Red Dog Saloon

You may well have heard of Red Dog Saloon, they've been open on Bold Street for a while now but I'm ashamed to say my first visit was just last week. I'm not really sure why, but I suppose in the flurry of new restaurants opening this year this one just slipped through the net. 

After all, I am just one tiny person and there's only so much eating my waistline (and my bank balance) will allow. With Liverpool now crammed full of new and exciting food-stuffs, American food sadly falls towards the lower end of my list.

Revisiting Rumi

You'd be forgiven if you said you'd never been to Rumi by Bukhara. In fact, I'd forgive you even if you said you'd walked past but never been in, because on the outside this place is very unassuming. Like I mentioned the last time I went to Bukhara, this place looks a lot more like a cafe-come-takeaway than it does your typical Indian restaurant.

 

Rudy's

I'm well aware that I won't be the first to tell you about Rudy's. Castle Street's newest pizzeria has been the name on everybody's lips for the past few weeks and this weekend they've finally opened their doors to a flood of Instagram pictures, a multitude of excited tweets and a resounding 'YES!' from all of us lucky beggars that managed to get down there on opening night. 

So why the excitement? Rudy's already have two really popular Manchester branches and now they've taken the plunge and set up shop in Liverpool in the huge, (now empty) building where CAU used to be- and it's good. Really, really good.

Carlisi

When I find somewhere I like to eat I can be really annoying about it. Any of you that have had to suffer through me harping on about how much I love Salt House Bacaro will know exactly what I'm talking about here. Well, in the interests of giving you all fair and advanced warning, I thought I'd let you know that I've found a new Italian favourite. In fact I liked to so much it had me browsing Skyscanner for flights to Tuscany as soon as I got home.

The Devon Doorway

I love a good pub tea as much as the next person, but having been born and bred in the South of the city, my knowledge of pubs across the water is admittedly limited. I've had a good roast in The Red Fox in Thornton, and I've stopped for a drink in the beer gardens of Wirral faves like The Viking and The Jug and Bottle but aside from that? Couldn't tell you.

Well I'm feeling particularly smug right now since not only did I attend the re-launch of The Devon Doorway in Heswall this week, it turned out to be completely fab and now I have the perfect place to recommend to weekend walkers looking for a proper pub dinner.

Flour will Fly

There are very few occasions where you'll see me out of bed at 10am on a Saturday morning. There are even fewer occasions where you'll see me out of bed, showered, dressed and in the city centre by that time- in fact, yesterday was probably the first time it's ever happened. 

The reason for such a momentous occasion was unsurprisingly food based- though this time it was all about me making it rather than eating it (I mean, I did get to eat it eventually but that was much later) and it's all because I'd been invited to try out Liverpool's newest pasta class Flour will Fly.

The class runs weekly inside Olive on Castle Street and with a group size of around 8-10 it's a relaxed and intimate way to learn how to make fresh pasta with the lovely Paola (and her extended Italian fam) helping you along the way. 

& of course there's bubbles!

We learned to mix, knead, fill and shape the pasta and even got to grips with the pasta machine, managing to produce some respectable looking spinach and ricotta ravoli as well as a few bundles of fresh tagliatelle.

We followed Paola's instructions to cook the pasta that night and made the most unbelievable dinner, sauteing our ravioli in huge puddles of butter and sage and making a meaty (and boozy?) bolognese sauce to go with the rest. It was, as you can probably imagine, really really good-so thin and light and completely incomparable to the dried stuff I usually have.

Plus, whilst I won't go in to too much detail about how I know this, I can confirm it tasted absolutely phenomenal reheated and scoffed down with my fingers in the early hours of the morning. 

I'd recommend Paola's class to anybody- we had so much fun and I'll definitely be trying to re-create what we made at home. Find the Flour will Fly details on their Insta page- here.

Happy Cooking!

x

*I was kindly invited to try out Paola's class, but as always all words, thoughts, pictures and opinions are completely my own!

Miller and Carter Otterspool

As you may know, in my old(er) age I've become a bit of a fan of a weekend walk, although admittedly, only when I know it will end in some kind of celebratory reward-based eating. Walking alongside the Mersey at Otterspool Prom has long been one of my favourite places to do this. You can see right across the Wirral (sometimes to Wales on a clear day) and once when I was peering aimlessly into the murky depths I saw a sea lion,  I swear.

Dostana

In a village as small as Woolton, competition to be the reigning curry house, best chippy and most loved cafe is fierce. The locals (myself included) have grown familiar with their favourite food spots, eat their favourite dishes on the regular and know the ins and outs of the pub drinks list like the back of their hands.

Revolution- St Peter's Square

Back in my university days Revolution was a place I associated with sticky floors, mountains of sickly sweet shots and lots of very late blurry nights. As it turns out, Revs is actually a surprisingly normal place in the day time. The branch in St Peter's Square (just behind FACT) is really sleek, airy and colourful (absolutely not how I remember it) and they've got a pretty sweet lunch offering too.

Mackie Mayor

It probably won't surprise you that I don't tend to travel too far from Liverpool for food. But when the opportunity to head in to Manchester for an early evening diner arose I was secretly made up to get a chance to finally try out one of Manchester's newest food markets. 

Mackie Mayor is an indoor food market, much like the Baltic only a bit (a lot) posher. It's actually inside a Grade 2 listed building so not only is it stunning inside, it's been happily returned to it's market roots.

The Florist

Unsurprisingly, the number one name on everybody's lips at the moment is The Florist, and rightly so. This is the place e v e r y o n e and their nan is talking about, so much so, I thought I'd skip the talking and just show you around it instead.

Mr Lau's

Dim Sum Delights at Mr Laus

Dinner with Dad- Yukti ISF

I have many things to thank my dad for. Raising me, helping me with my homework, taking me on holiday and many, many years of being my taxi to and from various events (even now that I'm 26). But mostly, for raising me to appreciate good food and drink. As a rather fussy child he was the first person to make me eat a pizza, we were in Orlando and I was starving so I scoffed it down and never looked back. Likewise, in my later years I've picked up his insatiable red wine habit alongside his passion for a bit of spice.