Family friendly restaurants in Liverpool

With its six foot chandelier and gold leaf ceiling Restaurant Bar & Grill Liverpool is one of the city’s most spectacular dining settings. A £500k refurbishment in 2021 brought to life the original features of this Grade II Listed heritage building. Now it’s one of the most photogenic backdrops in Liverpool, and the food’s not half bad too.

Following in the footsteps of other successful models in the region, with communal dining tables and a mezzanine served by a choice of resident kitchens, this 100-year-old warehouse-turned-foodhall is one of the Ropewalks newcomers breathing life back into Duke Street.

Subheading “pub and bakehouse”, The Elephant is a Grade II-listed building (with sunny beer garden) in the leafy village of Woolton, dating back to the early 18th century, and with plenty of owners in its time, including a recent-ish brush with Simon Rimmer off of the telly.

Part of The New World Trading Company stable of eateries and drinkeries, The Club House sits on the edge of the newly created park atop Liverpool One shopping centre, bringing seaside vibes to its sunny terrace and a white wood Hamptons feel to the inside spaces.

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.

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.

Piccolino Liverpool is located in a particularly grand building on Cook Street with a small but perfectly-formed terrace at the front. The impressive exterior seems appropriate because Piccolino always works well for fancy events, birthday parties and glamorous dates.

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.

High-end, inventive Tianjin region-inspired cuisine is the name of the game at Lu Ban (named after a Chinese deity and master of craft), and the chic surroundings come up to scratch – just as you’d expect from a place led by executive chef Dave J Critchley of Great British Menu fame.

World-class Catalan deli and restaurant Lunya is a wonderful place to hang out, with tapas and full-bodied meals on offer. Just don’t expect predictable options in a venue known for signature dishes like Catalan Scouse (morcilla and chorizo stew), or croquetas with oxtail and horseradish mousse.

If you don’t know who Nisha Katona is, you’re not watching enough Celebrity MasterChef, but, to recap, she’s the founder of Mowgli, born in 2014 right here in Liverpool – the Bold Street branch is the flagship of the Indian restaurant chain of 17 restaurants nationwide and rising.