Craft Taproom in Liverpool

Had a few beers here with friends and watched a football match that was competing with the karaoke. One of the punters saw himself as a bit of a singer . For karaoke to work you've got to be really bad, and be aware of that or really good. Sadly Alan was the worst type, not quite as good as he imagines himself to be. ...* Edit* ... Quick reply from Black Cat has helped jog my memory. Disregard the review above as I was mistaking the Black Cat for another bar in the City. I did have a few beers here late one night as, if I remember correctly, they were open later than the other bars. It was rammed. The service was good ,looks like they have a few good events in the week.

This is the best bar on smithdown road.....there is an amazing person who works there with tounge piercing who is just amazing and soooo professional and empathetic.... But every person on the bar was lovely..... professional and efficient. ...x

Great place!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Popped in for a 'quick one' on a cold autumn afternoon and was amazed by this excellent place. Staff were really friendly and helpful, selection of drinks was brilliant, even treated myself to a couple of delicious bar snacks 😁 boss music, decor and atmosphere - spent a few hours catching up with friends online and sampling some top notch artisan beers! In the evening, it is an incredibly popular hangout for the local students and regulars! Live DJs, quizzes and an open mic all added to an absolutely brilliant experience! I am fast becoming a "regular" myself 🤣

Lovely staff, felt a bit queasy and they brought me some water and the kind bouncer had a nice, friendly chat outside, he da best! such a cute place and so cheap :) highly recommend to students 😋😋😁.

It's okay bar to chill out, bit dark and dingy and prices of drinks are good

Was looking for a place to sit down and relax one Bank Holiday afternoon. Music was wonderful, loved the cake and drink and even felt motivated to write a poem or two whilst at the table. Marvellous and will visit again.

A lovely bar/taproom. Great selection of craft beers. Interesting decor inside. They have a food menu however some of the menu is delivered in from neighbouring businesses.

Good little bar where people can actually have a conversation without the need for loud music or fellow drunks arguing. If you like a good drink and calm this is the place to go

A nice place to go for a beer or a drink

Had the best experience at black cat and always do! such friendly staff and a great atmosphere. My friend and I were drinking margaritas all night and went out of their way to show us there were loads of different flavours we could try even though they were busy!! I also lost my phone that night and the staff very kindly let us look for it once it had shut, let me know they’d check cctv and sent me a text a few days later to check if i found it (shoutout to Lauren!!) 😸😸😸

First time visiting a black cat after a run! The place was really packed, surprise! I didn't expect they would be busy in the middle of the week! Amazing place for a pint or even a few pints! Big choice of beer with a local brewery! I tried a few new beers but my favourite was peach beer! I stayed for a quiz night, it was so nice but a lot of questions were not easy to answer. Food, I order a big black cat burger! The food was so good! Big portion, hot and they bring it to the table. Definitely, I will be back soon!

Great choice of drinks good service and excellent music

Ace ......Sunday vibe didn't have any food pity next tyme .....super koool vibes groups or solo you can have fun no pressure to move on so you can read that book on French existentialism after all...nice one x 😉

Excellent range of draught ales. £12 for 3 pint carryout is a winner.

First time I've visited this bar, friendly staff, nice atmosphere, will return

Love this place! Best alt pub in the area. Lovely staff and great atmosphere, they have a fantastic selection of craft drinks. They even sell PBR American classic. What I love the most about this place is the gluten free range. Difficult to get gluten free stout and crafts in most Bars Pubs, usually have to settle for a depressing GF peroni or no beer. They have also recenty started serving GF food and snacks which is even better. All you GF people can relate. It can be difficult eating out it's so refreshing to see more places introducing GF range stoked!

I'm lucky to have this place as a local. There's always great beers on tap and in the fridge and the staff are a good bunch.

I went in for a drink with a friend and was refused service because of another friend I went with about a year ago who got barred because of an argument he got into with one of the bar staff and because I was with him at the time (but didn't do anything wrong what so ever) I've now been told a year later that I am not welcome even tho I've been in there a few times with other friends since what happened. This is what you call guilty by association which I still can't believe still happens in this day and age, but not surprising really with the way society and customer service standards is going. I am only glad the police don't work like this as if my friend had robbed a bank, I'd be doing time for the crime as well. This place needs to get it's act together and not treat people like this who have done nothing wrong as no-one should be barred from somewhere because of their friends actions

Really great little place to spend NYE. Relaxed place to meet with friends and have a drink. Found ourselves a table in a corner before it got too busy and enjoyed ourselves a range of drinks - beer, ale, stout, negronis, espresso martini. Friendly staff, decent folks on the door, and a good atmosphere.

