Miyagi - Allerton Road

Dear diners, please note that reservations for Mother’s Day require a £10 deposit before they can be confirmed.

Miyagi has been imparting its Japanese culinary wisdom over in the Ropewalks for some time now, and the lesson has clearly been received with open arms by Liverpool’s discerning diners. But this is not a restaurant for the stuffy or high-minded. Miyagi’s vibe, from the exciting Japanese food and clever cocktails on offer to the atmosphere of their newer Allerton Road restaurant, is fun and good humoured through and through. The menu of Japanese soul food, fusion curiosities like the New York shrimp with miso aioli, highly slurpable bowls of ramen, sushi, yakitori and more is a big draw for Calderstones and Wavertree locals, and indeed for the city’s entire Asian food and fusion cuisine fanbase.

Miyagi set the ball rolling for Japanese cuisine in Liverpool with its Bold Street headquarters and, like all powerful statements, has spread meme-like to the east of the centre, with another outlet down Allerton Road on the borderlands of Calderstones and Wavertree. It’s a considered location to set up shop, with a local population known for their voracious appetites when it comes to curious food and drink. The menu here is peppered with wry nods to sage Far Eastern food, with a list of Japanese soul food and dishes like black pig gyoza with black plum chilli jam and inari-zushi super slow-poached eggs with grilled asparagus and a golden miso aioli heading up the selection.

Deeper into the maelstrom, Miyagi serves up some fusion oddities like Jamaican jerk-style lamb shoulder with coconut slaw and a ‘magic’ mint jam and glazed suckling pig pork belly with Japanese pickled pear and a honey mustard miso sauce, heads to Southeast Asia with big bowls of laksa incorporating either seared tofu or chicken satay cooked on the traditional robata grill. Indeed, Asian barbecue fans in Calderstones and Wavertree will be here every other day for Miyagi’s yakitori skewers, while Liverpool’s lighter eaters will drool over the sushi, sashimi and bento boxes on offer, too. Sumo-sized appetites are satisfied by generous portions of market-fresh fish given a yakitori grilling, but all of this means nothing without Miyagi’s comedic cocktails – the Miyagi sour, the Ghetto Geisha, and the South Pacific get our vote.