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.

Set in the heart of Liverpool, Vetch is a modern European restaurant run by head chef and co-owner Daniel McGeorge, who returned to his native Liverpool after picking up multiple awards, including the Craft Guild of Chefs Restaurant Chef Award in 2022 and becoming Great British Menu Champion of Champions in 2021, to launch his debut solo restaurant. Originally a tasting menu restaurant, Vetch now serves up an a la carte menu, packed with plenty of choice, giving diners greater freedom to explore his singular cooking style. 

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. All this puts the focus on the beautiful, modern European dishes that land at the table. 

The Vetch menu is built around small plates, larger dishes and sides, showcasing influences that reach from homegrown British classics into Asia, Scandinavia and beyond. For example, you might spot oysters with green strawberry and yuzu hot sauce, raw trout tostada with finger lime and togarashi, and mackerel with kohlrabi and XO. Larger plates, meanwhile, include salt-aged duck with blackberry kosho and jus, whole plaice with clam beurre blanc, and cod with girolle, onion, chicken and miso sauce. For vegetables, glazed aubergine comes with red pepper and couscous, while sides include hispi cabbage with ranch and crispy grains.

To drink, peruse Vetch's list of cocktails, Champagne and varied wines, while desserts range from sticky toffee pudding with miso caramel to malted milk soft serve with banana and caramel. Lean more savoury? Look to British cheese, honey and smoked lavash as a satisfying alternative. Menus change with the seasons, but the kitchen's combination of precise technique, strong produce and playful flavour pairings remains at the centre of Vetch's cooking.