Lunya

With its warm and welcoming dining room and charming staff, Lunya always offers a warm welcome - even in the depths of a northern winter.

The restaurant started out life as a street food stall, selling deli goods to the punters of North West Food Festival, before finding a permanent home on College Lane (and subsequently opening another Liverpool site, and an outpost in Manchester). With the deli offering still very much at its heart, Lunya provides the perfect place to grab a bite to eat while picking up a few nibbles to take home with you for another evening.

The main space is glass fronted, allowing for plenty of natural light to pour through for an airy feel. Closely packed wooden tables and chairs are simply dressed and create a community buzz when the room is full; with families, dates and groups of friends all bundled in together to enjoy the tapas menu. Here the produce shines, with beautiful ingredients simply cooked up into hearty Catalonian plates (Lunya claim to be the UK's only Catalonian fusion restaurant and deli no less).

Charcuterie boards packed with cheeses, meats, quince paste and fried broad beans kick things off, while there might be a perfectly soft-centred traditional tortilla to follow. Other menu highlights include patatas bravas served with both a spicy tomato sauce and a rich garlic mayonnaise - the very best of both worlds and the way we like to eat our spuds.

Bottles of Spanish and Catalonian wine line the walls in the deli shop, and happily make their way onto the sit-in menu. Try robust full-bodied reds to go with rich chorizo dishes or sip on something from the lineup of crisp whites to complement the many seafood dishes on offer - from classic garlic gambas pil pil to small and sweet white anchovies served simply marinaded in good quality oil and herbs.

Lunya is an award winning deli, tapas restaurant and bar in Liverpool, serving Catalan inspired bites and delicious drinks, on the corner of Hanover Street. You can have a relaxing glass of wine at the bar, enjoy the beautiful Catalan artwork and even grab a few of your favourites to take home.

The menu at Lunya offers a large selection of olives and traditional snacks. You'll have choices of marinated arbequina olives with fennel and garlic, giant gordal olives stuffed with fresh orange and chilli flakes and sweet and sour pickled mild green chillies. Meanwhile, snacks include spicy baked baby broad beans and Spanish pork scratchings. The restaurant is proud to say that they have the largest selection of Catalan and Spanish cheese - outside of Spain, of course. You can enjoy semi-curado manchego, vicente pastor zamorano and the lightly smoked Basque cheese of idiazábal.

Fruit accompaniments can be ordered to go with your cheese, and there are options of red onion marmalade with piccalilli, chestnut honey and apricot and cranberry chutney.

Lunya also possessed one of the best cured fish selections in Liverpool, including mussels in escabeche, chargrilled red tuna neck and razor clams that are cooked over coals. For vegan diners, you’ll find a deli platter complete with marinated vegetables, salads, olives, homemade dips and snacks. And for those with more meaty appetites, there’s a long list of meat tapas, including glorious cuts of Iberico Bellota pork shoulder that is seared with Chicharones spices and drizzled with pomegranate molasses.

From the fish tapas selection try the surimi crab sticks tossed with prawns and mayo or the tiny baby squid that is floured and deep-fried. Last but not least, there’s deep fried monte enebro, an award winning goat's cheese that's drizzled with Alemany orange blossom honey and served with beetroot crisps.