Liverpool’s Spanish food scene runs from a Catalan deli that’s been trading in a converted 18th-century warehouse since 2010 to a Camino de Santiago-inspired live-fire restaurant whose founders’ story took a five-year detour through a Million Pound Menu win and a health scare before finally opening on Allerton Road. It takes in an Ibiza-themed tapas bar with bar swings and DJs on Back Colquitt Street, and a Smithdown Road institution that closed and reopened just a few doors from where it started. Here are the eight best Spanish restaurants in Liverpool worth seeking out in 2026.

Lunya opened in 2010 inside a beautifully converted 18th-century warehouse on College Lane in Liverpool ONE, after founders Peter and Elaine Kinsella spent two years running a stall at North West food festivals to test the idea. It grew into the UK’s first Catalan fusion deli and restaurant, and in October 2024 the Kinsellas set up an Employee Ownership Trust, making Lunya staff-owned as part of their retirement plan.

The deli counter — stacked with Spanish hams, cheeses and tinned seafood — sits alongside a full restaurant menu of Catalan-leaning tapas, and the combination has made Lunya one of the most consistently well-reviewed restaurants in the city, with close to 2,000 Google reviews. It’s as much a place to shop for a Spanish dinner party as it is to eat one.

Lunya — 55 Hanover Street, Liverpool L1 3DN | lunya.co.uk

Lunyalita is Lunya’s smaller waterfront sibling, tucked into the Britannia Pavilion at the Royal Albert Dock and open from 9am until late every day except Christmas Day. It runs on the same Catalan foundations as its Hanover Street parent, but with a format built around the Dock’s mix of breakfast crowds, day-trippers and evening diners.

Huevos rotos — home-made chips topped with fried eggs — are the daytime order most people build a visit around, alongside over-stuffed sandwiches and sharing deli platters, while the evening menu shifts into modern and traditional tapas built around dishes like moruno beef and grilled vegetable escalivada. An extensive list of vermut and sherry rounds out the drinks side.

Lunyalita — Unit 5, Britannia Pavilion, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AD | lunya.co.uk

El Gato Negro’s first restaurant opened on Manchester’s King Street in 2016, and the Liverpool branch followed in August 2019, taking over the former home of The Vincent in one corner of the Exchange Flags courtyard behind Liverpool Town Hall. The Grade II listed space seats 240 covers, giving founder and chef patron Simon Shaw’s award-winning tapas menu one of the most striking dining rooms of any Spanish restaurant in the city.

The menu blends modern technique with traditional Spanish flavours rather than sticking rigidly to either, and it’s built a strong reputation across both its Manchester and Liverpool sites as a result. It’s a good pick for a more polished tapas experience than the city’s more casual bars offer, without losing the sharing-plates format that makes the cuisine work.

El Gato Negro — 36 Castle Street, Liverpool L2 0NR | elgatonegrotapas.com

Pilgrim’s founders first won over BBC Two’s My Million Pound Menu in 2019, securing a planned £600k space at Liverpool’s Duke Street Market for a live-fire restaurant built around the Camino de Santiago pilgrim route through Spain. That original deal fell through after founder Adam Duffield was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the project sat dormant for years while he recovered.

Duffield made a full recovery, and Pilgrim finally opened for real in December 2025 in a new, permanent home on Allerton Road in Mossley Hill — picking up a Michelin Guide listing within weeks of opening. The menu is built entirely around open-fire cooking, serving Iberian small plates that draw on the pilgrim trail’s regional Spanish cooking rather than a single fixed style.

Pilgrim — 121 Allerton Road, Mossley Hill, Liverpool L18 2DD | pilgrimrestaurant.com

Neon Jamón first opened on Smithdown Place in 2013, building a strong local following for its Catalan-inspired small plates before closing in February 2020. It didn’t stay closed for long, reopening a short walk away on Smithdown Road, next door to its sister restaurant The Crafty Swine, where it continues to trade today.

Croquetas, chorizo, patatas bravas and Padrón peppers are the dishes most closely associated with the restaurant, served in a stylish, buzzy room that’s kept its reputation as one of Smithdown Road’s most reliable nights out. It’s built its name on classic tapas done well rather than chasing trends.

Neon Jamon — 336–338 Smithdown Road, Liverpool L15 5AN | neonjamon.com

Salt House Tapas opened in July 2010 inside Church House on Hanover Street, a Grade I listed building that was once the Bishop of Liverpool’s residence, directly opposite John Lewis in the heart of Liverpool ONE. It was one of the restaurants that helped establish tapas as a serious night out in the city rather than a novelty, and it’s held onto that reputation for well over a decade.

The menu runs through the Spanish small-plates staples — classic tapas built for sharing across a table rather than individual mains — served in a room that leans into the building’s historic character. With close to 2,000 Google reviews, it remains one of the most consistently recommended tapas restaurants in central Liverpool.

Salt House Tapas — Church House, 1 Hanover Street, Liverpool L1 3DW | salthousetapas.co.uk

So Salsa started life as a family-run tapas restaurant in Crosby in 2010, part of the 23 Group that also runs Tree House and Rock Salt, and has since grown into a small chain with sites across Crosby, Castle Street, Blackstock Market and, since 2025, Bold Street. The Bold Street opening brought the brand into the heart of the city centre for the first time.

The name nods to Spain, but the kitchen ranges further afield, folding Latin American heat and Mediterranean flavours into a tapas format built for passing plates around the table. It’s a livelier, more informal option than some of the city’s longer-established Spanish restaurants, and it’s found a strong following on the strength of that atmosphere as much as the food.

So Salsa — 56 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4EA | sosalsa.co.uk

La Finca Eivissa took over a Back Colquitt Street site previously known as Tapas Tapas and, later, Rookwood Bar & Cue, and has spent the years since bringing a bit of the White Isle to Liverpool’s Ropewalks — lounge beds, bar swings and Ibizan house music included. It faces FACT rather than the Mediterranean, but the theming commits fully to the concept regardless.

The menu is fusion tapas rather than strictly traditional — patatas bravas, albondigas and Spanish mushrooms sit alongside sticky wings and a well-reviewed paella — and the room shifts from a relaxed daytime tapas spot into a late-night bar with live DJs once the sun goes down. It’s less about culinary purism than a genuinely fun night out with a Spanish backbone.

La Finca Eivissa — 14 Back Colquitt Street, Liverpool L1 4DE | lafincaeivissa.co.uk