Nord, Liverpool

In a town that already plays host to wonderful places like Wreckfish and Manifest, you'd think that the opening of another reasonably-priced, seasonal modern British restaurant in the centre of Liverpool would be a shoo-in for success. With demand already proven for this kind of thing, and as far as I can tell (given the popularity of such places) nowhere near sated, early menus leaked on Instagram pointed towards exactly the kind of thing that would do well here. Foraged herbs and veg? Check. Daily changing seafood selection? Check. Local suppliers name-checked? Check.

And yet there's something about the scale of ambition at Nord that makes you stop for a second even if you are more or less prepared for what's in store. The Plaza is a giant 12-story building, twice as long as it is tall, that takes up an entire block in the financial quarter. Nord itself is reached through two sets of revolving doors that open onto a smart mid-century-modern inspired atrium shared with, to one side, a bright coffee shop and to the other a shared office space with living wall and comfortable low furniture. Ahead is Nord itself, easily one of the biggest restaurant spaces in town, a spacious and sensitively lit area reaching from a grand island bar back towards an open kitchen. Whatever happens here needs to live up to the promise of the environment, and more.

By and large, fortunately, it does. These are very early days for Nord, who opened their doors barely a week or two ago, and so we ran into some issues regarding service and logistics that I'm sure will be easily ironed out over the coming weeks and months. Something they don't need to improve though are these gougères made with Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese which had a supremely light choux casing containing a gloriously warm and smooth cheese filling. I also loved how instead of dusting them with the usual grated parmesan, they'd used more baked and crumbled Lancashire cheese.

Crab toast contained a generous amount of the good stuff, bound with a delicate touch of sour cream and topped with fennel tops. What would have been nice here, true of most cold seafood dishes, is a wedge of lemon to squeeze on top, but there was still enough to enjoy otherwise. The toasted brioche was very decent, too.

Truffle and kelp butter appeared to not contain any truffle (misleading menu descriptions were a bit of a theme of this meal) and, at first glance, only a disappointingly tiny amount of seaweed until you realised that each one of those little pieces of kelp packed a hugely satisfying, ocean-spritzed punch. And the bread itself was marvellous - straight out of the oven with naan-like charred bubbles on the outside and soft within.

A little like the crab, I think the seabass crudo needed some acid - even just an accompanying wedge of lime would have been enough to balance it - but the fish was obviously high quality and I even liked the "potato taco" standing in for the usual corn tortillas. One tweak away from excellence is still to be admired.

Cod "Kiev" (although I think it's better to say "Kyiv" these days) was very nicely constructed, a giant fillet of fish in a dark breadcrumb crust which opened to spill a healthy (or rather, acceptably unhealthy) amount of garlic butter onto the plate. Fun to eat, and this time we were supplied with a required wedge of lemon, but the cod itself just needed a slightly more aggressive seasoning. Again, just slightly short of perfection.

The first thing you might notice about this "asparagus & morels" dish is the distinct lack of morels. I did point this out (as kindly as I could) to our waitress who returned with the information that the mushroom guy had today, for reasons best known to himself, delivered wild - seemingly a mix of girolles and chanterelles - instead. Which is fine, I suppose, I just think it would have been nice to know this before we ordered. Anyway, aside from the asparagus being suspiciously thin for seasonal English varieties, they still had a good flavour and the butter sauce they came with was absolutely fantastic. I will forgive most things if they're soaked in that fluffy butter sauce.

What appeared on the menu as "Almond & brown butter biscuits" appeared at first glance to be Madeleines, but they had a crunch and depth of flavour somewhere delightfully in between. We loved these... whatever they were, anyway - straight out of the oven and filling the room with a freshly baked biscuit aroma.

And finally rhubarb sorbet and vanilla ice creme, a tried and true combination which worked particularly well here thanks to a deep, strong rhubarb flavour in the sorbet and a lovely buttery vanilla ice cream. In fact, I would put the house ice cream on the 'must order' list if you ever make the trip yourself.

Service was, as to be expected a couple of weeks after opening, still slightly unsure of itself. There was a bit of confusion over the correct type of glass to use for cava at one point, and I'm not sure it's a great idea to fill said glasses with crushed ice before serving - nobody really wants diluted fizz. But it was all done with charm and enthusiasm and no harm was done.

So yes, it isn't perfect - yet. But what's interesting is not what went wrong - largely very easily fixed things like seasoning and the odd wedge of citrus, and a slightly more experienced front of house - but what went right in the technique required to make those gougères, or the sauce with the asparagus. At its core there's a very impressive set of skills in the kitchen here, just needing a bit more time and space to be allowed to settle in and shine. By the time of my next trip up north, I expect you'll be hearing a lot more about Nord.

7/10