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.

Found 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 to open his 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.

McGeorge's influences are wide ranging, taking in plenty of influence from all over Asia, as well as European inspiration. Meanwhile, the restaurant itself is designed to be an intimate, calming space, juxtaposed against busy Hope Street outside. The dining room is decorated with grasses and beige earth tones, with big period sash windows that bring natural light in. 

You'll be offered a lunch or tasting menu of either five or seven courses, and be presented with the choice to choose drink pairings in addition to each course. The menus have been created by McGeorge in order to demonstrate a broad and exciting range of flavours for you to enjoy.

The lunch menu begins with a pairing of shokupan, sweetcorn and miso cultured butter, before mackerel, turnip and elderflower with dill, and cauliflower chawanmushi with onion and parmesan. Next up is the cod with kohlrabi with sake and choi sum, along with the beef paired with aubergine, morning glory and nasturtium. Things will be rounded off beautifully with milk chocolate paired with miso, caramel and rice.

For those who choose the tasting menu, enjoy flavours of smoked cod's roe with chicken skin and ponzu, along with lamb sweetbread with pine and katsuobushi, and beef paired with eel and soy. An additional dessert can be served here, which is blueberry paired with liquorice and yoghurt. An additional cheese course is optional to both the five and seven course taster menus for an additional cost.