The fuss was very palpable for a while with the Bold Street premises, numerous friends and acquaintances had eaten there and were generally flowing in their praise; even The Guardian's food write Jay Raynor, one of the hardest of critics, was also remarkably generous in his review. He stated that in lesser hands it could have been a car crash but was very competent in its mission to bring together many Mediterranean and French influences along with some Scandinavian and American influence thrown in with good measure.
Maray on Allerton Road is a strange beast, the bright interior décor and large glass windows appear on the face of it a rather stark dining environment, but being seated upstairs, the use of exposed and fatigued brickwork actually brought a comfortable contrast and overall, we did feel quite relaxed. The approach and demeanour of the staff helped with this no end too, service was brisk, competent and timely from start to finish.
The menu on first glance appears fairly scattershot, with some clear north African and middle eastern influence, but there are other elements which have clear French bistro or Asian heritage to them. Nonetheless, Jay Rayner was correct in his assertion that all this did come together quite well, nothing felt clumsy about the food that we ordered and was put in front of us.
Summing things up, it's worth your time. The food is well sourced (they are fairly open about their suppliers online) and put together for enjoyment in a competent and reasonably attractive fashion. Things are continuing to be on the up in Liverpool, they are also thankfully filtering out quite nicely into the suburbs, with this latest addition to the Allerton Road scene, there is now some additional substance.
Pedro
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Maray
57 Allerton Road, Liverpool, L18 2DA
Tel: 0151 709 5820
Email: Allerton@maray.co.uk
Web: https://www.maray.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarayLiverpool
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marayliverpool/