Trish, Anne and Dina are the Whatever the Weather Girls; Long term friends in the early Autumn years of their lives, on a mission to explore the restaurants and vibe of Liverpool each month – whatever the weather, whatever our circumstances.
Our jaunt this month was to Carpathia Liverpool venue, at 30 James St. Situated on the top floor of the hotel, the restaurant is renowned for it’s gorgeous balcony/terrace overlooking The Strand with fabulous views towards the Royal Albert Dock and the Big Wheel.
Tricia and Dina managed to arrive on time despite being hit by the ‘Moorfields curse’! They needed the very helpful station staff to locate each other – gosh those exits are confusing.
Well we headed out onto the iconic balcony and the rain managed to hold off whilst we chose our cocktails and enjoyably sipped them and began perusing the food menu as well as chatting away. I had a Cosmopolitan , Tricia had a Carpathia fizz without the sugar syrup which Dave the waiter kindly organised and Dina had a Cranberry Gimlet. It really did feel like we were sitting on a ship’s balcony (well done to the designer capturing the essence of the building).
I decided to wear one of my usual ensembles from Claire House which I now see as a challenge for our lunches out particularly when Dina told me the adverse effects clothing can have on landfill.
As you know Dina follows a vegan diet but, unfortunately the menu did not show any indications of which meals were vegan or vegetarian. Whilst Dave did bring us an allergy chart to follow, it really would have been much easier to just show the usual indicators on the menu itself as the majority of restaurants do.
Tricia chose an Oyster dish to start with, which lead to a conversation about whether oysters have a season and is this recognised by a month with a certain letter in it – does anyone know?
I chose crab fritters for my starter and Dina chose the heritage beetroot and smoked almond croquette.
For our mains I decided on the roasted red pepper and tomato ravioli, smoked applewood cheese sauce and parmesan. Tricia decided to stay with seafood and chose the plaice. Dina thought the tomato papperdelle would be most appropriate for her dietary needs. We decided to have chips, fries and hasselback potatoes as well. Tricia has been on a potato diet and has lost a stone and been voted slimmer of the week at her local slimmers group. I love potatoes, so it sounds pretty good to me!
As usual we caught up upon events over the past month. Tricia has broken her toe by stubbing it on the sofa, fractures seem to be in vogue for Trish and her sisters , one sister has broken her arm and another has fractured some ribs. Girls you need to be careful broken bones are not good as we get older ! Dina showed us her bent fingers which have been damaged over the years by restraining her dogs.
My little dog has had to have her cruciate ligament repaired and has to be on a lead 24/7 for 12 weeks, this is a pretty difficult task given she is a lively terrier.
Having chosen our meals we went inside to the restaurant which had a very relaxed atmosphere and again had been decorated to emulate the shipping history this building holds. On one of the walls was a picture of Molly Brown , an American lady who was instrumental in saving lives when the Titanic sank. It was good to see many ladies who lunch chatting away and enjoying the afternoon tea on offer. Dina told us about the funeral of her cousin, boxer Joe Lally she had attended last week . He suffered from dementia brought on by his boxing . The weather was so hot Dina had to use her sunglasses case as a fan. We talked about we had coped during this hot spell and monsoon freak storms.
Our meals arrived and both Tricia and I enjoyed our starters but regrettably Dina’s had very little taste at all and was like eating flour and water paste – oh dear not good. We felt it would have been better if we had been offered bread with our starters as well, but this didn’t seem to be available.
The mains arrived ,Tricia enjoyed her fish but Dina and I were very disappointed with our pasta dishes . Mine arrived very lukewarm and was replaced by the waitress but it did not taste like a cheese sauce and the ravioli was hard. Dina’s again had very little taste with the papperdelle mostly stuck together . We declined desserts.
It would seem that going for a fish option would be better at this restaurant, so ratings were 8 for the fish dishes and 0 for Dina’s starter and 4 for the pasta dishes.
We enjoyed the ambience so would give this 8 but the whilst the staff were friendly the service was slow. Dina’s ice for her drink had melted by the time the drinks arrived so a score of 5.
We did ask the staff about the history of the building, but unfortunately their knowledge was minimal, (we were simply shown a framed script about the importance of the ship the Carpathia in responding to the distress signals from the Titanic.)
Well, as I feel the history of our City should be celebrated here is my knowledge of this iconic building:-
30, James St was once the HQ of the White Star shipping line owned by the Ismay family and consequently the SS Titanic. When the disaster happened in 1912 families gathered outside the building trying to find out what had happened to their loved ones . The staff were too frightened to come out onto the balcony to address the crowds. The architect of the building modelled it on one of his previous projects, New Scotland Yard.
I have a particular interest in the Ismay family as the school I attended in Thurstaston was founded by Margaret Ismay in 1905.
Back to our lunch whilst the meal did not float our boat (sorry about the pun) the company and conversation more than made up for it. Brexit was once again a topic and world leaders. Tricia told us about the ups and downs of her working life and we all recognised how important volunteers are. Dina said how humbled she felt at the recent award ceremony she attended.
Overall, whilst the views from 30 James Street are incredible – we’d have to say no, it’s absolutely not worth the money!
Have you tried Carpathia Liverpool? Comment below with your rating…
Trish, Anne and Dina are ‘Whatever The Weather Girls’; three women in our fifties on a mission to explore the restaurants and vibe of Liverpool each month – whatever the weather, whatever our circumstances.
