Lu Ban Restaurant, The Food Lab photo #2
Lu Ban Restaurant, The Food Lab photo #3

Lu Ban Restaurant, The Food Lab

Location pin

Stanhope St, Liverpool, UK, L8 5XJ - 

  • Credit card

    From
    £550 min spend

  • Users

    Up to
    12 standing

  • Table with chairs

    Offers
    catering

  • Delivery truck

    Internal Catering
    allowed

Experience a stunning journey of authentic Chinese flavours from Executive Chef Dave J Critchley's team at Lu Ban Bar and Restaurant in Liverpool. Lu Ban refers to a Chinese Deity who was a master of craft and invention, and the name brings associations to creativity and innovation in China. The food is cooked accordingly with inspiration from the Tianjin region and the menu offers a range of big and small plates. This is the ideal location if you’re looking for a restaurant for private hire in Liverpool where the food is guaranteed to blow your mind.

Lu Ban is located in the hip, former industrial area, Baltic Triangle in Liverpool. Surrounded by warehouses and breweries, Lu Ban really is a one of a kind restaurant to hire for any occasion if you’re looking for a unique venue to host meaningful moments. You’re also only a comfortable 20-minute walk from Liverpool Central so if you have guests coming from elsewhere than Liverpool you’ll be sure they can get to the venue easily.

Lu Ban is perfect for intimate events with its cosy interiors and eclectic vibe. You have a range of different spaces for hire to choose from, so you’re guaranteed to find one that’s the perfect size and fit for your event. The restaurant has hosted hen parties, corporate events, tea parties, and much more, and are sure to try and accommodate your needs.

With a range of different spaces and setups, you can choose between a room for up to 30 people or 90 guests seated in the main restaurant area. Parking is located outside the restaurant for your convenience and there’s audiovisual equipment available upon request.

The Food Lab is the perfect party and meeting room. For team building or party events such as cocktail making, banquet dining or private meeting space.

With exclusive use for you and your guests, the long marble table and comfortable bar-style low back chairs ooze style, elegance and give you plenty of space to move around. Maximum 12 guests.

Capacity & layout

Boardroom

Boardroom

up to 12

Catering & drinks

Catering arrangements

Catering arrangements

Catering facilities

Catering facilities

Refreshments

Refreshments

Alcohol

Alcohol

Amenities

Flipchart

Flipchart

Air conditioning

Air conditioning

Whiteboards

Whiteboards

Table / chairs included

Table / chairs included

Premises parking

Premises parking

Audio & visual

Microphone

Microphone

TV screen

TV screen

WiFi

WiFi

Space rules

Allowed events

alcoholLicense

Licensed for alcohol

Cancellation policy

Group cancellations with 14 days notice will receive a full deposit return. If less than 14 days but more than 24 hours’ notice is given, we reserve the right to retain the deposit for a rescheduled visit to Lu Ban or you may request to receive Lu Ban Gift vouchers instead. Cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice or failure to cancel will result in no return of deposit.

Location

Reviews

  • Zainab

    September 2023

    Bottomless brunch - the service was impeccable and the food was okay too. I would recommend the cauliflower main over the Szechuan chicken. Vladimir made our experience - he was very attentive & made sure we had constant flowing cocktails.

  • matthew rozier

    July 2023

    Had bottomless brunch here, service was alright and there was a selection of spirits and mixers with 3 cocktail options however the food was sub par. The spring rolls were delicious but the main of sweet and sour was giving primary school dinners. Sorry but definitely would not go here again for £40pp.

  • Andreea Elena Florea

    March 2023

    Really good service, attentive staff and friendly. Food was okay I think the snacks were probably the best part of the food. We had prawn crackers, caramelised walnuts and pork crunch with honey sauce for snacks which I would definitely recommend. For starter we had pork ribs which are unfortunately not any different than any pork ribs from a local chippy. We had duck and pancakes and pork bao bun for mains, these were again a disappointment as we felt they were just the same as a takeaways dishes. Lastly for desserts we had the chocolate sphere, cherry blossom and the Chinese doughnuts. We were really looking forward to the desserts and we were hoping these would change our opinion on the restaurant but unfortunately these only made it worse. The chocolate sphere and the cherry blossom were overly sweet while the caramel sauce for the doughnuts was extremely bitter. Overall not a very good experience and would not go here again.

