Best Restaurants in Liverpool 2025

Liver Buildings and Liverpool waterfront skyline, England.

Best places to eat and drink in Liverpool

Manifest – for casual fine dining in industrial settings

Historically the Baltic Triangle served Liverpool docks. Now its industrial units are a nightlife hub of brew taps, street food and crazy golf. Quietly tucked away on Watkinson Street, Manifest is an intimate bolthole where chef Paul Durand creatively explores fine seasonal produce and his skills in sourdough, fermentation and charcuterie. Expect interesting wines and dishes akin to char siu celeriac, burnt apple and hazelnut, or cod loin, carrot, sea buckthorn and smoked mussel sauce. manifestrestaurant.com

Manifest's interiors, including a wall filled with wine bottles, candle-lit tables and industrial furnishings

Belzan – for small plates in a bistro-chic dining room

Heading out of central Liverpool, Smithdown Road is home to Caribbean café, Raggas, Italians Fritto and Little Furnace, and hip, easy-going Belzan, a small plates restaurant with a big rep. Think chicken mustard croquettes with wild garlic mayo; soused mackerel, blood orange, Guindilla and olives; or smoked pork chop with kohlrabi remoulade. All served in a simple, bistro-chic dining room with cool cocktails and good wine. belzan.co.uk

Little Furnace – for wood-fired Neapolitan pizza

At its cosy Smithdown Road HQ and Baltic Market, Little Furnace slings exemplary wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas. Patiently proven dough is blast-cooked to create pliable, elastic bases, gorgeously swollen at their cornicione rim. Well-judged toppings range from such timeless classics as fennel sausage and friarielli to goat’s cheese and balsamic onion chutney. littlefurnace.co.uk

Wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas on a table with beer and soft drinks

Wreck – for high-spec, all-day dining for all ages

Chef Gary Usher’s Elite Bistros restaurants are friendly, high-quality, all-purpose affairs. The cooking is rigorous. Menus cater for all ages. Modern food trends are skilfully woven in. That MO has made Wreck popular from breakfast onwards. Dishes range from revamped classics (for example, confit duck leg with smoked bacon butter bean cassoulet, salsa verde and duck fat crumb) to contemporary plates such as miso-glazed belly bacon with sesame cream and black radish salad. wreckfish.co

Smart bistro-influenced dish on a large white plate served at Wreck in Liverpool

Lunya – for a taste of Spain

This large, modern deli-restaurant has paid loving homage to Spain – and Catalan food, in particular – for 15 years. Feast on grilled sobrasada with whipped goat’s cheese and wild honey, gambas pil pil or pre-order sharing roasts such as the Segovian suckling pig. After eating, stock up on produce from Asturian ciders to the Navarran sheep’s cheese, roncal. There is a sister venue, Lunyalita, at the Albert Dock. lunya.co.uk

Lunya's interiors, including tightly packed wooden tables and chairs and red walls and exposed brick

Madre – for modern takes on Mexican cuisine

This colourful Albert Dock restaurant is much loved for its next-level tacos (do not miss the birria with slow-cooked beef shin) and its crisp, modern takes on Mexican cuisine, in dishes such as watermelon salad with chilli, mint, feta and a strawberry vinaigrette, or wood-fired pistachio-crust lamb breast with avo salsa. On sunny days the fun extends out onto a large terrace. Also, this summer, look out for the opening of a Liverpool Salon, Madre’s pool hall meets tacos spin-off. thisismadre.co.uk

Selection of tacos and Mexican dishes on a bright green table at Madre, Liverpool

Vetch – for modern British dishes with Nordic and East Asian influences

Opened in spring 2024, Vetch is an ambitious addition. Expect polished service in a relaxed dining room, where 2021 Great British Menu winner Dan McGeorge creates modern British dishes with clear Nordic and East Asian influences. His cooking is elevated work, full of exciting flavours. Brief menu descriptions (duck, beetroot, damson, say) barely hint at the layered complexity on the plate. Barbecued monkfish, for example, comes with leeks used in four different ways, a hot dashi and XO broth, and pearls of ponzu dressing. Carefully chosen wines and bespoke cocktails seal this refined deal. vetchrestaurant.com

