Vetch

Chef Daniel McGeorge has carved out an island of calm on bustling Hope Street. Entering the Georgian townhouse, you’re welcomed into an intimate dining room of calming creams and whites, dried grasses and big sash windows capturing the warm evening sun going setting on another Liverpool night.

Attentive staff are ready for any question about McGeorge’s truly international menu. The canapes are a taste of things to come - pillowy and savoury Aebelskiver from Denmark, char siu pork belly with gorgeous melty fat, and a smoked cod’s roe and chicken skin canape with the lightest touch of ponzu.

Each stop delights on this culinary voyage. Highlights include plump, lightly poached scallop slices and beads of dill oil bobbing in a perfectly balanced dashi. Robust cubes of smoked eel with beet and soy were textural marvels. Cauliflower chawanmushi was new to us, with a frothy and light foam and slivers of truffle covering the silky set custard below.

Next we landed firmly back in Liverpool - served in its own chicken shop box, a perfectly crisp katsu chicken wing. This isn’t your usual chicken and curry sauce, but a painstakingly prepared, perfectly light chicken mousse in the crispiest of coatings. The wine pairing of this dish - pink and fizzy - was a very chic, tongue-in-cheek nod to Liverpool nights out.

The apex of the menu was beef sirloin with aubergine, but the star billing is the sauce. What a sauce! It had the depth, richness and intrigue of an old smoky city, or at the very least, the greatest roast beef gravy ever tasted. It’s a sauce that is worth the visit alone.

And after that, McGeorge’s thoughtful, expert treatment of desserts left us on a high note, managing in one dish to hit the right balance with liquorice and blueberry, and in the finale, a life-changing chocolate, miso caramel and toasted rice dessert.

Vetch is quite unlike any other restaurant in Liverpool. The tasting menu format (a very reasonable three-course is also available for lunch) will put it among the pricier places in the city. But in terms of intrigue, experimentation and high-level cooking, it’s undoubtedly one of the most exciting places to eat in Liverpool.

Tucked away in the heart of Liverpool, Vetch is a modern European restaurant run by head chef and co-owner, Daniel McGeorge, who has returned home to his native Liverpool with this debut solo restaurant. McGeorge has won many plaudits and awards during his career, including the Craft Guild of Chefs Restaurant Chef Award in 2022, and becoming Great British Menu Champion of Champions in 2021, so you know you're in safe hands here.

The restaurant itself is designed to be an intimate, calming space, juxtaposed against busy Hope Street outside. The dining room boasts a neutral palette of whites and creams, with big period sash windows that let in plenty of natural light. Expect a pristine dining space that matches each artfully-plated dish. 

Boasting menus of locally-sourced ingredients, Vetch offers the choice of a five or seven course tasting menu, with the option to add a drink pairing to each course. Taking international influence from all over Asia and Europe, you can expect exquisitely plated dishes such as char siu pork belly with sesame and pickled cabbage, smoked cod's roe with furikake and ponzu trout roe, and cod with kohlrabi, sake and sea beet. Things will be rounded off beautifully with milk chocolate paired with miso, caramel and rice. If that’s not enough, then an additional cheese course is available to add as an extra course to both menus.

If you’re looking for something a bit lighter, then diners have the option of popping in for a lunch, or an early bird set menu, offering a slightly reduced menu and price tag. Enjoy flavours of shokupan milk bread with sweetcorn and miso-cultured butter, and mackerel with turnip, elderflower and dill. Not looking for a full meal? A smaller, snack menu is available in the bar. Here, you'll find a similarly inspired menu, just in bite-size pieces.