I love drinking black cat lager with my mates and eating crisps

My go to pub on smithdown. Quiz usually every Wednesday and Sunday, and pints from a crisp house lager to any craft preference you could imagine. Good place to try new flavours if you're so inclined and their partnership with Basha next door for food was a game changer

Quiz on Sunday is brilliant! Great selection of craft beers too.

Friendly atmosphere! Nice pub, looking forward to going more

Great place for a social evening.

I don’t drink in the week so it’s awesome to be able to get a draft pint of decent AF beer at my local ❤️🍻

Black Cat is hands down my favourite bar on Smithdown Road. It's got everything you could want from a local. Great and ever changing selection of ales, lagers and gins. Food available from Basha next door. Two excellent pub quizzes on a Wednesday & a Sunday (booking a table via their website is advised, it's very popular). Loads of seating areas, sport shown on multiple TVs and the bar staff are a delight. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Nice place if you like loud music, nice atmosphere in here absolutely packed some interesting people in here, all very friendly

nice place, interesting design inside.

Best bar around. You won't run out of beers to try! Really friendly staff! Pretty likely to find a table too

Andrew "peacock" was an amazing barman! Literally went out of his way to make our drink perfect. If you're in Liverpool go here! The service alone makes it worthwhile. 👏

A great bar with lots of beers to try and friendly staff.

A superb bar and bottle shop on Smithdown Road. Superb range of traditional and craft ales showcasing beers from round the world and also those brewed by some of the nano/micro/artisanal brewers in the very local area.

Great place! Friendly atmosphere, amazing range of beers, and brilliant staff.

First time visit with a friend and really impressed. I like the seating options which are cosy and rustic, there is a vast drinks selection and the DJ was playing some top tunes. I'll definitely be going back.

Love this place. Great free quiz on Sundays! Along with a great selection of beers.

Nice little bar with some good beers

Quick service, good seating and friendly staff! :-)

great vibe with an amazing beer selection

This place is fantastic! Great atmosphere, great decor, excellent beer selection and incredibly lovely staff. Can't wait to come back 👍

Proper cool in here. Great selections of ales. The missus, who isn't a fan of beer loved their own cider on draft

Nice atmosphere good music even if volume a bit on the low side x

Excellent community local..friendly staff and regulars

Great music and munchen sparten on tap is fantastic. Lovely staff as well

Had a lovely couple of beers here. Great choice and atmosphere

Visited Liverpool for the first time for a couple of nights as a small group of us. We knew it would be good as the lady from Hobo Kiosk recommended it and we loved it there, and she wasn't wrong! Great selection on tap and in the fridge, staff were super and the music was top notch as well! couldn't fault the place!

Great bar - warm welcome and exceptional value with something for everyone. We were told on arrival the kitchen would need a bit of time to get set up - there was little delay in any case but we were still given a couple of complimentary cans. Pies were great too, highly recommended.

Nice pale ale, good service too

Český guláš a budvárek😉a skvělá obsluha

Watched the footy on the big screen with craft beers, they had so much to choose from it was great. I had 6 drinks that were all different. If your into craft beer then this is the place. Nice crowd beer and service!

Warm and friendly with great beers and drinks and even nicer pies!

Pies were great! Options for vegan & gluten free - happy days. Recommend the raspberry sour beer. Clean, friendly & attentive staff. Will come back again & play some board games.

Amazing range of beer - love the ceiling! Great vibes. Also love that they have loads of games

Craft has a great selection of beers (including draught options!) for home delivery, which is hassle-free and really quick. Fantastic Instagram updates of what is being re-stocked/what is new each week, I'm really looking forward to visiting again in person soon!

Great selection of beers and the delivery service they provide is excellent 👌

Atmosphere, Good. Beers, Good. Live music, Good. Vegan food, Good. Since it's opened it's been a bit of a local. And that's by choice, not necessarily due to proximity. If you haven't been, I'd honestly recommend. First and foremost, I'd say this is a pub, but the vegan food is consistently good and genuinley thought provoking. They make it all in what seems to be the world's tiniest kitchen, but despite this, the menu is varied, extensive, tasty, and very reasonably priced. I can't wait to go to this place again, under more normal circumstances. Keep up the good work guys.

