This Restaurant Will Make Your Date Night into a Night in His Bed

I am back in Liverpool and I decided to go somewhere nicer. That screams Michelin Star ready, because I am sure Liverpool is more than Beatles and fish and chips. So I did some research and found this restaurant called, Art School restaurant. The restaurant serves seafood focused local produce and seasonal ingredients. According the website, the building is : 

Located in the stunning lantern room of the Victorian 1888 ‘Home for Destitute children’ building

It used to be an art school and the restaurant did everything to keep its vibe of the old building. You know even keeping the restaurant name as it is. 

OVERALL

If you can, go for the tasting menu. The menu starts strong and ends a bit mediocre, but overall it is probably one of the best date night restaurant in Liverpool. It is more of a high end restaurant where it would cost around 130 pounds. If you are looking for more of a reasonable price I would recommend London Carriage Works. Also ask Sarah Donoher for any wine recommendation. SHE IS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST and was the highlight of my night!

LOCATION

The restaurant is on Sugnall street, not far from hope street and Liverpool China town. As I was walking towards the restaurant I encountered beautiful brick buildings, so it is very walkable. 

You can see it on the map and the dark yellow area is Liverpool City Centre and that is where I killed some time before I went to the restaurant. Here is where I went to kill time (It is not necessarily to tour but to kill time). If you want something to tour check out Lastminute. It is giving you the 26 things to do in Liverpool. If you are looking for bars and affordable restaurants, you can check out my post here about where to go for drinks! I listed best hotels in Liverpool here.

 

AMBIANCE

Outside of the restaurant, there is a red carpet like ropes leading to the entrance. There were comfortable sofas and a wood burning fire place while you wait for the concierge to come. As we sat down, the bartender offered a Champagne. It was absolutely “lovely”(a strong accent like an Liverpool lad) to get a free glass. 

Art School restaurant was a destitute children building opened in 1888. It was converted into an art school which the restaurant kept its name. It didn’t just keep its name. They kept the glass atrium roof where painters once worked on sculptors with natural lighting. The room is a combination of luxury and rustic wood and steel beams on the wall, and chic lightings. Personally the red chairs wasn’t my favorite and I don’t think it went well with the rustic wood and steel beams. 

MENU

You can either have a la carte or a tasting menu, but if you are at the Art School, you should have the tasting menu. Anyways, that is what we had.The best part of the whole tasting menu is you get to have a wine pairing and by the end of the meal, you fall asleep or get drunk lol.  I know it is super hard to sit on a table for two hours and a half, but I did it, so you can do it! So shall we go down the list?

Amuse Bouche

Probably my favorite meal of the day. It was a soup that was creamy and rich. And the fried onion was DELACIOUUUUSSSS! They served in a small cup, and I almost asked for an extra cup.

Cornish Red Mullet

YAS YAS YAS to caviar. The fish was light and juicy and chanterelle tasted like juicy clam. I seriously thought chanterelle was a clam, so I looked up the menu what it was before I knew it was a mushroom duh  I would say the amuse bouche and the red mullet were the best meal.

But Sarah Donoher, the sommelier, was the highlight of the night. She was like 10 month pregnant and still rocking around with her passion with wine and inspiring the guest to fall in love with her choices. 

Northop Wood Pigeon

So when we decided to go for the tasting menu, I didn’t really look at the menu. I didn’t realize there was a pigeon, and I thought Mark was making a joke about it. I have tried a game bird and it wasn’t the nicest experience. So I was preparing myself to eat that pigeon. This was my rollercoaster emotional state:

1. OMG, there is no way I’m eating a pigeon. I am from a pigeon infested New York and we all know how disgusting they are
2. Mark says it is a nicer one and it will just be the breast
3. I “will” be a good sport & classy and try it
4. When the meal came, the food was surprisingly nice. It just tasted like beef
5. After the 5th slice, I started to taste and smell a strong taste of “I don’t know” “may be a bird”?
6. Maybe cause it was keep playing in my mind that it was a pigeon
7. Still I finished it. And let me tell you this. It is not that bad.

Asaph Lamb; Pan Roasted Loin and Slow Cooked Shoulder & Belly

This was nice. Mixture of different types of meat. The best was probably the slow cooked shoulder and belly. 

Desserts

Well, I don’t like sweets in general so when we got the desserts, I just at the ice-cream. And I asked the cake for to go. I don’t think “can I get it for to-go” culture is not big in England. They didn’t have a to-go box, so they wrapped it with a tin foil which was kind of cute. According to Mark, the cake was gorgeous.