Blakes Restaurant, Hard Days Night Hotel, North John Street, Liverpool

Apr 18 2008 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

Laura Davis enjoys the local flavour at a Sgt Pepper-style eaterie

LAST time I visited the Hard Day’s Night Hotel, it was a shell of its later self – quite literally. The builders had moved in and they had just discovered the beautiful staircase that is now a centrepiece of the lobby.

The rooms were starting to take shape but, back then, McCartney still had eyes for Heather and the only glasses of water she was pouring were those she drank to keep her complexion clear.

While the hotel rooms are probably of more interest to people living outside Liverpool – they were already booked up long before the official opening – the bar and the restaurant are definitely worth a visit if you’re a local.

If you’re wondering why a restaurant in a Beatles-themed hotel has been called after a 1970s sci-fi show, then let me put your mind at rest. Blakes actually owes its name to Sir Peter Blake, celebrated pop artist, who created the cover for the Sergeant Pepper album, rather than to the TV cult classic Blakes 7.

Some of the icons that appear on the record sleeve also decorate the restaurant, as a frieze of photographs between two of the building’s vast windows.

They also grace the cover of the menus – an outline-drawing showing no facial features, so you can play a grown-ups’ version of Where’s Wally while waiting to be served.

The story goes that Blake asked the Fab Four to list the people who had most inspired them. Lennon and McCartney came up with most ideas, George Harrison chose people with Indian connections and Ringo said he’d “go with the flow”.

The inside of the menus sound as creative as the covers, with a good range of fish and seafood dishes alongside meatier chicken livers, fillet steak and pork fillet. There are also a number of vegetarian options.

As a starter, I chose the smoked trout and cream cheese on oatcakes with Baltic wafers (£5.50), largely because I was intrigued by what a “Baltic wafer” could be (similar to parmesan wafers, it turns out).

It was a delightfully creamy concoction on a gravelly oatcake that made a good contrast between textures. As rich as it was, this would have been enough for a lunchtime dish if served with a little more salad.

My friend selected the layered Cornish white crab and king prawn with Bloody Mary dressing (£6). She found it nicely presented and said it tasted very crabby (a good thing), but its density meant it became a bit sickly towards the end. The dressing was more of a flourish than a serious accompaniment and, with a bit more kick, would have cut through the cloyingness of the crab.

She stuck with the maritime theme for her main course, finding the Blakes fish pie (£12) “really delicious”, with lots of chunky pieces and big king prawns in a very tasty white wine sauce.

The only drawback was the potato topping, which lacked a home-baked crispiness.

Like so many Liverpool restaurants these days, Blakes seems to make an effort to source its ingredients locally, so my corn-fed chicken was free range Goosnargh (10 points for saving on food miles).

It came with chestnut and apricot stuffing, fondant potato and roasted root vegetables with plenty of gravy poured over the top.

This was a roast the way they should be cooked – with the emphasis on flavour, rather than style over substance. It was the way you would want it to be if you had gone to the trouble of visiting a restaurant rather than cooking it yourself.

The root vegetables were perfectly cooked – neither too raw nor too soggy – but I would have liked a bit more stuffing.

Just as all good bands deserve an encore, all good meals should be finished with dessert, so despite bulging waistlines, we chose the pear possett and the apple crumble (£6 each).

My friend was disappointed by the possett, which she felt was overpriced for the size. The flavour of the pear didn’t really trouble her tastebuds, overpowered as it was by the very sweet lemony topping.

My crumble was pleasant enough without being particularly memorable, but any niggling doubts we had about some of the dishes was cancelled out by the excellent service.

They even recommended we choose the cheaper of two bottles of wine.

As The Beatles put it: “Roll up, satisfaction guaranteed”.

Blakes Restaurant, Hard Day’s Night Hotel, North John Street, Liverpool

Tel: 0151 236 1964

Menu: Traditional dishes with a modern twist

Decor: High quality and very airy

Service: Excellent

Value: Competitive

The bill: £61.95, including a bottle of Touraine Trotignan

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk