Best restaurants in Liverpool
Published 08 February 2023

There’s plenty of local love for this abidingly popular neighbourhood spot in the city’s Wavertree district: ‘typically Liverpudlian,’ affirms one reporter, while another says that it always feels ‘like a proper special night out’. Belzan is the very image of a fancy but relaxed modern bistro, helped along by a delightful team. To start, you might plump for chicken and mushroom croquettes with herb aïoli – although one fan swears by the ‘show-stopping’ Guinness rarebit potato. Combinations are more enterprising than your standard bistro repertoire, so expect anything from rib of Aurox beef with miso and cashew nut butter to grilled jerk primo cabbage with pickled raisins, peanut and buttermilk followed by straightforward desserts such as clotted-cream ice cream with strawberries or cheese with a clootie dumpling and apple. Hearty Sunday lunches also bring in the crowds. The drinks menu features a slate of classic cocktails, and the place also supports wine producers with food and wine-pairing nights. 

Combining the virtues of a deli and informal restaurant (open from breakfast onwards), this ‘genuinely lovely place’ makes the most of its spacious location at the bottom end of Liverpool’s waterfront. Now boasting a sparkling new extension, it’s a versatile place for bigger groups and families. You can arrive via the deli or head directly into the restaurant where there’s a mid-century feel to the decor: plain dark-wood tables, striking pale-green upholstered seating and banquettes as a room divider, plus a bar running almost the full length of the venue.

A printed menu with sandwiches and sharing deli platters shows the way during the day, with eclectic, globally inclined specials chalked up on several boards. Fish dishes receive plenty of plaudits from readers, Sunday roasts are ‘amazing’, and the kitchen’s repertoire also extends to the likes of warm goat's cheese with honey and rosemary on sourdough, confit duck with white bean and pancetta cassoulet, steaks with chunky chips, and exotic ideas such as khorest gheimeh (a Persian stew of lemony split peas with roasted courgettes, peppers and wild rice).

To finish, expect classics such as fruit crumble with custard or bread and butter pudding. Service is friendly, efficient and down to earth. As for drinks, there are lots of speciality beers, plus some aptly chosen wines taken from the lower price points of the deli selection (an excellent Vinho Verde, perhaps).

This Spanish Black Cat lurks in one corner of the Exchange Flags courtyard by Liverpool City Hall, behind a monument to Nelson and four of his poignantly chained French captives. Inside is an expansive, impressive space, smartly furnished and run by enthusiastic, courteous and hard-working staff who know all about the extensive tapas menus.

The dishes are mostly familiar items from the Castilian and Catalan traditions, rendered with a panache that inspires confidence, but incorporating the odd outlier. Caramelised cauliflower with shabu-shabu is off-piste, likewise harissa-roasted butternut squash, although the classics also get a decent outing: look for salt cod croquetas, super-fresh boquerones, patatas bravas, little chorizos in thickly reduced cider sauce and pinchos morunos (skewers of spicy marinated Ibérico pork with sobrasada sauce and salsa verde). Cheeses and charcuterie are there for the taking too.

When it comes to dessert, the Spanish classics are the ones to go for: dense, moist tarta Santiago with salted caramel mousse; baked Basque-style cheesecake with Turrón sauce. A party of three can eat for £20 up till 5pm most days, while cocktails and international wines should keep things swinging – although it can get very noisy at peak times.

‘A welcoming place with real heart and passion,’ the Kinsella family’s authentic Catalan tapas joint and deli has been one of the city's roaring success stories of the past few years, offering a taste of sun-splashed Spanish tradition beamed into the Liverpool One shopping complex. A large red map dominates one wall for geographical orientation, while views into the kitchen are an education in themselves, assuming you haven't opted to sit out in the bright Merseyside sunshine.

Kick-start the day with a traditional Catalan migas (country breakfast) of cured meats sautéed with breadcrumbs, onion and garlic, topped with a poached egg. The full menu gives meat, fish and vegetables (almost) equal billing. Here you’ll find everything from fragrant morcilla balls coated in cornflakes and slathered with a rich sauce of orange-blossom honey and pomegranate molasses to boquerones from Cantabria's finest (Pujadó Solano), accompanied by Spanish potato crisps – not forgetting roasted parsnips tossed in maple syrup and dusted with dukkah.

There are also deli platters aplenty, as well as big pans of paella and tasting banquets for the whole table to plunder; they even serve a Catalan riff on Liverpool’s classic ‘scouse’. Round things off with vanilla ice cream served with turrón and pelted with PX-drenched raisins. Gins are almost as much of a speciality as sherries, and there is a regionally diverse slate of artisan Spanish wines in two glass sizes from around £6.80.

Located in the Baltic Triangle regeneration district, amid towering redbrick former warehouses, Manifest is a sure indicator of where Liverpool's contemporary dining scene is right now. ‘This place is incredible,’ writes a reporter, ‘with a great atmosphere and well set-out’ – that last detail referring to the centrally sited kitchen, which makes just about everywhere in the compact space feel like a chef's table. The focus of Paul Durand's repertoire is on foraging, fermenting and preserving in the modern manner, with lots of bold, attention-grabbing flavours, the initial statement of which is a bowl of the now-legendary warm vinegar crisps.

Assertive technique and immaculate presentation distinguish dishes ranging from a starter of torched sea trout with squash velouté, sea beet and nasturtium to a plate of celeriac given the char siu treatment, accompanied by burnt apple and hazelnuts. For main course, there could be Creedy Carver duck with beetroot, plum and pancakes (another distantly allusive Chinese reference), while fruity sea buckthorn makes a strategic appearance with cod loin, carrot and a sauce incorporating smoked mussels. A successful umami-drenched veggie option to ward off the winter chills might be January King cabbage with yeast extract, potato salad and garlic.

Finish with a cheese plate that might partner Old Roan Wensleydale with bara brith and marmalade, or plump for rhubarb dressed in spent Champagne with a sablé biscuit. The ‘chef's choice’ menu with a three-glass wine flight will come in handy if Liverpool is in the mood to celebrate.

There are currently two Marays in Liverpool, one at the Britannia Pavilion on Albert Dock and this outlet, at the top end of restaurant-heavy Bold Street. Sitting cheek-by-jowl with eateries of every complexion, it is dedicated to Levantine meze (labneh, houmous et al) and bigger traditional dishes (lamb shawarma, spiced lentil and rice majadara). There's a popular, good-value lunch too, while well-chosen cocktails and wines are a decent match for the food. 

Paul Askew's restaurant in an august building next to the Philharmonic Hall now has a courtyard area off the cellar bar for summer drinking and snacking. In the main room, still one of the most dramatic dining spaces in Liverpool, the cooking is full of ambitious flair, the plates busy but not overcrowded with elements that all fit together as snugly as jigsaw pieces. A trio of cuts of salt-marsh lamb – loin, confit shoulder and hay-roasted rump – comes adorned with samphire, golden beetroot and Wirral ricotta, while the vegetable main course could be tempura-battered courgette with herbed bulgur wheat, chickpeas and courgette/pistachio purée. Proceedings might open in distinctly Mediterranean manner, with a serving of marine-fresh red mullet on saffron potatoes, brown shrimps and red pepper purée, sauced with pastis. Finish with mirabelle plum compôte and white chocolate mousse or, for something more substantial, a steamed blackberry pudding with pomegranate ice cream and honey. A plethora of speciality menus supplements the basic prix-fixe, and wine is handled comprehensively too, with a distinguished global list that homes in on central and south-east Europe. Small glasses start at £6.50 for Abruzzo wines in all three colours.