Some things, should not be wasted!

Now, as everyone knows. Real foodies, do have a second “dessert” stomach, and there was no way we could leave without trying a sweet! We did toy with the idea of the cheese board but in the end it absolutely had to be…

Yorkshire parkin, butterscotch sauce, rhubarb and ginger liqueur ice cream. 

Highlighting the Chef, Chris’s Yorkshire roots, this dessert was phenomenal. All the flavours hitting the right notes in the mouth, sweet but not cloying, just the perfect end to a seriously delicious dinner.

All the wine is available to take away, pop in for a seriously good bottle. I couldn’t resist nabbing a bottle of our Grüner Veltliner to take home. Incredibly reasonably priced and guaranteed not to last long in my house!

If this were on my doorstep, I would be an absolute regular and I’m sure it would be my home from home. But, I would also say, it doesn’t matter where you are. This place is worth the drive, we promise.

For more info about Linden Stores, check out their members page on our website, you’ll find all their contact details etc on there. You’ll also find a little reel on our Instagram of our night at Linden Stores.

Our food and drinks were a kind gift from Linden Stores, however all the opinions in this piece are ours and ours alone. We stand by what we write, so if you don’t believe us, or even if you do, go and try it out for yourselves!