The food is good, if a bit of a limited samey menu. The service is mostly good. I have eaten there many times. not somewhere I would go again for a big celebration, but as a monthly meal out in the middle of town it is good.

Good food, and the fixed price menu offers better value. Make sure you book to avoid getting sent off with a flea in your ear (even though there appeared to be empty tables?). Sarcastic host who is not very welcoming offset by attractive and friendly other staff. Recommended.

This isoneof those restaurants when every plate goes back clean. Atmosphere was cost and staff well trained. Only criticism it's a little crampted. Well worth a visit

Have been here many times over the last few years and it has been consistently good. The decoration is very cosy especially in winter

Turned up on spec at the Golden Cross on a Saturday evening. We were asked if we had booked but they still managed to fit us in.
After reading the menu we settled on the chicken kiev from the specials board which was very nice - this was served with chips and salad. The garlic was very subtle & not overpowering.We didnt bother with starters or desserts & we satisfied afterwards.
The Meal with a bottle of wine came to about £47.Maybe the decor is a little "quirky" as a few people have already said but i dont think thats anything to complain about.
If i was being extra picky i would say my girlfriend struggled reading the menu but another diner passed over a pair of reading glasses & she was sorted out - lol
I would go back again next time im there

Excellent food and service; the best we had on holiday in Shrewsbury. Very quirky decor, eclectic to say the least!

We managed to get a table for a Sunday night when they had a fixed price, three course menu. The food was great - plenty of choice and well cooked and presented and it was excellent value. The service was really good and the atmosphere great. The decor is quite quirky but really works and lends to the great atmosphere.

Read the reviews and picked this place for my family to visit,the food was really good,nothing left on anyone's plate! I would advise you to book as the restaurant got really busy and people were turned away! Definitely worth a visit! Not ideal for vegetarians as only one option on the menu!

My wife and I visited for dinner and, it seems, were very lucky to get in. Thus booking is a must. The food and service is pretty good, although my wife did complain that her dessert had been "microwaved". However if you want to dine in the middle of Shrewsbury this is probably as good as you are likely to find and is well worth a visit.

Great place, old atmospheric bar / restaurant. Excellent food, served and presented well, attentive happy staff. Not cheap but worth it for a lovely meal out. Not hurried on. Good menu, some local produce used. Central town location. No parking so find a spot well in advance. Good lunch time menu. Clean ladies toilet with soap, towels and hand cream. I believe you can stay there as well. Will definitely return when next in Shrewsbury.

It has been over ten years since I have visited the Golden Cross and it has changed greatly! Although the old pub style was great the new restaurant lay out is lovely and nearly always full. The decor is sadly not to my taste, a tad bet lynch, afterall this is a very old heritage building that I feel should be respected a little more. However the staff are very friendly and attentive, the menu is varied but I must say my chicken pie was a little sloppy but the other meals were lovely.

Wonderful place, great atmosphere, cosy feeling to the restaurant, staff very nice, attentive and professional. The food was the nicest I've had in a long time, all flavours complimented each other and the proportions were just right. The chef also adjusted the menu to suit an intolerance problem without any fuss. I will be coming here again to try out the lunch menu next!

We didn't book and had a table I'm the forward half of the restaurant on a tuesday night. I had perfect sea bass, crispy skin, nicely flavoured sauce. 3 courses, 2 people and a decent bottle of red came to £72. Well worth it

My wife and I were just wandering round Shrewsbury on a cold wet and windy Saturday in January when we peered through the window of the Golden Cross and knew immediately that it was a place we wanted to visit. So we booked Sunday lunch for the following day and were not disapointed. The food was excellent, the service very friendly and above all the interior has been so well designed and fitted out with all manner of strange ornaments and eclectic furnishings that a visit just to marvel at the interior decor would be worth while. It just all fitted together so perfectly and I am not in the slightest bit surprised that it is such a popular venue. Park where you can but seek this place out for a real treat.

Everyone else is (rightly) saying how good the food and decor are here. Rather than echo all that, I'm going to say how good the wine list is instead.
Astonishingly, most restaurants aren't really interested in wine (except as a profit centre), and just offer a formulaic list of names that most people have vaguely heard of; which is a recipe for poor value. Happily, the Golden Cross is the exception. Their wine list is comfortably the most varied and adventurous in Shrewsbury, extending to unfashionable and emerging regions in Europe as well as good producers from the New World. So although the prices are similar to other restaurants' wines, the value for money is much better because the wines are more carefully chosen.
Where else could you start with a rich Prosecco, move on to a lively Mosel Riesling, and finish with a sweet red Grenache? And by the glass too? If you want to actually enjoy the wine you drink with your meal, the choice is either "BYO" or go to the Golden Cross.

