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.