Best beer gardens and roof terraces in Liverpool

Sometimes, the clue is in the name and in the case of 14 Bar & Grill, the number refers to the top floor of Daniel House – an unassuming apartment block in Bootle – where you’ll find the restaurant, along with 360º views of Liverpool and across the water to the Wirral. 

This award-winning city centre Italian combines value with authenticity – founders Miguel and Antonio have been working together since 2007 and, inspired by Miguel’s nonna, “a fantastic cook”, it’s their aim to bring home cooking and a welcoming service to the high street.

The Art School delivers upmarket, regionally-inspired cooking from local legend, Paul Askew. Opening in late 2014, this fancy contemporary British restaurant is a place for that special occasion.

With its Parisian-style brasserie terrace chairs and Art Nouveau lettering, a little bit of je ne sais quoi comes to the Southport seaside, with a menu of French cuisine classics to match alongside some British favourites in the form of good old fish and chips.

Squished on the cusp of the Knowledge Quarter and the Georgian Quarter and resident in the old Flying Picket since 2015, Buyers Club is a neighbourhood bar and kitchen-restaurant, complete with gallery, garden with coffee and spritz kiosk, and even an intimate music venue.

There’s dining all day every day at chic Castle Street Townhouse, with breakfast and bottomless brunch choices, lunchtime and evening à la carte, and a set price Sunday lunch offering chicken, pork belly, beef and vegan wellington with all the trimmings.

Describing itself as a full-time party bar and part-time pizza parlour, Crazy Pedro’s is hot on super-chilled drinks, from frozen margaritas to ice cold beers, and it’s the place to head if you haven’t settled the Hawaiian-pizza-isn’t-a-real-pizza argument.

If it’s dancing, drinking and Deutschland-inspired plates of schnitzel and wurst you’re after, you’ve come to the right place. Described as a “day to night venue”, the two-storey Einstein Bier Haus serves up hearty food, great bier, on-screen sport and live music on buzzing Concert Square.

While some venues are happy to describe a frost-ravaged yucca and a scattering of paving stone weeds as a ‘beer garden’, Free State Kitchen happily isn’t one of them. Their ‘secret garden’ isn’t much of a secret any more, but it most definitely is a garden, complete with vines, lush greenery, trees, and homegrown produce. Plus a couple of religious statues – this used to be a convent in days gone by.

With views of the water and a menu that should have something for pretty much everyone, Gusto Liverpool is a busy spot, day and night.

The Green Man pub opened on Lark Lane in December 2022, just in time for Christmas (and the World Cup). It replaced the vegan and veggie favourite The Ink in the Well, and in doing so, stopped being a foodie pub and became a ‘pubby’ pub instead.

La Parrilla Lark Lane is the third opening for a local mini-chain that has had the honour of being voted ‘Best Restaurant in Liverpool’ on TripAdvisor before now.

The world’s greatest hand-held food is promised by Madre – tostadas, quesadillas and tacos tacos tacos. There’s also all the Mexican drinks vibes you could ever wish for, from beer and cocktails to tequila and mezcal – inside the historic Atlantic Pavilion or outside in the sunny courtyard.

Malmaison Liverpool Bar & Grill is much more than just another soulless hotel restaurant. With its dockside location and terrace, celeb fans and cool boutique vibes, it’s one of Liverpool’s most impressive dining destinations.

Whether you’re treating a loved one to champagne afternoon tea, or you’re looking for somewhere with great views to inspire you, Oh Me Oh My ticks all the boxes. 

The One O’Clock Gun is a New York-style pub on the waterfront at Albert Docks. The name refers to a cannon at Morpeth Dock that fired at one o’clock every day for over a century, letting the port’s just-arrived sailors reset their watches, and signalling to locals that it was time for lunch.

Papillon is a quaint-looking bistro-style restaurant, complete with baby pink paintwork and pinstripe canopy to match. In fact, it looks more like something on a French postcard than somewhere you’d find in the middle of Liverpool. 

Pappa Pepinos is part of the Selina Hotel. It’s a casual place serving Italian plates both small and large, and some super-duper pizzas.

Fried chicken in a bar setting with a big emphasis on music, beer and cocktails – Liverpool independent Pattersons has hit on a winning formula here. 

The Pen Factory specialises in bistro food with a mix of main dishes and small plates for sharing. Everything is reasonably priced and perfectly presented. This is food to enjoy with friends – much as it was at owner Paddy Byrne’s previous outfit, the Everyman Bistro.

As the name suggests, PINS Social Club is more than just a bar – and it’s more than just a ten-pin bowling alley too, with pool, table tennis, shuffleboard and karaoke to keep you entertained, along with bites and burgers plus plenty of pizza courtesy Rocco’s Deli & Diner.

You can’t get much more picture perfect than the cobbledy Falkner Street in the cool boho Georgian Quarter and, with its minty paint job, candy-striped canopy and European bistro-style terrace chairs, this Italian-inspired independent restaurant doesn’t let the side down.

With its large alfresco terrace, island bar, and handsome architecture, Riva Blu Liverpool has a chic, continental feel inside and out.

Everybody knows the Bombed Out Church, but just in case: hit by an incendiary bomb during the Liverpool Blitz of 1941, its stone shell was left as a memorial to those lost in the war and the Grade II-listed building has only fairly recently been resurrected as a cultural venue.

Tempest on Tithebarn is a social space filling your days from early-morning Neighbourhood Coffee and freshly baked pastries and cakes to late-night parties and cocktails. In between, there’s bagels, brunch and lunch by day and burgers and small plates as the sun goes down. 

At the entrance to Greenbank Park, with its lake and leafy vistas, The Watering Can offers both inside and outside space, and also a bit of inside-outside space with a dining area partially covered by a conservatory-style glass roof and open panels looking out onto the green space.