Pistachio

On the same street as The Moon and Pea, Pistachio is another neighbourhood café that’s popular with locals and vistors to Lark Lane. The décor and ambience isn’t quite as funky — think plain wooden furniture and restrained wallpaper — but the food is soooo much better.
Open morning til night, the menu changes throughout the day from hearty breakfast and brunch dishes to popular lunch dishes. The former includes continental breakfast, veggie breakfast, full english, smoked salmon & scrambled eggs and omelettes whilst the latter includes a variety of burgers, wraps, club sandwiches and salads. There’s fish finger sandwiches for kids and homemade scouse with pickled red cabbage for tourists wanting a taste of old Liverpool.
The thing I opted for however, was the diner classic: American Breakfast with pancakes, crispy bacon, scrambled egg and tatties. For £5.95 including orange juice, it was a bargain as well as a treat.

I have been known to eat a bag of pistachios or 4. I absolutely love them, the little beauties explode with flavour in the mouth, as you motor munch through the dense, crunching texture. I immediately have affinity therefore with a place that is named after this personal delicacy of mine.
These pistachio people love their menus, they have six of them; spring, early doors, sample Sunday, breakfast, lunch and lunch fixed priced. Each one has its perks, fixed price is exactly that 2 courses under a tenner. Try the chicken breast with creamy pepper sauce and chunky hand cut chips… bosh! Anyone serving continental breakfast has respect from me, and pistachio do a great one. Although I am a huge fan of the American breakfast minus the pig and plus the maple syrup mmm the Lunch time menu sits there with a healthy selection of manly burgers, I’d recommend the chicken fillet with cajun spices, or the 100% beef burger (which made me chuckle, as if anyone serves a 67.5% burger??? Thanks for the heads up Pistachio folks!!)
I haven’t been on a Sunday so I can but speculate that they keep the high standards consistent.
What’s more to the restaurant is that it’s also layered like a pistachio in that it hosts a basement bar called Vinyls which serves up some beverage induced fun from 6pm till late Monday-​Saturday for all you school night players et playerettes. Rock on dudes!
Pistachio from Me-​o is definately a go go!

Pistachio are open all day, and it’s a lovely place to pop in and out of as you wander down Lark Lane or around Sefton Park. The breakfast is really refreshing and not a bad price, but my favourite time to come is for an early evening meal.
They do a lovely early bird menu for £9.95 for two courses. I had the tomato and black pepper soup to start which was delicious, and the chicken in pepper sauce for a main, which was equally as appetising. Gem had the thai fishcakes, which I was eyeing up but she must have enjoyed because they were gone very quick!
The prices are pretty decent too, a three course meal (take into account the early bird) plus a bottle of wine came to around £40.

Pistachio. One of my favourite nuts, so it was only fair to see if it’d become one of my favourite restaurants. And would you believe it, it really is a bit of a winner. First of all, I love Lark Lane. I love the name, see, those green nuts are just a great addition to any table full of drinks. And I love the prices.
For breakfast for example, you can yoink some Greek yoghurt, muesli and fresh fruit for £2.95. Or you could add a croissant and some orange juice and make it 50p short of a fiver. Not bad for a decent morning’s eat I’d say, but if you’re ravenous there’s a full English for £5.95 (hash browns included — always a must we’re I’m concerned), a veggie version for the same price or an American version with pancakes and maple syrup as opposed to toast. Delish. And for under a fiver you can have Eggs Benedict or smoked salmon and scrambled egg, or a bespoke omelette of your choice.
If you get past breakfast, muse through the day with coffee and pastries and wander in during the evening you’ll find a lovely Mediterranean plethora of food. Delicious mussels in white wine broth, mezze with little Greek picky bits, tartlets, prawn skewers, calamari and potato cakes amongst other reasonably priced starters, and mains include the likes of a mouthwatering aubergine gratin or Moroccan spiced vegetable tagine for the veggies, sirloin steak and chicken breast for the carnivores, and seabass or salmon for the seafood lovers. It’s a small menu which changes seasonally but it’s perfectly formed and all it needs to be and the ciabatta with oil and vinegar or the garlic version make perfect accompaniments.
Once you add the great ambience, friendly service and hip décor and the fact that it’s got its own basement bar, you can easily spend an evening unwinding here with some fab food.