Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill Liverpool — Restaurant in Liverpool

We booked this 2 days beforehand for afternoon tea our first clue should have been this was the only place that wasn’t booked out. I had been to Marco Pierre in Birmingham for afternoon tea before and it was fab so wasn’t concerned. We were a booking of 6 adults and 2 children. We ordered 3 afternoon tea as it’s 2 people to each afternoon tea and a child’s afternoon tea for the 5 year old as she was looking at a picture of it and it had gingerbread men and other fun stuff on it. She received a plate with tomato and cream cheese sandwich cucumber and cream cheese sandwich and 2 pieces of the same chocolate cake the adults got. If they had told us the children’s was nothing like the picture we wouldn’t have ordered it but in fairness they could have had a packet of cookies from Aldi just so the kids afternoon tea had at least a cookie on it. Anyway we ordered her a Mac and cheese so she was sorted. We were told when we ordered the adults afternoon tea it was one per 2 people and if we needed any extra sandwich’s or cakes just to let them know it was all included as was the tea and coffee the adults was only ok again tomato and cream cheese and cucumber and cream cheese sandwich’s on the vegetarian one we explained it was vegetarian not vegan so egg sandwiches and cheese sandwiches would be fine but don’t think they do them in Liverpool we definitely got them in Birmingham but anyway only half a ham sandwich on each of the regular afternoon teas so we asked for another ham sandwich only to be told we had to pay extra for it it we said ok. When we first put out order in we ordered 3 teas and 2 lattes tea came out with the food no problem we had finished eating and still no sign of the lattes we had asked politely a couple of times I could understand if it was busy but there were only 2 other customers there when they eventually they came a regular latte and an oat milk latte they were out of oat milk so brought an almond milk latte instead without checking first if that was ok or if the person who ordered it had nut allergies we just said it was fine and took it both lattes very cold. The waiter serving was nice and pleasant but I feel service could have been better obviously the standard of the food and the kitchen being out of stuff wasn’t his fault. Our overall experience wasn’t great and I wouldn’t recommend it for afternoon tea maybe it’s very good for the other menu steaks burgers ect…. definitely not for afternoon tea I would except a lot better for what they are charging I had afternoon tea and 1 non alcoholic cocktail for £52...

Updated review 2nd May 2024.

I’ve eaten here a number of times over the past few years – it was always good, solid choice offering well-cooked, consistent meals. The new spring/summer menu is disappointing, however.

Marco restaurants have recently moved to a seasonal menu concept after several years of an unchanged menu – the autumn/winter menu was decent, although it did seem to be an excuse to reduce the number of core options on the menu (Wheeler’s Fishcake and two of the burgers were removed, for example). This was my first visit following the introduction of the spring/summer menu and I have to say, I wasn’t impressed.

The choice of starters is now quite weak, compared to comparators – the scotch egg is still on there, but you have to be in the mood for something like that and the spring/summer specials are particularly uninspired. I opted to try the new the tart of mushrooms – in theory that sounded very nice – a tart with mushrooms, egg and hollandaise. The reality was incredibly disappointing – a large and (very) thick tart base (almost a pie), filled with a vinegary-tasting mushed mix of mushroom paste. Soft boiled egg and sauce on top. The tart itself was far too large for a starter, the base very dry and thick. Hard to eat and the Hollandaise couldn’t save it. I didn’t finish the tart and wouldn’t order this again – not at all what you’d expect.

For the main I ordered the chicken forestierre – previously experience with this dish has been very positive – well-cooked chicken with potato, mushrooms and spinach. Last night’s version all felt a bit no-effort though – the chicken was ok, the potato seemed more like a chunk of basic-boiled potato than the previous version and there were barely any mushrooms. Appreciate the restaurant was busy, but if this was my first time, I wouldn’t be coming back again on the basis of last night’s dinner.

The pudding menu has lost a few of the previous options – the 70% chocolate was always good. The sticky toffee pudding is on there, but it only comes with ice-cream and really needs custard.

Overall, this isn’t a bad restaurant – the bar is great and the staff are always very engaging, with the service generally good. The food (and particularly the food presentation) standards and options do seem to have slipped a bit though – hopefully that is a temporary blip and that can be recovered. I wouldn’t recommend on the basis of this most recent...

This restaurant is found off of the beaten path and should stay there! We decided to come here for a casual business dinner. We were initially looking for a different steakhouse, but sadly could not find it. So we tried this one. Bad mistake! We arrived around 7:00PM and were quickly seated and greeted. We were asked if we wanted any bread and olives. We said that would be great with a bottle of red! We later found out that they will charge you for the bread and olives! Wish we would have known this as they kept bringing more and more! We decided to get some fried calamari as an appetizer. This came out quickly and was actually very nice. It tasted fresh and comes with a good tartar sauce. We also ordered a salad and specified that this should come out before the main meal. This took forever to come out. We asked the server where it was after several minutes and he said that he thought we wanted it with the meal. So he hurried to the kitchen to get it. When it came out, it was a fair size. This was the Lofthouse salad. The ham found on the salad is vile. It tasted more like corned beef than ham. This served with the Caesar dressing made for a nasty combination. Soon after, the meal arrived. I had the filet with the escargot sauce. This was certainly not as advertised. The garlic butter sauce was not evident at all. The juice reduction was good though. The steak was ordered medium rare and it came out purple. It was still very rare. I called the server over and showed him. They took it to the back and it came out a short time later. I cut into it again and it was still purple. It was very rare indeed. This was consistent with everyone's steak at the table. We were informed that they were having issues with the kitchen staff and many steaks had come out wrong. Besides being coked improperly, the steak had no flavor. The chips were good, but an unusual addition to the meal. We did tell the management and they did take a small percentage off of the bill. By that point we were disgusted and the damage had been done. We had to go and eat crisps for dinner. For the price, I would avoid this restaurant. There are many other ones that are better...