A stylishly retro-futurist space (think sixties sci-fi chic) where exec chef Daniel Heffy’s team is cooking to great acclaim. Star dishes, such as beef tartare, tallow emulsion, macadamia and pickled cucumber, or seasonal entries such as a spring dish of butter-poached hake with sorrel cream, Jersey Royals, smoked eel and peas, are intelligently designed and deliver memorable flavours. Daniel also leads the kitchen at The Hightown Inn, a pub and dining room in Hightown, a coastal village between Liverpool and Southport. nordrestaurant.co.uk

Buyers Club – for fresh pasta, pizza and spritz cocktails

Easily missed (look for the archway entrance off Hardman Street), Buyers Club courtyard garden is a sweet summer location for spritz cocktails and pizza. Its reliably brilliant fresh pasta dishes are reason to visit all year round. Try orecchiette with ’nduja and fennel sausage, mascarpone and sage pangrattato or the pappardelle with 14-hour braised beef shin ragu. buyers-club.co.uk

Buyers Club courtyard garden featuring long orange tables and fairy lights

More places to eat and drink in Liverpool

Duke Street Market – for an industrial-chic food hall eats

An attractive space with a convivial buzz, Duke Street feels right even before you take a bite – and even better after you do. Kitchens include steak specialist Bone and Block, whose menu runs to 1kg ex-dairy Galician sharing steaks; Big Lola’s for tacos or burritos; and Barbina, which serves fresh pasta dishes of, for example, rigatoni with ox cheek ragu or lobster and crab ravioli. dukestreetmarket.com

Bar Glue – for cocktails in an award winning bar

From brewery tap Black Lodge to the Liverpool Gin Distillery bar and its Gin Lab, this city offers numerous diversions for curious drinkers. If cocktails are your thing, make a beeline for the multi award winning bijou Bar Glue. Takeover nights with globally renowned bars, such as Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy, indicate the ambition at play here. The Glue vibe is relaxed but in its fastidious sourcing of rare bottles, homemaking of ingredients and creative serves, it is working tirelessly to deliver distinctive drinks. barglue.com

A cocktail and snack served at Bar Glue, Liverpool

Baltic Market – for a tasty array of street food

A Liverpool scene linchpin, this warehouse chow down is home – in the likes of Listo Burrito, the Middle Eastern inspired Hafla Hafla, or wood-fired pizzeria Little Furnace – to a tasty array of kitchens. Proper plates, cutlery and glassware is a grown-up, eco-friendly touch and, with its steak frites and beer-battered fish and chips, chef Livia Alarcon’s La Bistroteca is broadening Baltic Market’s range beyond the street food classics. balticmarket.co.uk

Delifonseca – for retail food hall treasures

This large, modern Brunswick Dock retail food hall and restaurant is a treasure trove. At the butchery counter you will find acclaimed Wirral butcher, Edge & Son, a specialist in locally sourced, rare and native breed meats, while Delifonseca’s shelves are stacked with gourmet treats from Liverpool (Black Lodge beers; Plattsville Bakehouse breads; handmade Toxteth Chocolate), Britain and around the world. delifonseca.co.uk

Neighbourhood spotlight

Bold Street and Ropewalks

When locals talk of Bold Street they mean not just that main drag but also the grid of streets (aka Ropewalks) it sandwiches with Duke Street. In the past decade, that compact area has proven a fertile ground for bars, restaurants and nightlife.

Where once Matta’s International Foods or treasured veggie-vegan veteran, The Egg Cafe, were foodie outliers, second gen pioneers such as boho café-bar Leaf, ace Levantine restaurant Maray, and Bold Street Coffee (do not miss its toasted brioche brekkie sandwiches) put Bold Street on the map and helped attract many flavour-forward indies to the area, from Liverpool and beyond.

Today, those originals share Bold Street with, for example, Middle Eastern and North African spot Bakchich, coffee/wine bar Ropes & Twines and hot imports from across the north, including Fat Hippo burgers, Leeds-based Gujarati snack geniuses Bundobust and doughnut kiosk Gooey.

The story is the same on the surrounding streets where local faves such as Hibiki Sushi & Ramen, cocktail bar Berry and Rye or Duke Street Market operate alongside growing northern brands such as Neapolitan-style pizza crew Rudy’s. Given its ultra- central location it is but a short hop from Bold Street to everything else, too. You could, for example, walk to specialist beer bar Dead Crafty, or Hope Street pub and dining room, The Dog & Collar, in 10 minutes. From Bold Street, Liverpool, if not the world, is your oyster.