Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Liverpool
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Liverpool restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 42 restaurants in Liverpool and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Liverpool restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Liverpool Restaurants
1. Lu Ban
Chinese restaurant in Liverpool
Stanhope Street - L8
“Superb original food, a very amenable chef, plus helpful and friendly staff” – on limited feedback, that’s the upbeat take on this Chinese fine-dining restaurant, where the kitchen is run by Dave Critchley, who – having worked in some of the city’s top kitchens – took his career in this different direction in 2019 (and in 2021 represented the North West in BBC2’s Great British Menu).
2. Lawns Grill, Thornton Hall Hotel & Spa
International restaurant in Thornton Hough
Neston Rd - CH63
2021 Review: The restaurant of this lush Wirral country pile is “a little hidden gem”, delivering some “unbelievable” food (including a “quite affordable” prix fixe at lunch); fans say that it’s the “best on the Wirral (since Fraiche is always full up)”. (This was the location, in October 2019, of the crunch Brexit talks between Boris Johnson and Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar).
3. Moor Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Aughton
Prescot Rd - L39
“Continuing its stately progress to becoming the UK’s best restaurant in what was for many decades the gastronomic desert of West Lancashire” – Mark Birchall’s medieval manor house to the north of Liverpool has, since it opened in 2017, won award after award and “a third Michelin star must be close”. “Booking here, even for lunch, is like buying a ticket to an experience”, which begins with the approach down a long drive (and during which a visit to the gardens comes highly recommended). Although the hall itself is ancient, it has been significantly adapted to its modern use, and the dining room itself is in a contemporary extension: “an unusual design with high ceilings and lots of glass overlooking the lake and gardens”. Mark’s “out-of-this-world” cuisine is “based very much on regional ingredients from Lancashire's under-rated larder. There's clever use of contrasting flavours and the kitchen can really make very simple ingredients sing”. In particular, they “do improbably brilliant things with root vegetables (particularly carrots and turnips!)”. “Mildly formal” service is “impeccable, with the team pulling off that trick of being casual and friendly without ever losing sight of the part they play in ensuring everything goes to plan”. Criticisms are few and far between, and the only consistent negative amongst reports is the unsurprising hangover to the wallet that a visit entails. For the most part, though, it’s just 10/10s all-round. “The perfect weekend away – total luxury!”
4. Salt House
Spanish restaurant in Liverpool
1 Hanover Street - L1
Part of a ten-year-old local group, this tapas haunt near John Lewis attracted limited feedback this year, but all positive regarding its wide tapas selection (including lots of vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options).
5. The GPO Food Hall
International restaurant in Liverpool
35 Whitechapel - L1
‘General Post Office’ now means ‘Global Provisions Outlet’ at this repurposed edifice in the Metquarter – Liverpool's biggest food hall, with 11,000 square feet in which to graze, which opened in summer 2021 and aims to champion independent vendors by offering support and incubation. High-profile initial sign-ups included Nama from Sheffield's JORO – an izakaya-style offering.
6. Bundobust
Indian restaurant in Liverpool
17-19 Bold Street - L1
Born in 2019, a Liverpool branch of the Manchester- and Leeds-based street food chain that “specialises in Indian vegetarian food and craft beers. It’s always good, lively, and popular” and “very good value” too.
7. Fonseca's
British, Modern restaurant in Liverpool
12 Stanley St - L1
2019 Review: The original Delifonseca (re-named to avoid confusion with its spin-off), now with vintage cocktail bar, wins praise for its “really good food and interesting choices” from a daily-changing blackboard menu. Change may be afoot, however, with the owner eyeing a vast, Kickstarter-funded expansion of its dockside spin-off (home to a famed market hall), with plans to eventually operate from one base.
8. Mowgli
Indian restaurant in Liverpool
69 Bold St - L1
Nisha Katona’s burgeoning chain has grown from its Pool base to number 12 outposts in total and is finally eyeing up a London opening – in Fitzrovia, on the former site of Côte Brasserie. Reporters “absolutely adore” its “Indian street food with a UK twist” (featuring “lovely, tasty and original flavours”, and served in tiffins), abetted by “good cocktails”.
9. Lunya
Spanish restaurant in Liverpool
55 Hanover Street - L1
Peter & Elaine Kinsella’s “fun” and “fabulous” Catalan bar and deli offers a “mix of authentic tapas done exceptionally well”. Since opening in 2010 they have expanded to bigger premises in Liverpool ONE and opened Lunyalita in the Albert Dock, but a branch in Manchester’s Deansgate was a victim of the 2020 lockdown.
