London Carriage Works

Restaurant - English in Liverpool

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40 Hope Street
Liverpool
Merseyside
L1 9DA

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Overpriced

Service

Quality

Value

Sorry, while this trades on its reputation, the time I went the staff were a little stand-offish, the portions very small and completely over-priced. I didn't enjoy it.

David Colbran - 24/09/2008 | report this review

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What a carriage-on (sorry....)

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Hmmmm, the stars are only awardable in full increments. This place really needs the half-star - in fact, the half-star sums it up. It's famed in Liverpool as "the posh place to eat" (although 60 Hope Street is comparable in price, but chooses not to display its diners to the world...), and it certainly has the trappings of posh. Most notably, and to my mind, hilariously, there are apparently two sets of serving staff - one set whose menial task it is to bring dishes from the kitchen, and one (apparently superior race of beings) whose sacred duty it is to remove the plates from the grubby paws of the first set and place said dishes upon your linen gastronomic shrine. Why such an arrangement is deemed necessary is an eternal sociological riddle. Diners are (as I have said) placed prominently in the windows (which are full length), presumably because the rest of the fine dining area is usually empty. Ladies - beware of your skirt length, and find a new sympathy for shop-window mannequins. The food is good - excellent in places, for example the lamb done in three different ways was outstanding, as was the liquorice ice-cream with honeycomb - but somewhat too nouvelle cuisine to be truly satisfying. I speak as one who devoured three courses, to be left a trifle peckish. Three transparent squares of "open ravioli" with a shred of beetroot is little more than an amuse-bouche, not the "starter" it claims. The wine list is good, and the sommelier adequate. Overall, the feeling you are left with is that staff who are overawed by the trappings of poshness would benefit from broader experience of fine dining, and with more attention where it matters (the food) this place might one day live up to the hype. That said - it makes for a flair first date...

A User - 03/09/2008 | report this review

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what a disappointment...

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Quality

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We first visited the London Carriage Works as a special treat not long after it first opened, and it was fantastic. This first visit is still one of my favourite evenings out ever - food, staff, ambience, setting just worked together beautifully, and it was well worth the money (about £100 for 2 people for 3 courses and wine).However, we had a very disappointing return visit last month and most likely won't go back again. Although the food was still very nice, the service was just so poor that it now feels overpriced and a very different and disappointing experience. The staff - although friendly - seemed totally untrained and unprofessional, kept people waiting, didn't inform us about specials or food that was not available, didn't seem knowledgable about wine, ... I could go on. Don't bother, you'll get equally good food but better service elsewhere.

A User - 09/08/2008 | report this review

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Expensice fine dining

Service

Quality

Value

If fine dining is what your looking for then you cant do much worse than the carriage works. A beautiful modern dining room with a good selection of fine wines and an amply staffed kitchen to deliver top quality cuisine. chips of course come as large rectangular slabs stacked next to thick juicy stake. A few bottles of champagne and a chocolate desert served on a slate tile drissled in fresh syrup and there wont be much room in your wallet, or your stomach for the cheeses.The east side of liverpool has some great surrounding bars and restuarants to accompany an evening of gourmet dining.

A User - 05/08/2008 | report this review

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Good for Liverpool

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There's no getting around the fact that outside London the restaurant scene in this country can be at the very least hit and miss. You can eat badly anywhere of course, it's just that you really start noticing the ratio of good to bad places dropping off dramatically the moment you leave the capital, and finding anywhere half decent in the regions requires a fair amount of research, a sprinking of good fortune and often a not insignificant budget.Liverpool is attempting to make things easier for the average food tourist by arranging all its good restaurants on one road - Hope Street - within minutes of each other, and with a farmer's market on the same stretch of tarmac on the third Sunday in every month. Worth checking out to anyone in this part of town are the Side Door (also reviewed), Ego, which is a small chain but is consistently decent and do lots of organic stuff, 60 Hope Street, a high-end bistro serving good local produce, and The London Carriage Works, which I visited on a bitterly cold evening in January.The first thing we were told on arriving was that nearly all the fish & seafood dishes were unavailable - probably something to do with the time of year, and at least they weren't using frozen substitutes. Service was friendly enough - surprisingly not always a given in a city famed for the warmth of its people - and with the main restaurant closed off the few diners in the brasserie/bar area were treated with commendable attention.My starter was Lakeland venison carpaccio. I chose this because I like venison and despite the fact all meat carpaccios I've ever had have been rather disappointing, I was hoping that a strong gamey flavour would bring something new to what is all too often a few cold slices of tasteless meat on an oversized plate. Unfortunately the meat on this dish could still have been anything - there was no strong venison flavour and my opinion of carpaccio is still resolutely unchanged (ie. a pretentious waste of good meat). However it was served with a very nice peppercorn and juniper vinaigrette which went down very well mopped up with the excellent warm bread rolls.For main I had "Iron aged pork" - and despite being confidently informed by our waiter this meant "aged in iron barrels", I had my suspicions and indeed discovered that evening through the powers of Google that it is in fact a rare iron-age breed of pig from North Wales. This discovery was tinged with disappointment as I was ready to announce to the world a new Liverpool speciality of "pig in a barrel", which I think would lend itself quite nicely to an eccentric local food festival in the Gloucester cheese-rolling vein. Unfortunately the reality was far more mundane as the kitchen had seen fit to hugely overcook said pork, so much so that it was dry and chewy all the way through. A terrible mistake, as it is perfectly acceptable to leave good pork quite pink in the middle these days. I should say though that again despite the main ingredient being disappointing the jus and caramelised fruit and veg served with the pig were all brilliant. Such a shame.And there would have ended a pretty underwhelming meal, had the London Carriage Works not had one wonderful last trick up its sleeve - a cheese menu! As I was salivating over the list of cheeses from all over the north west and the world it occurred to me - why don't more restaurants have a cheese menu? Plenty of top London places have cheese boards to die for (step forward Chez Bruce and Claridge's) but having to ask the waiter about each one in turn is exhausting. Why not have a proper list to consult? Apologies for the poor photo as I was attempting to hold the pages open with one hand and operate my cameraphone with the other, but take my word for it that the descriptions made very interesting reading and served as an excellent reminder that if there's one thing this part of the world does very well it's cheese. We chose Kidderton Ash and Smoked Gubbeen amongst others, but the real star and our latest greatest discovery is Mrs Kirkhams Lancashire cheese, waxy and soft with a lovely nutty taste and completely unlike any other Lancashire cheese I've ever tried. I'm told you can get it at Neal's Yard so I shall be going at the weekend.So full marks for the cheese course but "must try harder" when it comes to making the most of the admittedly well-chosen local ingredients. And at what is a premium price by any standards (best part of £50 a head) there's no excuse for overcooking pork. All is not lost - Liverpool has a few more restaurants on my to-do list so there's plenty of time to restore the reputation of the city, and maybe I shouldn't be so hard on a place which is doing a good job promoting local ingredients in a place not exactly famed for its gastronomic heritage. But equally I would be doing London Carriage Works an injustice if I didn't rate it by the measure of good food anywhere. There shouldn't be any such thing as "good for Liverpool".

A User - 03/08/2008 | report this review

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