The best restaurants in Liverpool

On the mezzanine at Duke Street Market clings “intimate Scouse brasserie” Barnacle, serving modern dishes and championing regional food.

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.

The manifesto at industrial-chic restaurant and “dine-at-wine-bar” Manifest is “seasonal plates and famous Liverpool hospitality”, with the Modern British menus regularly changing to reflect both local produce availability and the wines that will be matched to the food.

Serving irresistible Middle Eastern fusion small plates, Maray is a slow-burning smash hit. Inspired by (and named after) the Middle-Eastern flavours of Paris’ Marais district, it provides an informal, communal dining experience which revolves around excellent falafels, small plates, fine wines and cocktails.

Panoramic 34 was the UK’s highest restaurant when it opened in 2008, and although others have since taken that title, it still offers an impressive vantage point with a 360-degree view of Liverpool, the Mersey, and beyond to Wales. 

With simple, regularly changing menus to showcase the best seasonal ingredients available at market, you can expect carefully prepared plates of stylish food at this equally chic wine bar and bistro tucked away on a “secret” jigger just off bustling Castle Street. 

Roski is a wild child of a restaurant from MasterChef: The Professionals winner Anton Piotrowski.

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.

Liverpool seems like an appropriate place for a restaurant funded by the people. Wreckfish was financed by 1,522 enthusiasts who raised the record-breaking £200,000 required, via a crowdfunding campaign from Elite Bistros’ Gary Usher. Accordingly, it has the feel of a place for the many, not the few.