Cafe Sport England, Stanley Street, Liverpool

Jul 8 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

Emma Johnson samples the menu at a sporting hero’s restaurant

GIVEN that I was in touching distance of my 30th birthday before I watched my first live football match (it was this year’s Liverpool v Chelsea Champions League semi-final, since you asked), a restaurant owned by a Premiership player may not seem like the most obvious choice of dining venue for me.

But so it was that, following a fun trip around Liverpool One, my mum and I found ourselves perusing the menus at Jamie Carragher’s Cafe Sport England last week.

And weren’t we glad we did.

Father-of-two Jamie, from Bootle, opened the restaurant last October with businessman Paul Flanagan (owner of the Sir Thomas Street Hotel and Newz Bar) with the aim of creating a family restaurant with a healthy twist. And he seems to have pulled it off.

Set over two floors on Stanley Street, Cafe Sport England comes off as a mix between a traditional sports bar, with big plasma screens all over the walls, and a TGI Fridays with big bars, polished wood floors and banquette seating.

As you might expect of a place owned by an LFC favourite, there is plenty of football memorabilia dotted about and references to the beautiful game litter everything from the toilet signs to the staff’s uniforms (black football shirts with Carragher’s number 23 emblazoned on the back), to the menus.

Which brings us neatly to the food.

Dishes are varied but veer towards the American diner theme and are split into starters, salads, pizza, pasta and chargrilled.

However, far from making for an artery-clogging experience, the menu, which was devised by a nutritionist, uses lower fat, sugar and salt alternatives wherever possible and the dishes are complemented by a list of smoothies and juices to keep the kids away from the fizzy stuff.

Already the restaurant has proved its aim because, in February, Cafe Sport England became only the second Liverpool restaurant to be granted a Food Charter Award from England’s biggest coronary heart disease charity, Heart of Mersey.

With all that healthiness in mind, my mum and I ordered a couple of orange and cranberry juices and tried to decide what to order.

Sadly for Hayley – the delightful waitress assigned our table – we were chatting so much it took her three visits before we could actually tell her. Even then, my mum seemed more interested in Hayley’s earrings than what she would like to eat, but she took it all in her stride.

After considering the king prawns in garlic and chilli and the chargrilled chicken kebabs, I decided to keep it light, ordering a tomato and mozzarella salad to start (£4.50) while my mum was similarly saintly, ordering the asparagus spears (£5.95).

I was completely stuck when it came to choosing a main course, as I would have eaten just about anything on the menu. In the end, I benched the tuna and the salmon steak in favour of my favourite chicken fajitas and plumped for that (£12.95). Put on the spot, my mum took Jamie’s advice and went for his choice from the chargrilled menu – the corn-fed chicken breast with Greek yoghurt and side salad.

Then our healthy living resolve weakened and I ordered a garlic bread with tomato and a side order of chips. In our defence, it does say on the restaurant’s website that chips are the only deep fried thing on the menu and Jamie chose the healthiest he could find.