The Cavern of the Curious Gnome, Chester

Not easy to find,head up the steps to the gallery level Paysan wine bar,enter then go up their stairs to the pub section set in a baronial hall type room with a very high ceiling.Bar stools are of mushroom design and the large model of the Gnome has an illuminated critique of Putin !The vibe is Belgian beer house and there is a rank of church pew benches opposite the long bar.High on the wall is the beer and ale list ,which looks permanent but maybe can be cleverly altered as bews change. Rock soundtrack but not too loud,juke box which is tempermental,candles give atmosphere and if you order a Belgium beer with a rare and expensive glass from the locked cabinet you will be asked to deposit a shoe in a wicker basket which is then hoist up to the celing to stop you doing a runner with the glass.All very Ghent ! On my trip the ale selection Was Twisted Wheel No Mikey No Chocolate Milk Stout (NBSS 4),Ossett White Rat,Chapter Taller than a House and Buxton SPA.There are 13 kegs beers,mainly Belgian and continental and a vast bottle menu of over 100,the trappist selection was not quite Bruges standard but interesting.Downstairs the Paysan wine list is also very strong. Most likely a haunt of the craft keg brigade but the ale selection was strong enough to both justify the 2023 GBG listed and lead me to conclude this is a must visit when in Chester,dont miss out.

Visited on a recent Saturday evening. 4 cask + 14 keg beers to choose from. The beer list is projected onto a wall behind the bar so nice and easy to see. There are games available on the windowsill. Very busy at the time of our visit but no issues getting served and we managed to find a corner to loiter in with our drinks. Once you realise that access is through Paysan then no issues finding the place, though it did confuse me when I was first having a mooch round Chester a few years ago trying to find it! There is a large gnome keeping a watchful eye over the bar, and I do wonder whether the gnome came first and that's how the place got its name, or whether the name came first and the gnome was a later purchase to continue the theme! Toadstool type stools at the bar, as others have observed in previous reviews. I like this place and would be happy to return.

a CAMRA man’s dream above a rubbish wine bar - it is indeed a nightmare to find if you haven’t been before. Four real ales were Titanic Cappuccino Stout. Beatnikz Republic 2am Poet, Oakham Citra and Anarchy Brew Co Invaders Dream (very nice). Shitloads of foreign bottles catalogued in their beer menu from countries including Austria, Norway and three pages of Belgium. i propped up the bar on a toadstool and quite took to this place despite my initial reservations about the name sounding like a terrible prog rock album.