Amazing beer - big selection and good prices. Staff were friendly and were managing social distancing really well. A great atmosphere and a must visit place for good beer in Liverpool.

Great beers, friendly staff and nice relaxed atmosphere.

Probamos Guac n Roll por primera vez hace unas semanas y hemos pedido nuevamente un par de veces desde entonces. Disfrutamos mucho de la comida y creo que tiene un precio muy razonable. Recomendaríamos la hamburguesa Smithdown Cowboy y el pescado con patatas fritas.

Just the best and the vegan menu is insane

Lovely lo-fi feel to the space, super friendly staff, outstanding beer selection, and super tasty food, this is probably my favourite overall bar/pub in the city. Long may they continue!

What is cracking good place. Proper real ale,organic food, vegan friendly and a great space just on Smithdown Road. An oasis in the bit of the street it occupies, where else can you drink blood orange beer (remarkably refreshing but a proper ale and not an alcopop-recommended), fabulous ciders too and where else could you drink and eat well listening to a soundtrack of PiL, Bauhaus, Devo, The Fall amongst others. Quite a remarkable find. Free WiFi too I was told.

Brilliant range of drinks and a cracking venue.

Great staff, great food, great beer, great music. Best pub in Liverpool

Food is amazing. Staff are lovely. Prices are reasonable. All the food is vegan :D. Decor is like a band/rock pub.

Great place, great beer, great gin selection!!

A superb choice of ales and the best Vegan pub food. I've discovered some of my favourite beers here. The food created by Guac n Roll Kitchen is superb and inexpensive. Worth a visit... Or two.

Man, what up with the staff in here sometimes. Was the only customer on a quiet night and got blanked while the barman chatted to his mates and looked at his phone.

Vinimos aquí para el asado del domingo. Fue realmente delicioso. Me encantaría volver al menú vegano principal. El personal es realmente agradable y amigable.

Okay, it's not a fancy pub by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a gem of a place! Excellent drinks selection with frequent, local guest ales (staff will happily advise which are vegan-suitable); lovely staff; regular quiz nights and some awesome gigs. There's a main bar area, and some cosy booths at the back, plus it's located on very easily accessible Smithdown Road. However, the jewel in Craft's crown is the food, which is provided on-site by Guac 'n' Roll Vegan Kitchen. Entirely vegan and MAGNIFICENT, from the full breakfast to the Sunday roast to the dirty burgers to the frickles to the nachos to the weekly specials - try it all! Don't expect healthy options - Guac 'n' Roll is joyfully junk food and absolutely delicious, and extremely reasonably priced. Go!

Great vibe and great staff. Also a good selection of craft ales but also a selection of spirits

Great vibe and great staff. Also a good selection of craft ales but also a selection of spirits. Definitely going to return.

Great food. Decent selection of ales. Friendly service. We've been a few times either to meet friends or play some wiffle board. Can't go wrong.

I've been here twice now and really enjoyed it both times. Great selection of beers and friendly staff. Also dog friendly! The burger I had was the Guac n Roll burger -it's Southern-fried seitan, homemade bacon, guac, cheese and mayo. Absolutely delicious! The seitan batter is perfectly crispy and tastes really chickeny; it's one of the best fried seitan burgers I've had! The bacon is smokey and all the sauces are great. I got mine with homemade coleslaw and creamy potato salad but you can get it with fully-loaded fries too! I've been before and tried their homemade smoked vegan cheese, which is very good! And previously my friends got a hefty and tasty looking shawarma, Mac & cheese and the falafel burger -everyone loved it.

Great if your vegan, lots of craft beers available, nice staff , very quirky place

Friendlier than brilliant staff,all of them! Good is amazing.....a different take on vegan and a breath of fresh air. Great little spot and possibly my new local!

Great real ales, tasters available. Great staff and atmosphere

Good vegan was a bit like going back to my student days

Amazing food, excellent choice of beers and nice chilled vibe. One of me favourite places.

Just had Crafts Big fat vegan breakfast and it's fit!! Perfect amount and the coffee is fab!! Brilliant value and great location for a lazy start to any Sunday !!

Always a good atmosphere and fun staff , perfect for a amazing IPAs

Cool cosy bar, great beer selection. Dorean grey house beer is nice. Interesting decor.

