The story
At 29a Hope Street, Vetch is the realisation of head chef and co-owner Daniel McGeorge’s vision. After winning The Great British Menu in 2021 and the Craft Guild of Chefs Restaurant Chef Award in 2022, McGeorge returned to his home city of Liverpool to open a restaurant built on his own creativity and passion.
The name Vetch comes from vicia sativa, an edible scrambling plant with fuchsia-pink flowers and twirling tendrils that has been foraged by humans for millennia. That spirit of wild, seasonal discovery runs through everything here. The food has been described as Scandinavian-Japanese-British fusion, marrying the best of British produce with international techniques and a deep understanding of umami.
The restaurant itself is an intimate space designed for what the team calls a "gently discerning gastronomic experience". Co-owner and restaurant manager Georgia Goodman runs the front of house, curating a wine list to match the kitchen’s ambition. The atmosphere is warm and unhurried, the kind of place where you might wish the final glass of wine would last a little longer.
Diners can choose from two tasting menus. Tasting Menu I is priced at £105, while the longer Tasting Menu II is £130. Both change with the seasons and reflect McGeorge’s foraging and global research. Sample dishes include smoked salmon with furikake and ponzu trout roe, char siu pork belly with sesame and coriander, scallop with sweetcorn and XO, and duck with beetroot and damson. There are also shorter three-course lunch and dinner options for £45 and £49 respectively, ideal as a pre-theatre treat.
The restaurant has earned a Michelin Recommended distinction, a fitting recognition for a kitchen that balances precision with genuine warmth. Vetch is modern cuisine with its feet firmly on Merseyside ground.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Chef Daniel McGeorge is back on his home turf after a long stint at Rothay Manor in Cumbria, and is now ensconced in one of the Georgian terraced townhouses that line Hope Street, long known as Liverpool's arts and cultural quarter. He has also taken the right decision to keep this intimate, off-white and green-coloured restaurant simple and unfussy to the point of monastic understatement. On the other hand, the large sash windows frame Hope Street's hustle like a moving picture, and the Scandi-chic aesthetic suits his culinary style. The menu reflects his in-depth interest in both Nordic and Japanese cuisines, and the result is intriguing as well as sophisticated. Fittingly, given the proximity of the famous Liverpool Art School, dishes are strikingly presented and exactingly plated on handsome ceramics. Diners can choose to eat from the three-course lunch/early-bird menu or commit to one of the longer tasting menus with the option of a drinks pairing. However, the set lunch is culled from the tasters and courses can be small – we polished them off in a bite or two – and only suitable for the smallest of appetites. A standout on our visit was a thick, succulent Creedy Carver duck breast with roasted beetroot, pickled beetroot curls and a fine damson sauce, as harmonic as anything you might find at the Philharmonic Hall next door. Other eclectic options might range from æbleskiver (Danish pancake balls) with cheese and onion to a delicate, perfectly seasoned piece of monkfish served in a heavy, dark bowl with slivers of shredded fresh and toasted leek, plus a splash of very thin XO dashi. Dessert was another high point: a composition of pumpkin, caramel, miso and finger lime in various iterations that offered a memorable mash-up of citrus pop, treacly notes and sugary cream. A short, snappy international wine offers sound drinking, from ‘super-fruit all-rounders’ to ‘full-bodied heavyweights’.
2 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Location
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