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Sorry for the lack of reviews lately, rest assured we've still been eating our way around Bristol, but sadly I've not had chance to write it all up.

I resolve to rectify this.

So, reviews coming soon:

• Stable, Watershed
• Gordito, Colston Street
• Spotted Cow, Bedminster
• Simply Thai, Gloucester Road
• Bathampton Mill, Bathampton
• Chomp, St Nicholas Street
• Flour and Ash, Cheltenham Road
• The Bird in Hand, Long Ashton
• Bristol Raj, Alma Vale Road

No Man's Grace, Chandos Road

No Man's Grace
6 Chandos Rd, Bristol BS6 6PE
http://nomansgrace.com/

My best friend and I celebrate our birthdays three days apart and have done since we were 13. This year marked our 20th birthday together but for the first time in 20 years we weren't together. My superstar best friend is currently in Sierra Leone working in a lab testing samples for ebola so had a far more important place to be on our birthdays.

So instead of doing nothing, I hooked up with another couple of friends who had some celebrating to do of their own. They have just reached their first anniversary and they met at one of my Samba gigs. So we decided to have a night full of celebrations and to raise a glass to my absent best friend.

No Man's Grace has taken over Moorish's old place on Chandos Road. We were impressed by Moorish so we were sad when it closed, but it meant No Man's Grace has been on our radar for a while. We had already decided we were going to aim for a cocktail or two at Charlie's bar so we wanted something walkable. We have already rinsed Cotham Hill for food so wanted to branch slightly further afield and No Man's Grace fitted the bill.

We had planned to meet at Aviator for some pre-dinner boozes, but it was closed for a memorial event so for the second evening in a row we were propping the bar up in the restaurant.

The menu at No Man's Grace is sold as a starter and desserts bar and there was plenty on the menu to tempt us. The starter plates ranged in price from £2 for a portion of bread up to £8.50 for a Venison Carpaccio and between £6.50 and £7.50 for a dessert. We decided on a selection of dishes with a range of prices to share between the four of us. Service was a little slow, but we knew from sitting up at the bar that they were short staffed and there was also a large party in that night. We weren't fussed as long as we had a full glass!

Here are the plates we sampled:

• Plaice Goujons, Lemon Mayo £4.00
• Butternut Squash, Gnocchi, Sage & Chestnut Pesto £6.50
• Braised Ox Cheek on Toast, Pickled Carrot, Maple Bacon £7.00
• Keens Cheddar and Bread £2.50
• Thai Green Mussels £5.50
• Grilled Radicchio, Blue Cheese, Burnt Honey, Pear, Walnut £7.00
• Cod, Warm Black Pudding & Pickled Cauliflower Salad £8.00

All were delicious but the stand out dish was the plaice goujons. Perfectly cooked mouthfuls of fish with a lovely tangy mayo. The braised ox cheek was also lovely but when split between 4 it was only a small mouthful each, I would have liked a whole one to myself. I think this was our main complaint, all the dishes were quite small and not really shareable which when the food is good it's nice to do. I think this made it feel pricely and we could feel the bill racking up with every mouthful. Perhaps if we'd not shared, it would have felt like better value, but then you don't get to try all you want. Catch 22. Husband and I had planned on 3 starters and 3 desserts to share between us, but this was not enough to satisfy us and we ended up with an extra bread order and a cheese taster to try and bridge the gap.

We moved onto pudding and choose a selection from the list:

• Apple Crumble Slice, Almond Ice Cream £6.50
• Banana Bread Souffle, Clotted Cream Ice Cream £7.50
• Sticky Toffee Pudding, Cherry Sorbet £7.00
• White Chocolate Crème Brulee, Cherry Sorbet, Ginger £7.00

 

For me the banana bread soufflé was the winner although husband will dispute that ruling in favour of the sticky toffee pudding. Both were good and the portion size was better although still quite pricey when compared to desserts in most restaurants.

 

We also tried a variety of cocktails between us which were all great: 

• Elderflower Aviation 6°clock Gin, Lemon Juice, Maraschino, Elderflower Cordial
• Negroni 6°Clock Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth
• Stanley 6 o’clock gin, Appleton rum, lemon, grenadine
• Sazerac Sazerac rye whiskey, Peychaud bitters, dash of absinthe
• The Crow Heaven Hill bourbon, cranberry, pineapple
• Calvados Cocktail Calvados, Cointreau, orange bitters, orange juice

 

We had a lovely evening and all the staff were great. The food was tasty but our wallets felt the pinch at the end of the night - maybe a testament to our enjoyment of the cocktails which were certainly fun. A great birthday/anniversary dinner in a lovely venue. I'd like to return and when I do I will be a lot more selfish with my choices (and perhaps drink a little less).