Seriously the toilets here are DISGUSTING! But previously l thought... Good local boozer with a decent selection of ales and friendly clientele. Student heavy but generally attracts a mixed crowd. Bring your pizza in from the Little Furnace next door or your friends kebab. Live music nights are good but NYE was a bit flat (thankfully we found a 2 pints for £5 offer so filled our boots on cheap beer). Deducted a star just because the communal toilets are weird and grotty but otherwise its a must visit on Smithdown Road

Came here last night for food, and it was incredible! The Vegan fried chicken was the best I ever had 😍 prices were very reasonable, good selection of drinks and a really nice atmosphere. Definitely will be back soon!

Good choice of drinks and friendly staff. I will go back.

A very kooky music venue with a great range of runs!

Nice place. Decent vegan food and drinks.

Beautiful place, great food and entertainment, highly recommend

Nice place I like it but half their beer pumps are empty on Friday. Vegan food menu Thursday to Sunday.

£10 for a pitcher (4 pints) of house lager (Dorian Grey) which is really nice! Staff are friendly, cool vibe with some big tables and booths to sit in.

Amazing vegan fish and chips! Great atmosphere

My husbands review: From the moment we walked in, we could tell things weren't right, a bad vibe. No greeting from the staff, no menus on the tables, just a cold draught from the 2 doors being wedged wide open. After ordering our 241 vegan special offer (advertised the same morning on Instagram), we soon realised why. As a chef I can smell when the fryer needs a clean. Small particles of food break off, drop to the bottom of the oil, go black and after a day or 2, make the oil smell and smoke. This can be avoided by straining the oil each day to prolong the life of the oil and remove said particles, changing the oil completely every few days. The air in here is so thick with smelly smokey fryer air it is stinging our eyes. We've been waiting over an hour for our food and it just arrived. OK, to be fair the food is very good, cooked well although there wasn't nearly as much on the plate as there was in the Instagram advert. The chef came out and apologised for the delay. He also mentioned the smokey atmosphere to which I advised him to clean the fryer. He said he'd cleaned it this morning. He's either lying or he didn't do it properly. No apologies from front of house, no complimentary drink or offer of a refund. How disappointing. My review: I am livid. I saw a post on Instagram advertising a full vegan breakfast launch at Craft Taproom. It looked good! The place already does food so you don't have to worry about teething problems... Or so we thought! We ordered at 13:05 (as Google time line told me!) and got the 241 meal deal - which for what it's worth, is an absolutely steal! At 13:50 we enquired as to where our food was because we'd witnessed 2 other orders be completed; they arrived after us. It was evident the waiter forgot. No apology, just a "it's on its way" type response. At 14:15 we were presented with the food and an apology from the chef (my husband explains what happened above). I can't tell you how bad the smokey atmosphere was. A couple came in and then left shortly after commenting on the smoke and how you could almost 'chew on it '. In hindsight, we should have asked for a refund and got out. The 'bacon' was overcooked and fried to cinder, and the beans and mushrooms were cold. The hash browns were like lava which highlighted the other parts that were cold. Also, the picture advertised showed more food (see attached photo). I can see it being a great breakfast... in time. It was however, mediocre at best. As we went to leave, the two waiters behind the bar turned their backs to us, purposefully so as not to say goodbye. There was no mention of an apology (other than the chef) and no courteous gesture to compensate for waiting 1 hour 15 minutes for food. A very poor performance guys. It could have been dealt with so much better.

Good vegan menu. Welcoming Host. Decor a bit tired. Would go again.

Nice atmosphere, board games to play and reasonable drink prices.

Oh my goodness... Came for an independent music gig but only draft an orange beer... This place seriously underestimated quantities tonight, only got half way through second band. Love my craft beer... Half the attraction . V disappointing! Really 8 beers off sale!!

A little bit small for bigger groups

Sono stata qui con parenti e amici dopo cena, l'ambiente è molto gradevole, giovane, informale e caratteristico, abbiamo gustato ottime birre e ottimo sidro.

Ace place on Smithdown. Ace beer.

Great burgers - and I say that as a confirmed meat eater - it’s all vegetarian! Excellent selection of beer and the music they play is just up my street.

Cool decor, nice family atmosphere and excellent vegan fast food!

Fab bar - cool, good beer, friendly staff.