The Hot 20: the most popular Liverpool restaurants

Ye Hole In Ye Wall is not, as you might imagine, an ancient times ATM, but it is Liverpool’s oldest pub, dating from 1726. There’s a definite sense of history but one that hasn’t been beautifully refurbished; it’s still very much a boozer.

Just a chopstick’s throw from Liverpool’s Chinese Arch, the original Chamber 36 serves specialities from across East Asia including a strong selection of traditional Chinese dim sum.

Man Tsuen Ho’s may be a relative newcomer to Liverpool’s Chinatown but you wouldn’t know. Everything about it looks like it has been on the spot since 1988 and not changed a jot.

Sometimes you don’t want glamour and modern fusion though. You want exactly what made you fall in love with Chinese food all those years ago. It’s prawn cracker as a madeleine moment.

The Art School Cellars is part of the renowned Art School restaurant but it is also an atmospheric destination in its own right. Head to this charming, subterranean bar for a pre-dinner cocktail, a post-prandial port and cheeseboard, or make it the focus of your visit. The Art School Cellars offers a lighter menu than the upstairs restaurant but it’s no less delightful for that.

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.

Voyagers in The Halyard Liverpool is in the league of hotel restaurants that become a destination in their own right. A sophisticated and well-travelled menu of small plates combined with inviting modern design make it a standout addition to the Ropewalks. Expect an individual take on cool, casual dining.

The couple who own Cuthbert’s started their cake business by baking goodies for friends and family, before branching out to supply local markets and cafes. And although brekkie, brunch and lunch are all on the menu at their Mount Pleasant cafe, it’s still cakes and bakes that they’re best known for.

One of the buzziest spots in the Georgian Quarter, Frederiks models itself on the neighbourhood bars of Brooklyn. Think casual eats, coffee and lounging, with live music and quality cocktails as the day turns into night.

This impressively ornate pub was built over 120 years ago and stands proudly on the corner of Hope Street. The Philharmonic splits off into separate rooms, each more show-stopping than the next.

The name says it all: La Famiglia Bar & Restaurant is a family-run outfit serving fresh, traditional Italian cuisine rethought, using the finest ingredients. It’s also The Best Restaurant in the North West according to the 2024 Italian Awards.

Chung Ku is very different from Liverpool’s other Chinese restaurants. It’s a modernist icon on the waterfront just south of Brunswick that looks like a marooned sampan or a strange fish with architectural fins. Its floor-to-ceiling windows flood the place with light and the views across the water to the Wirral are stunning.

Situated on the 18th floor of INNSiDE by Meliá on Old Hall Street, Gino D’Acampo 360 Sky Bar and Sky Bar Terrace serve authentic Italian food, plus great wine and cocktails with unparalleled views of Liverpool’s skyline. 

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. 

Defunct red phone boxes are always being re-purposed as mini libraries, homes for defibrillators, or, in this case, an entrance to a cocktail bar.

From the traditional British landmark, you’ll be led to a modern drinking den with fluorescent brights and glitterballs.

Liverpool’s award-winning, fine-dining restaurant The Art School brings together inventive Modern British cooking and an impressive historic setting.

Its website proclaims ‘authentic Chinese food’, but the menu at Maggie Fu’s stretches way beyond the borders of the People’s Republic, and the bustling open kitchen serves up plenty more than just its classic stir fries with rice, dim sum dumplings and steamed bao buns.

Like the backstreet Venetian tapas places which inspired this central Liverpool bar and restaurant, there is something about Salt House Bacaro that makes you never want to leave.

Indian Tiffin Room, the successful North West independent, has brought its authentic street food flavours to Liverpool.

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. 

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.