10. The Italian Club Fish
Italian restaurant in Liverpool
128 Bold St - L1
“You can’t fault the way seafood is served, from whole fish and seafood platters to battered oysters” at this popular venture from an Italian-Scottish family, that transforms from a daytime café into a “bustling trattoria” in the evening, serving a “very good traditional Italian fish menu”.
11. Six by Nico
International restaurant in Liverpool
11-15 North John Street - L2
Energetic Scottish chef Nico Simeone continued his steady rate of restaurant openings with this Liverpool branch; the style of cuisine changes every six weeks, as at his others (previous menu examples include New York, Vietnamese Street Food, Childhood, Guilty Pleasures), and the only option is the £32 six-course set menu (matching wine flight £29). It’s all “very good food at great value”, although the quality varies “depending on the theme being served”.
12. Albert's Schenke
German restaurant in Liverpool
16 Hanover Street - L1
2021 Review: Sibling to Manchester’s popular Albert’s Schloss, this ‘bohemian bier halle and cook haus’ replaces The Hub Alehouse. It’s unlikely to be a hugely foodie destination, but – if we’re reading the runes correctly – it should be a good laugh with hearty scoff (schnitzel, burgers, raclette) to soak up some fine brews.
13. Wreckfish
British, Modern restaurant in Liverpool
60 Seel Street - L1
“Gary Usher just gets it right” – with his “high-standard” bistro cuisine at prices most reporters find reasonable (and despite the name, this is not a seafood specialist). “Cooking and service remained a delight” through the Covid restrictions, so “Wreckfish managed to recreate the special-meal-out feeling”. The worst criticism? – “I still don’t understand the undressed romaine lettuce leaves that accompanied the tender and sweet pork chop”!.
14. Roski
British, Modern restaurant in Liverpool
16 Rodney Street - L1
“Literally nothing could have been done better” – the tenor of reports on BBC MasterChef: The Professionals winner Anton Piotowski's upmarket but “relaxed” mid century-style dining room. The “very innovative” tasting menu (“an edible beetle has been known to appear”) “blew away” most reporters and represents “very good value for money” compared to London prices.
15. San Carlo
Italian restaurant in Liverpool
41 Castle St - L2
“Always busy and buzzing with conversation”, this “reliable upmarket resto in the business district of the city centre” – a link in the glitzy national Italian chain – wins solid marks for its “atmosphere, good-quality produce and cooking”.
16. Fazenda
Brazilian restaurant in Liverpool
Unit B, Horton Hs - L2
2019 Review: “The meat’s good quality, and there’s no limits to what you can select” at this branch of a Brazilian buffet chain, where you eat as much as you like for a fixed price; by its nature, it’s “good for groups”.
17. Salt House Bacaro
Italian restaurant in Liverpool
47 Castle St - L2
2021 Review: “Italian small plates (this time)” “from the Salt House tapas stable” – win solid ratings for this “friendly, buzzy restaurant” from the Red & Blue team. It’s “great for a larger party”, with “seats at the bar good for dates”; “it’s crowded so you do get to hear your neighbours’ conversations – although in Liverpool that can be theatre”.
18. Pilgrim
Spanish restaurant in Liverpool
46 Duke Street - L1
2021 Review: BBC2’s ‘My Million Pound Menu’ winners Dave Bone (chef) Jamie Duffield (front of house), and Anthony Power opened this new venture in Duke Street Market (a revamped docklands warehouse) in spring 2019. The food offering is based on dishes found along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes in Spain, France and Portugal, and – though we received no survey feedback – it’s receiving a good rep generally (including from Michelin who awarded it a 2020 Bib Gourmand).
19. Neighbourhood Cafe
International restaurant in Liverpool
261 woolton road - L2
2018 Review: Café outpost of Manchester’s New York-inspired all-day brasserie on the former site of a Liverpool grocery store. The Spinningfields original underwent a £1m refurb in 2016 and a Leeds branch arrived in autumn 2017.
20. Hanover Street Social
British, Modern restaurant in Liverpool
16-20 Hanover St - L1
2021 Review: “Consistently good food at a competitive price” plus a “useful central location and a great choice of gins” means this modern brasserie from Merseyside’s Red & Blue Restaurants group is “worth a visit”.
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