I haven't been to the Golden Cross for a couple of years but I have got to say that this is the best place for a special meal in Shresbury without a doubt. The restaurant was full as it was a Saturday lunch time approaching Christmas but the service speed was spot on and they coped brilliantly. The food was outstanding and the decor and ambience are superb. You do pay for that extra bit of fanciness compared to other restaurants but it is worth it for such an enjoyable all round experience. Highly recommended.

a great experience , well run friendly restaurant ,bosses and all staff very helpful with menu advise .service with a smile !
food was fantastic
i had such a great night will definitley be going back soon

Simple review- this one.
My best ever main course was at Ramseys 3 star Hospital Road (even Winner bangs on about it being very good)- It will always remain the best but the Golden Cross mains came very close. Shrewsbury food now competes with the best>>>>>>Try the Golden Cross and La Dolci then have drinks at the Amoury which has to be the best pub ever.

This was the best restaurant experience I've had in many, many years. The environment is rather exuberant and interesting, and gave the whole affair a kind of glamour that we enjoyed. The staff and friendly and helpful.
But the best is the menu which ranges from fairly standard fair to more exotic. I have a cassoulet with belly pork and duck, whilst my wife had a lancashire hot pot. Both were beautifully tasty. The starter was fine (we shared artisan breads which is a bit boring, but that's what we needed) and the puddings spot-on (some sort of fig thing which was delicious, and a chocolate browny). They were helpful with wine and not snobby.
Price was great - £56 for two all in.

I went here with my wife to celebrate her birthday a while ago and it was a superb dining experience, and really the first complete meal I've had in Shrewsbury in the sense that the food lives up to the restaurant's aspirations. The menu contained a good selection of choices that lived up to their billing - my shallot tarte tatin in particular was great (though I didn't think the celeriac that came with it was needed, the tomatoes were enough). The wine list was also great - we had a lovely bottle of cotes du rhone. What stood out for us was the ambience generated through the excellent interior design - it was a pleasant place to be. We will definitely be returning.

We eat here almost more often than we do at home...well not quite, but we are regulars! We always choose it now for our family get-togethers and also if it's just the two of us, and love just about everything on the menu. The proprietors are welcoming and friendly, the staff all great. Food is just wonderful here, there is always something new and exciting but the dishes always work, are made with fresh ingredients and are spelled correctly on the menus (SO important!) and not too expensive. The French celebrations on Bastille Day are good fun. I have worked myself up into a hungry frenzy just writing this review, so may have to give them a call and book a table...Nice beer too, and house wine. Yum!

We visited this restaurant with friends for a night out. The atmosphere was good and we were anticipating a good evening. Unfortunately our starters were bland, and somewhat small, followed by my friends steak being unedible due to gristle. The steak was replaced by a freshly cooked one but it was regretable as the flow of the evening meal was naturally broken.
The chocolates at the end of the meal had to be paid for and were astonishingly expensive for what they were.
I would only recommend this restaurant with a proviso, do not expect to much flavour.

We visited on the evening of the 3rd Aug. The table had been booked previously for four.
The service was very good and the choice and variety of courses available excellent. The wine, however, was expensive, the cheapest on the list we were shown was £18.50. Our bill with two bottles of wine was £147.00, which I consider a tad too much.

We moved to Shrewsbury from the south of England about 18 years ago and having been spoiled by the range and quality of restaurants down there the lack of reliable good quality restaurants in the area was always a downside of what in ever other respect is a great place to live. The late-lamented Sol was always a highlight and several other reasonable attempts have come and gone. For a while Ludlow had a good clutch of award-winning venues but now that The Merchant House and the original Hibiscus have long gone, Mr Underhills is the best of what's left (and very good it is too). However Ludlow is a substantial drive from Shrewsbury so it's a bit impractical. Enter The Golden Cross.
Bizarrely it took us a long time to get round to eating there. The outside of what is a very old pub is very understated and without peering rather rudely through windows you don't really get a sense of what's inside. Combine this with being in a rather quiet backwater (although only 30 seconds from the High Street) and it never really came to mind when choosing where to go. However over the last year or so we've been there 3 times for dinner and recently for a Sunday lunch and I have to say that this is the consistently best dining experience I've had in Shropshire.
'Quirky' crops up a lot in reviews and that's accurate but it doesn't detract in any way from what is a friendly, welcoming and professionally run restaurant with efficient but unobtrusive staff and what you can tell is a real pride in the quality of ingredients and cooking. The menu is always interesting and seasonal and, although not as ambitious as for example Hibiscus in its heyday, it's an altogether more pleasant and relaxed experience overall and the balance they've struck between formality and relaxing is just right for me.
The cooking is confident but not fussy, beautifully presented and really packs a punch in the flavours they manage to develop. The 2 dining rooms are comfortable with sufficient space between the tables, and the relatively small number of covers ensures that the service is paced just right with no sense of being hurried and the wine list is not long but offers a good range at reasonable prices. I should also add that I think it's really good value for what it offers.
It's not as formal as some restaurants in the area but can perform for a special dinner as well as anywhere I've eaten up here and I would feel as comfortable taking important clients as I do my teenage kids as I know the overall impression and quality of food are going to be as good as I expect. I'd recommend booking (it's not a large restaurant). Enjoy!

If you're looking for an initimate little restaurant in Shrewsbury then this is a great place to go. Very quirky although may be not to everyones liking, but we loved it. The food and service were faultless and the whole place has a great charm to it. Probably not the place for parties over 6 could be a bit caustrophobic.