It was open for decades as a restaurant in various guises
A rare photo offers a glimpse inside a lost Liverpool Chinese restaurant that served customers in the city centre for decades. For years, generations will remember heading to the Shangri-La on Victoria Street for a meal after work or to celebrate an occasion.
The site had been a restaurant for about 40 years, specialising in Greek and Italian for short periods, but found itself vacant for three years before the Chinese restaurant opened in 1989. Following a big investment and an 18-month refurbishment, the venue opened in June that year.
Inside, the Shangri-La had an eastern-style red and black décor, with brass fittings and a wealth of dragon motifs. When it opened, general manager Danny Boon told the ECHO: “We have done something different, something which Liverpool and the north west have never seen before.
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“Anyone who use to come to this place a few years ago will not recognise it now.” In its early days, the restaurant was described as offering “quality and variety in a luxurious and relaxing environment.”
It also offered a three-course business lunch, between 12pm and 2.30pm for £3.60. In June 1989, the ECHO reported: “The theme of Shangri-La – ‘a place where life approaches perfections’ – is of a Chinese house, with customers entering via marble steps in a newly-constructed entrance on Victoria Street itself.”
It continues: “A 20-foot waterfall tumbles down at the side of the “celestial bridge” which customers cross before passing through the facade of the “house” to enter the main restaurant which seats about 150.” At the time, customers could order appetisers from prawn crackers to the Shangri-La special hors d’oeuvres.
There was also an array of soups to choose from, including shark’s fin with crab meat, as well as a number of desserts and complete banquets. One new images, courtesy of our archives, Mirrorpix, offers a glimpse inside the restaurant in June 1991.
Unseen to the public for years, you can see the dining space as it looked on the restaurant’s second anniversary. By then, the restaurant had expanded and offered 260 items on the menu.
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On June 12 that year, the ECHO reported: “Much has happened since the Shangri-La opened its doors in Victoria Street, Liverpool, two years ago. This handsome restaurant – serving all Chinese food – quickly built up a substantial clientele.
“A year ago it opened an extra ground floor area (the fountain room)in the building next door.” For years, generations will remember popping in “before a night on the town, after a night on the town, for Sunday supper or perhaps for the famed karaoke.“
In 2009, an advertisement in the ECHO described the restaurant as a “blaze of red, green and black and set over a few levels” and that it was a great place to dine out and go for a singalong. But the known restaurant did run into issues in its latter years.
In 2012, the Shangri-La was closed immediately after an Environmental Health visit. It remained shut for two weeks and following a court case, there was a change in management.
The business later changed its name to Mr Ho’s and launched a new website promoting its Vietnamese and Cantonese cuisine. This venue however ran into issues following an inspection by Environmental Health Officers and the owners were taken to court.
Mr Ho’s is now permanently closed, with its signage being removed from the Victoria Street site, closing a chapter on the venue’s history.
