Seaforth Restaurant
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
Mother’s Day 2025: It doesn’t get much more elegant than the Sunday roast menu at Municipal’s Seaforth Restaurant. You’ll be welcomed with an amuse-bouche and chef’s canapés prior to starters such as locally cured smoked salmon. Mains include classic roast sirloin of beef or pan-seared seabass, while the legendary sticky toffee pudding (see below) is a must for dessert. £60 for two courses or £65 for three.
Restaurant: The Municipal Hotel is one of Liverpool’s grandest buildings, and what do all storied institutions need? A darn good Sunday lunch, that’s what. Happily, that’s precisely what Head Chef Andrew Green provides.
Running from midday up to 6pm, this Sunday lunch set menu contains some of the best end-of-week dining options we’ve tried in months (more on that later), but what truly stands out is the price. Two courses for £34 and three courses for £40 in a sumptuous venue like this, with this standard of high-level produce? That’s a remarkable deal, no bones about it.
As for the menu, it’s a triumphant mix of traditional plates and eye-catching dazzle. Nothing is too outré, but everything delivers something extra. Case in point, instead of just bread and oil, you can expect warm focaccia with a honey and truffle butter melt. It’s Sunday dining, levelled up.
The roasted butternut squash and feta salad is a fresh, crunchy bowl of colourful, wholesome flavours – twirling in carrot ribbons, quinoa and pomegranate seeds for good measure. It’s a light and breezy starter, low on calories, high on texture and taste.
The herb roast breast of chicken is a class act. The chicken meat is tender and soft with a nicely crisped skin in all the right places. The expected trimmings are in full effect: sauteed potatoes and tender stem broccoli, but the freshly-made creamy mushroom jus is a thing of wonder. It’s rich and velvety with a timeless, regal feel – if you had to describe this Grade II listed building as a sauce, this is it.
But it’s the beef I’ll be coming back for. To be precise, roast Cumbrian sirloin of beef, served in a lovely, thick slab – as it should be, those flimsy thin slices should be banned. It’s served medium rare, naturally, with a thick line of seared fat along one side, hugging the delicate red meat.
Sides-wise, it comes with all the classics, cooked beautifully: crisp roast potatoes, green beans, roasted carrots, red cabbage, silky beef jus and a whopping great Yorkshire pudding. You don’t need them, but we strongly recommend getting some of the fat, salty pigs in blankets to go on the side.
As for dessert, it can only be the sticky toffee pudding. It could well be the best in the North, and sums up everything great about The Municipal: classic, but elevated. The caramel sauce has a hint of miso, and the ice cream is made with real bananas, plus some pralines, while the pudding itself is soft and fluffy, rather than stodgy. If you’ve not tried it yet, make haste.
Let’s leave the final word to Andrew Green: “I’m really excited to get Sundays roasts up and running at the Municipal Hotel, the venue is a perfect stage for hosting Sunday roasts.
“This weekly ritual to so many families is such a popular social event, I wanted to offer a venue that offers exceptional quality food cooked by highly trained professional chefs in the most beautiful surroundings at an affordable price to entice people to come back and back, make it their place to go for their Sunday fix. I have ensured every element is the highest quality that we are proud to serve, and our guests will appreciate.”
