Death Row Diner

Stumbled upon this hidden gem!! Worked great for our group with kids. Food was fresh and great twists on American classics! Coming from the States, it was a hit with our group!!!

Lovers of both Yardbird and Motel - and generally huge fans of everything meat - we knew we had to book in to Death Row Diner on our recent anniversary weekend in Liverpool. Booked in for 8pm on a Saturday night, we headed down the incense scented steps and descended into the darkness of the restaurant. The front of house desk is a slot machine, and we were pointed in the direction of the bar to wait until our table was ready. The drinks menu includes cocktails, hard shakes and floats, beer, wine, and cider. Not wanting to start down the road of a white wine hangover the next day, I opted for a cider. Not having any names I recognised, I went for a Jeramiah Weed - tasting not unlike JD & coke, it was unusually delicious! Our table took about 15/20 minutes to be ready, for which the front of house were eternally apologetic and resulted in a free round of drinks, but this just meant we had some time to take in our surroundings. We're talking neon, bricks, bars, wire, photos of criminals, doors marked with incoherent numbers, and boxes marked in the same way to represent convict's belongings. The menu contains everything you could wish for; wings, ribs, fried lasagne bites (yes please), burgers, fries, and steak. Unfortunately for us, they didn't have the lasagne bites, mac & cheese, or bacon wrapped maple onion rings - but we sure made up for it... Our table contained a whole butter basted poussin, bbq brisket, chorizo fried waffles, wings with both tequila lime & frank's buffalo hot sauces, padron peppers, two portions of fries, and two portions of slaw. Served up in the same aluminium trays as Yardbird, it's a down and dirty style of eating (though knives and forks are obviously provided!) Top items had to be the poussin, with a perfectly crispy skin, and the chorizo fried waffles, with little pieces of chorizo and a spicy chipotle sauce. Padron peppers, which are currently a personal obsession, provided a vegetable on the table, and the slaw was vinegar based rather than mayonnaise, meaning extra greenery that I could get involved with. Wings had a nice spice, though I've come to the conclusion I prefer the sauce based kind, rather than the breaded ones served up. Although the brisket had the perfect texture, there was a bit too much bbq sauce for my personal taste. Desserts included fried oreos, ice cream 'sliders' with brioche, and pecan pie - that's if you have enough room... A great meal with friendly service; hopefully next time we can have room for something sweet!

Once you have found the eatery which is neatly tucked in a nook of Hope street, you are greeted with friendly staff in a neon red underground room. The general feel of the joint is a prison inspired mess hall, with stylised art on the walls. I had the beef brisket starter which was everything you could want from beef brisket, tender, tasty and in bite sized chunks. Definitely the best brisket in town. The burgers were all of the same calibre but I had the pulled pork version. The patties were cooked quite well and the beef was high quality, better than most places. The pulled pork was tender and flavoursome. It was served on a brioche bun, which is a standard now and some salad accompaniments. The burger was great, not too heavy on sauce which is a downfall of other burger places in Liverpool. As a side I had the chicken gravy chips, these were skin on fries with proper chicken gravy your mother would make. Perfection. Overall it was a great experience, thoroughly enjoyed it, the serving staff seemed a tad disinterested but the food more than made up for it. They also serve a good selection of craft ales and other nice drinks. Definitely go there if you can, you'll spend approx £20 for your meal if you get a drink too. Don't get put off by other reviews going on about last meals, they don't do that any more.

Lovely little quirky restaurant underground. Great touch with the old style arcade machines. Ordered the bacon burger off the main menu. Was a decent sized portion and very reasonablly priced too.

As I entered the surroundings of this restaurant it was unique with scaffolding design, classic arcade games and specially designed self portraits. The food I had (southern fried chicken) was delicious and excellent in quantity. I also had hot chicken wings and a strawberry milkshake, again both delicious. The menus where very creative and had good variety such as veteran options on food and alcoholic to non alcoholic beverages. My only criticism is that there was only two members of staff working and it was busy at the time. The staff seemed rushed and I had to wait a while to place orders. Also the picture I've added to this comment shows the cookie dough dessert option that cost £5,50 but the portion is far too small for what you would pay for. Even so I'd recommend this excellent restaurant to burger or American food lovers.

What a place. Amazing food and really lovely staff! Definitely get a side order of the jumbo shrimp in hot sauce....out of this world!

Lovely restraunt. Our food was delicious and there were some good drink choices. At the time it was empty so service was really good.

Great food. Fast and friendly service. Great night out.