The Hot 20: the most popular Liverpool restaurants

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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. 

Rocking up in the picturesque village of Aughton in West Lancashire, renowned chef Tim Allen (whose Flitch of Bacon bagged Essex’s only Michelin star in 25 years) loved the sandstone building and sunny terrace of the former Seafood Pub Company Wine Bar, and sō-lō was born.

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.

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

Macello Meat House Childwall is known for steaks served with a side order of celebrity spotting. It’s turned this suburban shopping strand into a hotspot for the likes of Firmino, Fabinho, Mane and Alisson. The main draw (footballers aside) is the seared hunks of juicy meat, cooked in the open kitchen then finished and sliced at your table in a sizzling, smoky sideshow. 

Hawksmoor Liverpool opened in the beautiful Grade II-listed India Buildings, to much excitement in late 2022.

Doctor Duncan’s is named after Britain’s first Medical Health Officer, William Henry Duncan, who was born and raised in Liverpool. Its ornate, beautifully tiled interior makes it one of the North West’s most gorgeous pubs.

Art Deco-style cocktail bar Hummingbird is one of Liverpool’s hippest spots for a chilled night out. 

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. 

Tiger Rock Renshaw Street is the newest and biggest of the Liverpool Pan-Asian street hawker venues. As well as a range of casual classics from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, you can enjoy some fantastic cocktails in a separate bar area (bellinis are a speciality).

There’s a bonhomie and a sense of welcome at Vetch, marking it out as a friendly neighbourhood restaurant and simultaneously one of the best fine dining establishments in Liverpool.