Food and Drink awards triumph for Lunya

Lunya has been named Liverpool's top restaurant - just six months after opening its doors.

The Catalonian restaurant and deli, in College Lane, Liverpool One, was voted the city's favourite restaurant at this year's Liverpool Food & Drink Festival Awards.

It was up against more than 70 eateries, which all exhibited at this year's event.

Lunya, which opened in March, is the brainchild of Wirral businessman Peter Kinsella, who left behind a successful career in consultancy to pursue his lifelong dream of opening a Spanish restaurant.

Peter said: "We are delighted to have won this award and I would like to thank everyone who voted for us. This is testament to the hard work and dedication of my team, who have all put in long hours to help us reach this point.

"We were up against some of Liverpool's most established names, so this award is a massive confidence boost for me as a novice restaurateur."

Lunya is the UK's first Catalonian restaurant and deli and serves a range of tapas and a la carte dishes. Its menu is inspired by the region of Catalunya in north east Spain, and it imports many of its ingredients from artisan producers from the area.

Peter added: "We try to keep our ingredients as authentic as possible, but we have added our own local twist to some Spanish classics, such as our Scouse tortilla, which have been really well received."

The awards ceremony, which took place at Zeligs in Liverpool One, marks the climax of this year's food and drink festival, which welcomed more than 40,000 guests to its launch event in Sefton Park earlier this month.

For more information about Lunya, visit www.lunya.co.ukor search for "Lunya" on Twitter and Facebook.