  • An Te Chu

    September 2023

    The Short Version - From serious quality control issues (mushy rice and oversteamed dim sum) to a failure of vision (upscale Tianjin fusion ) Lu Ban is nothing more than middle of the road British Chinese fare masquerading as inspired cuisine. Save your time and go elsewhere. Edible flower and microgreen garnish does not a good restaurant make. If you are brought here under duress, order the doughnuts, they might redeem your mediocre meal. The Long Version - On first glance, the menu appears disturbing similar to a British Chinese takeaway, offering . Little sign of the Tianjin influence Lu Ban claims to draw from. I ordered the early dinner prix fixe (£30) with the £9 siu mai add on. The duck spring rolls with Szechuan plum sauce was a flop. Whilst the duck was tender and the spring roll itself flaky and tasty, the sauce lacked direction. There was no tang, no sweetness, no kick, no life and even no viscosity. It was a pool of watery hoisin with the tiniest hint of star anise. Simply dripped off the roll, perhaps for the better. The siu mai scored well on flavour but was also lacking. My order was oversteamed, leading to flaccid wrappers separating from their filling, and the chili oil had the heat level of a Mormon adult film. However, the chili oil was incredibly flavourful - I found myself simply taking nibbles of the chili flakes. The chili oil harmonized with the pork and prawn filling which was rubust with balanced fattiness. Disappointing at how close this dish could have been excellent with proper steaming and some kick to the chili oil. The main of crispy chili beef was a failure on all fronts. As their first table of the day, it is unforgivable to serve overcooked mushy jasmine rice. Did someone accidentally pour an extra cup of water into the rice cooker? The beef itself was flavourful and crisp but drowned in sauce which masked what seemed to be well marinated beef. Takeaway Chinese drown meats in sickly sauce to hide poor cuts so I'm not sure why Lu Ban decided to ape this choice. The sauce itself was solid, a little sweet for my taste, but simply just present in too vast a quantity. The vegetables were sliced mind bogglingly thin so they provided zero texture contrast and sat limp in the ocean of sauce. Awful. Awful. Awful. That brings us to the dessert - the most interesting part of the meal. Youtiao plays duo roles in Chinese breakfasts, sweet or savoury and here Lu Ban ambitiously aims for both. Obviously inspired by churros with both a cinnamon sugar dusting and a caramel dipping sauce, they add their own spin by adding enough spices to the cinnamon sugar to land a flavour punch and a salty undertone to the sauce that is extremely satisfying. The doughnuts are well fried and well coated. My only complaint about this dish is the laughable single edible flower. Fine dining pretense all the way to the end.

  • Gary Smith

    May 2022

    Very dissapointed with our visit tonight after high recommendations from my son who visited last week. My Birthday celebration tonight and we had a table of 6 booked right opposite the pass, one thing we all noticed was the noise level !! Very high... which made talking very difficult. It was great to see the chefs at work who were very busy, along with the waiting staff who were so understaffed and overworked that trying to get attention to order drinks was hard work !! Along with that they very rarely looked up as they worked, so trying to catch their eye rarely happened and my wife had to get off her seat 4 times in total during the evening to either get cutlery or ask for more drinks. Chefs were getting annoyed dinging the bell and shouting "Service" there just wasn't enough staff ... and boy your paying for it but not getting it. So on to the food, I had the ribs which was presented on a plate with a circular glass lid over the ribs with wood fired smoke emanating which was all good theatre !! Taste was good, but the sauce was too salty which was a pity. Wife had the Siu Mai which was again OK and served with chilli oil. Time between courses was long !! probably due to the shortage of staff, and we waited 45 minutes for the starter, then another 45 minutes for the Duck, then a further 45 minutes for the Main course !! The seats are not that comfortable so sitting for over 2hrs before the main course even arrived had most of us shifting continuously and watching the pass waiting for the food !! Main course arrived finally, and my wife's sea bass was raw in the middle ... Great !! I had the beef which was really tasty and my other son had the chicken which was also very tasty. Accompanied with this was noodles and egg fried rice... one point I would like to make is that just putting a fried egg on top of fried rice is lazy in my book, and nobody on the table wanted to smash up the egg as we were sharing several sides so both eggs were just left in empty bowls 😔. The bill was very expensive for what we received , poor service and average food other than the mains, which I must stress was not caused by the waiting staff who were trying their best ... they were just swamped with customers in the venue which then affected service. Sorry to say we will not be returning any time soon.