Poulton Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Liverpool’s first vegan chippy – a plant-based Chinese venture on Lark Lane – opened in November 2019 serving noodles, rice dishes, spring rolls, etc, alongside more traditional dishes like battered sausages and chip butties. For grab-and-go it’s going down a storm in The Pool!

“Set over two floors, both overlooking the stunning Albert Dock” – this “cheap ’n’ cheerful” yet stylish younger sibling of Peter & Elaine Kinsella’s Lunya “serves modern tapas at lunch and a selection of traditional Spanish dishes and Spanish-influenced British classics and tapas, throughout the rest of the day with changing specials, and sandwiches at lunch, too”.

2022 Review: In the Albert Dock, this collaboration between Belzan and Breddos Tacos occupies the atmospheric vaulted brick premises that characterise these Grade I listed dockland buildings, and comes with a large outside terrace. It’s hot right now as a place to get boozed up in party mood, but the Latino dishes are worth exploring (and The Guardian's Grace Dent raved in a June 2021 review).

“Relaxed, always consistent, and with the best Sunday lunch in Liverpool” – that’s the most upbeat report this year on The Pool’s outpost of Gary Usher’s Elite Bistros chain, which aims to perfect a selection of straightforward bistro dishes from an à la carte menu offering two courses for £48 per person and three for £55 per person. It also took flak this year, though, for some “flavourless” offerings (“such a shame as we have thoroughly enjoyed previous trips”). Hopefully a blip?

Puglia-born chef Maurizio Pellegrini and his Scottish-Italian partner Rosaria Crolla launched this local fixture in 2009 and, all these years later, it’s “still very popular because of the quality of the seafood” (“excellent” oysters and seafood platters, “plus more basic dishes such as seafood risotto and pasta”). There are now two siblings: the Italian Club, and the Italian Club Bakery, both within an easy walk of this venue.

A “central Liverpool favourite” for the last 15 years, delivering “the best of Catalan and Spanish food” by way of a “brilliant range of tapas, with lots of changing options for meat, fish and veggie”. “The friendly staff and owners feel genuinely devoted to Spanish food and wines” – founders Peter & Elaine Kinsella have transferred ownership of the business to its staff – and there’s an on-site deli so you can take favourite products home.

“A really lovely dining experience in every way” bags fulsome praise from all of the many who comment on Paul Askew’s fine destination restaurant, housed in a “beautiful building” (which was originally a ‘Home for Destitute Children’ built in 1888), set in the “culturally stimulating area of Liverpool” next to ‘The Phil’. “From tasting menus to prix-fixe menus there are beautiful dishes for everyone to try” and the “stylish and very tasty cuisine” sets an example of “understated excellence without appearing to strive too hard to bag Michelin stars”.

The place where it all began for Nisha Katona, who gave up her 20-year career as a barrister to launch this rapidly rising Indian street food chain, currently powering towards thirty-odd outposts. The hit formula is “very pretty” decor (fairy lights, ropes and vines adorn this former bank), as well as “reasonably priced and well-flavoured” home-style cooking. Top Menu Tip – “chat bombs are a must!”

“Everyone enjoys the unusual menu, including the meat-eaters” at this “canteen-style” outfit in this city centre from the Leeds-based group, which combines Indian vegetarian street food with English craft ales – including some from their own brewery in Manchester. “Service is efficient, with food coming out as it’s ready” – “it’s a good place to share different plates”, and a party of 6-8 can sample pretty well the whole menu for £125.

A crowd-pleasing Italian with industrial-chic décor offering a “wide menu of interesting small plates, well-chosen wines, and efficient and friendly staff”; beyond this decade-old Venetian venture, owners the Salt House Hospitality Group also run Salt House Tapas, for Spanish small plates, and brasserie Hanover Street Social, both in Liverpool; alas, French bistro spin-off Bouchon closed in 2023 after two years in business.

2022 Review: “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”.

“A well-thought-out range of well priced, sometimes interestingly different dishes” has made this lively venue a worthy follow-up to Paddy Byrne’s ‘Everyman Bistro’ (from which he moved here in 2015) and is likewise “ideal for pre-concert or theatre dinner”. As of Autumn 2024, it’s ‘temporarily closed’ with the website suggesting a relaunch after a refurb – given this uncertainty regarding its future direction, we’ve left it un-rated for the time being.

2024 Review: Native Liverpudlian Andrew Sheridan upped sticks from Brum to relocate ‘8’ to a Victorian building in the city centre (next to the original Cavern Club) in April 2023. Seating is at one of two counters for, appropriately, eight diners; the lighting is low; much of the décor is black or slate-grey; and the level of ambition in the cooking is high, with the aim of delivering ‘an immersive sensory experience’. The eight courses (for £110 per head) are of very diverse inspiration and there’s also a wine pairing option (for £80 per head).

Nisha Katona’s Liverpool-based operation has two branches in London (Charlotte Street and Westfield Stratford) offering her “very tasty” Indian street food – “with the occasional hint of raw spice”. The Lancashire-born former barrister launched the business in 2014 and now has 28 outlets around the country, whose “enjoyable, authentic food” is “really great for a chain”.