Glyn Mon Hughes finds a restaurant where you can unwind and dine in style

FUNNY place, Liverpool. We’d been invited to Osqa’s restaurant, in Oldham Square – and had to get onto Google to find out where it was.

This rather fine new addition to the fast-developing Liverpool restaurant scene is prominently placed in one of those new squares which keep cropping up.

And it’s bang in the middle of my present stomping ground: I was born only 100 yards away and work within three minutes, yet it was a pathway to a whole new world.

And what a world. Osqa is a fine all-day delicatessen and, from 11am, there’s a refined restaurant attached serving a fusion of Mediterranean food with Asian overtones.

It’s the place to unwind over a cocktail and there’s a well-appointed bar area and a large restaurant space with an upper, semi-private mezzanine.

We arrived to a near-deserted place and the lady sitting at the bar – the owner, no less – asked if we were the only men in Liverpool not watching the football. Evidently – but the menu would be hard to resist even if I had an inkling of one end of a football pitch from the other.

We’d arrived in time to partake of the special “early doors” offer – £9.95 for two courses – which was most enticing: cream of carrot and cumin soup or fresh mussels and ginger as a starter, for instance, or baked Welsh Pollock with a lime and avocado salsa as a main.

But we wanted to push the boat out, not that it had far to go with such an enticing, inventive menu.

While salivating our way through it, we ordered a bottle of wine from their well-chosen list sourced from most major international producers.

Whites range from a perfectly acceptable £11.50 a bottle up to £23.25, while reds range from £12.95 to £21.25. Rosés are £13.50-£15.95, while there are some obviously rather special director’s choices: the two reds on offer are around £25 a bottle, while white is rather more expensive at £28.

We chose a bottle of South African Kliene Zalze Pinotage from Stellenbosch (£15.50). “A fruity, highly complex, tasty number,” said Mark.

“While there’s a lot going on here, it’s not too heavy and will probably go with anything that’s on the menu.”

It turned out one or two things were actually off the menu – something the waiter took pains to point out before we’d even looked at it. A good move.

There was relatively little on there which is overly familiar, a breath of fresh culinary air. Hand-dived scallops, served with pea puree, crispy pancetta and lemon dressing as a starter, for instance. For mains, grilled French black sea bream was available, served with fennel, blood oranges and salad nicoise.

Mark ordered Osqa “Cacciucco” fish soup – a medley of fresh seafood infused with herbs and garlic (£4.95).

I found the seared peppered yellow fin tuna, served with chilled cucumber soup and sweet beetroot salsa salad (£4.95) impossible to resist.

And it all arrived, impeccably served, on Villeroy and Bosch crockery – a truly sumptuous experience. We could even watch it all being prepared in the open-plan kitchen – always a plus point.

Mark’s soup, served in an elegant mug, comprised pieces of prawn, white fish and mussels, rich but not cloying. He said the herbs set the fish off perfectly and the garlic was not overpowering.

My admittedly small piece of tuna was seared on the outside, almost raw within and peppered. Perfect.