Old menu of a famous Liverpool restaurant shows what prices used to be

The city centre venue has been loved by generations

An old menu from a now-defunct restaurant in Liverpool city centre shows what prices used to be like. For generations, the Golden Phoenix Chinese restaurant was a familiar sight on Hanover Street.

It is said to be the first Chinese restaurant in the city and opened its doors in the 1960s. The restaurant is located near the current Premier Inn and many will have fond memories of visits after work, at weekends or on special occasions.

While at catering school in the 1960s, Gavin Newport, who grew up in the city centre, visited the restaurant several times a week with fellow students and still has fond memories of his time there as a customer. Gavin, now in his 70s, has been collecting restaurant menus from establishments across Liverpool and beyond for years, including an original Golden Phoenix menu from over half a century ago, the ECHO previously reported.

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The menu gives an insight into the dishes offered at that time and also their price. The price lists were printed before the decimal system changeover in 1971 and remind us what life was like back then.

Gavin had previously told the ECHO: “I did a hotel management apprenticeship in Colquitt Street. I started going there around 1964 and went with other students. We went there about three or four times a week, either for early tea or as a business lunch.

“It was on Hanover Street and we always went upstairs to get in. It was a very long restaurant and you could sit at any table and the waitress would ask you what you wanted.

“I have been collecting menus for years. When I was in catering school, I took a menu with me every time we went to restaurants.

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“Even today, I always take a menu with me and go out with it, no matter where we go. It's just nostalgic that I can talk to people about the past.”

The restaurant, located at 54 Hanover Street, was open Monday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The first page of the menu allowed customers to order a range of English dishes, including everything from prawn cocktail starters to grilled lamb's liver and bacon, king prawn cutlets, deep-fried chicken Maryland sandwiches, tomato omelettes and crab salads.

In the Chinese section of the menu, customers could order soups and seafood, as well as chicken, duck, beef and pork dishes, chop suey, chow mein, fried rice dishes and more. Gavin said: “It was always busy, it was always popular.”

“It was a good atmosphere and the food was good too. They always had three soups on offer and the soup of the day was either chicken, mushroom or tomato soup.”

“We always said it was like a white sauce to which you then added the chicken or mushrooms – but it was always the same soup with a different name. It was popular and we enjoyed it.”

Each week, Gavin and his friends would usually opt for the Golden Phoenix special, or a special five-course lunch that fed up to four people. He said: “The food was good and the price-performance ratio was right.

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“Sometimes we opted for what was known as the business lunch, which was served between 11.30am and 2pm and cost about half a crown, or about 12.5 pence. For that you got a three-course lunch.

“The Golden Phoenix special cost eight shillings, or 40 pence. It consisted of slices of chicken breast, Chinese roast pork, fried prawns, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, vegetables and a fried egg, served with fried rice, noodles or chips.

“In the past, there was also something like a special five-course lunch. For starters, you got bird's neck soup with minced chicken, then fried chicken strips with Chinese mushrooms and vegetables, fried king prawns with broccoli skewers, sweet and sour pork in dumplings, then tar siu roast pork, which is Chinese roast pork with chicken and bean sprouts, fried rice with prawns and then Chinese tea or coffee.

“That was for four people and that would be 80 shillings, or 4 pounds. That’s one pound per person for all that

For dessert, the menu included mince pies, pineapple or banana fritters with syrup, or ice cream cakes. The popular restaurant was demolished in 2009 by Liverpool ONE developer Grosvenor to make way for new leisure and retail space.

In 2012, it was announced that Liverpool's 'biggest' restaurant, Tai Wu, would open on the site of the former Golden Phoenix, but memories of the Golden Phoenix still live on.