Where to spend New Year’s Eve in Liverpool

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

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.

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.

Malmaison Liverpool is a dockside delight. This boutique hotel offers stunning views across the city, and cool, characterful rooms and suites with all the Malmaison touches everyone loves like comfortable beds, moody lighting, power showers, digital TV, serious wines and naughty snacks.

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.

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.

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.

Albert’s Schloss Liverpool is a Bavarian bar that mixes tongue-in-cheek fun with a dedication to high quality food and drink. It’s a cool take on Munich beer hall vibes and the Schloss menu staples even get food critics excited with Jay Rayner a fan of the crispy roasted pork knuckle, or Schweinshaxe.

Liverpool’s Baltic Market is the city’s first food hall, built on the redeveloped Cains Brewery site. It’s the sort of place where there’s always a buzz and a carnival atmosphere. Food comes courtesy of some of the city’s best street food traders offering everything from burgers and burritos to more refined European bistro-cooking.

The Bierkeller Liverpool is one of the best bars in Liverpool if you’re looking for a lively party atmosphere or somewhere to watch sport on the big screen – you can play it too with pool, darts, beer pong and shuffleboard.

Camp and Furnace is a huge events space with a capacity of 2200. With its two warehouse spaces, this place takes up an entire block making it ideal for large-scale events like indoor festivals and massive club nights.

It may be a while since The Beatles graced the stage of The Cavern Club but you’ll still find live music played there every day.

Light displays along Mathew Street featuring the club logo illuminate the way to one of the world’s most famous clubs – at least when it’s dark, anyway.

The Cavern Club hasn’t just become a museum. For £5 entry you can enjoy live music on the front stage with its famed arches.

In the heart of Liverpool’s beautiful Georgian neighbourhood, Hope Street Hotel is surrounded by some of the city’s most cultural hotspots – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and Everyman Theatre are just minutes away.

South Asian cookery is on the cards here, or “a vibrant culinary offering”, if you prefer. Three floors are accessed via a floating staircase, with roof terrace for sipping in the sun – cocktails include the Lotus of lemongrass gin, butterfly pea flower, lemon and egg white.

The Merchant is a lively hangout with great pizza. At the front, spilling onto the street, the outdoor tables under natty striped awnings are always popular while inside there are distressed walls which give an undone boho chic look. Or scruffy, whichever you prefer.

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. 

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.

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.

As the name suggests, PINS Social Club is more than just a bar – and it’s more than just a ten-pin bowling alley too, with pool, table tennis, shuffleboard and karaoke to keep you entertained, along with bites and burgers plus plenty of pizza courtesy Rocco’s Deli & Diner.

Be transported back in time with a visit to Puffin Rooms; Liverpool’s specialist whisky and cigar bar. With over 200 rare bottles behind the bar, whisky fans are in for a treat.

With its large alfresco terrace, island bar, and handsome architecture, Riva Blu Liverpool has a chic, continental feel inside and out.

The Royal Institution Bar was created for ‘those who enjoy the finer things in life’ and serves up well thought-out cocktails in an 1800s-style setting.

Titanic Hotel Liverpool is located on Stanley Dock in a former Victorian warehouse. It’s a massive building – titanic, you could say – and they have used the space well. Room sizes are very generous and the public areas feel light and airy with an industrial touch: exposed bricks, steel columns and the like.