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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

If you love the down-home flavours and honky tonk sounds of the southern states of America, head to Red Dog Saloon Liverpool. This Texas BBQ restaurant on Bold Street is all about juicy, hickory-smoked meats, authentic Deep South sides, and just-poured bourbon on the rocks, exactly like they serve it in Austin.

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.

‘Dim sum, roast meats and big plates’ promises both Yum Cha’s website and the restaurant awning but there are small plates too, perfect for group sharing, and loads to tempt the veggies and vegans of the party: this menu is sizeable without being scary.

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.

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. 

This women-run family business is inspired by Molly’s great nan Minna, who turned a plot of land behind her council house into an allotment and encouraged her neighbours to grow their own veggies there. This interest in sustainability and community has fed into Minna’s cafe.

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.

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.