The proliferation bandwagon jumpers, of street food and ‘dirty cuisine’ has been gathering pace in Liverpool for some time now and the most recent addition to the fold is Hopskotch; located in the unlikely environs of Mathew Street along with the Hoax hostel and in a penchant for alliteration the downstairs live music venue inside Hopskotch, Hatch. Although the trend is getting a bit tiresome in terms of new restaurants being quite similar in style of cuisine on offer, I’ll be fair and rate things purely on merit here. Hopskotch, alongside Almost Famous and Motel, has been indulging in some social media ‘moistening’ of palates for a while, posting pictures of their experiments to drum up interest in their launch a few weeks ago. Initially, the food (admittedly, looking very tasty from the photography on display) looked pretty similar to offerings from established restaurants in a similar vein throughout the city, albeit without a fixation on entering the current fashion for the burger ‘arms race’ (though there are burgers on the menu, I hasten to add). So, is it actually any good? Well, in response to my own poser, it is very competent if unspectacular. The restaurant itself has a modern diner feel to it, wooden floors and brushed steel along with vintage squirrel cage Edison bulbs hanging from the ceiling; comfortable, functional and up to date. An excellent painting of John Lennon adorns an outward looking wall onto Stanley Street, a nod to Hopskotch’s location. The live music venue downstairs is intimate and comfortable, suitable for the set up which has precipitated open microphone nights in the basement venue, however, upstairs is where the food is at… The food on offer as you may have guessed from the posturing is in the vein of tapas style sharing plates, with an offer on of 3 dishes for £10 from this part of the menu. There are main dishes on offer in the form of burgers, salads, ribs, hotdogs and some vegetarian options and a good selection of drinks with some Brewdog amongst other craft beer offerings. The range of the international stylings are quite refreshing, with oriental style squid (not battered and deep fried – ‘under a brick’, no less), tacos, ribs and quesadilla style pastry parcels featuring on the sharing dishes, although the erratic portion size is questionable even by tapas standards. At just under £5 on average per dish, having the odd dish outside the 3-4-£10 can be pretty underwhelming in terms of value; if one has a hunger, the best idea might be to round your courses off to a multiple of 3. The standard of the dishes was nothing exceptional, as the squid was a little over cooked and floundering in soy and sugar and the pastry parcels nicknamed ‘the little fat one’ was not nearly full enough of pork and cheese making them look rather more anorexic than burgeoning. The chilli cheese fries were a touch burnt around the edges in an effort to ensure a spread of melted cheese, not to mention the ‘chilli’ was remarkably similar to the pulled pork on another dish we had ordered. The ‘little oranges’ arancini (so good they named it twice?) were crisp, well presented and seasoned enough with the mayonnaise, herb and mustard sauce thankfully placed in a separate dish; if the stuff had been drizzled over the arancini there might have been an issue – however used sparingly, the mayonnaise complimented the risotto balls perfectly in the context of the meal. The beef tacos were probably the strongest dish placed in front of us on the occasion; juicy, cooked and shredded perfectly making them tasty and very messy. The overall feel of the place is friendly and enthusiastic and the service polite, no cause for concern at all in their opening salvo of the first few weeks on the scene. Would I go again? Certainly, there is enough potential here to suggest something worth revisiting. To date, Hopskotch can be considered a solid if occasionally erratic performer offering a viable option for dinner; however, it does feel they need some more time to get to grips with their menu. Pedro. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hopskotch Website: http://hopskotchliverpool.com/ Address: Hopskotch Kitchen, Mathew Street, Liverpool. L1 6AU Twitter: https://twitter.com/HopskotchLvpl
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