 

 

  

Birch, Raleigh Road

Birch
47 Raleigh Road, Southville, BS3 1QS
http://birchbristol.co/

Twitter in Bristol has been alight with excitement about Birch and it's been on my wish list to try since it opened. North Street and the surrounding area has been totally spoilt lately with new openings and it's frustrating for a North Bristol resident that Bristol transport links are so shoddy that it makes a trip over to the other side of town a total pain if you don't have a designated driver. That elusive trifecta of events which mean I get to try out new places south of the river is a rare occurrence so I was delighted when the birthday stars collided and I got to sample Birch for myself.

We booked in for 9pm and we found ourselves in the area an hour early with no hope of finding a car parking space on one of the wettest nights of the year so far. After driving around the North Street area searching for a space so we could enjoy a pre-dinner drink we gave up and called Birch in the hope they could squeeze us in early. No luck, but they were perfectly fine with us holding up their bar for an hour so we gave up on North Street and managed to find a parking spot nearby.

Birch is sneaky little establishment; away from the hustle and bustle of North Street in a residential area. It has limited covers and the menu is about as fresh and seasonal as it gets. It even changes during service when popular items sell out. Whilst we waited for our table we sampled some drinks; husband plumped for the "In the Groves" beer from local boys Wiper and True whilst I also stayed close to home with a Psychopomp Gin and Tonic. We also snacked on the cheese straws which were suprising but pleasantly spicy.

Our table was ready spot on time and we decided on our starters of brawn, celeriac and mustard and the salad of radicchio, pear, ewes curd and cobnut. My salad was tweaked slightly to use a different cheese but it was tasty. Husband enjoyed his headcheese but admitted he thought I'd picked the better choice. I wasn't particularly wowed with my starter but on a very limited menu it was the best choice I felt.

To go with my main course I decided to sample the house white wine; which is a very interesting choice to serve. It's very sweet and I thought I'd been served the dessert wine choice by mistake; I kept reading the board above the bar to try and work out if it was the right one. It's a shame there isn't more choice in wine by the glass but I guess as most of the clientele are probably local and the mark-up on bottles is so small it makes sense to deal in bottles. As husband was driving, a bottle was a bit overkill and I probably wouldn't have remembered leaving.

For our main choices we were very predictable; husband plumped for fallow haunch (venison to us mere mortals) with celeriac, chicory and almond brittle. I went for hake with squash, chard, fried potato and sage butter. I happened to mention in passing to the waitress that I was sad the veggie course from the day previously wasn't still on which was egg and potato cake and she said that the venison came with potato cake and did we want some extra to make up for having to wait for our table. This was totally above and beyond what we were expecting as we didn't wait for our table really and I think husband was relieved he didn't have to share his.

The main course was amazing; the hake was perfectly cooked with a slight bounce. I was warned for bones but I didn't find a single one. The fried potato was like a giant potato croquette which was a lovely golden brown. The squash and leaves combined with the crunch of the deep fried sage leaves. Oh, it was wonderful. It was one of those dishes you can still taste later when you think back and you could eat again and again. Really well done Birch!

Husband's venison was also tasty. The almond brittle added a lovely crunch and sweetness injection into the dish. The venison was perfectly cooked and those potato cakes. Oh my! the potato cakes. I would abandon triple cooked chips for all eternity if I could have Birch's potato cakes. So good.

We finished the meal on that high, as we were totally stuffed and didn't really fancy the pudding selection. We also had homemade peanut butter cup brownies at home. However, when the bill came it was accompanied by some freshly made chocolate truffles. Again a lovely touch.

I had a wonderful birthday at Birch and I'm willing the stars to re-align again so I can go back. I said to husband that Birch is to my generation what Bell's diner was to the generation before me. I think that also reflects Bristol and how areas of Bristol have completed morphed and changed in 20 years. Birch has a great neighbourhood feel and I think it will have a very loyal fan base for many years to come. Well Done Birch team.

Bosco Pizzeria, Whiteladies Road

Bosco Pizzeria
96 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, BS8 2QX
http://www.boscopizzeria.co.uk/

Bosco aims to deliver the taste of wood-fired pizzas from Naples and seeing as I love pizza I was very excited to see if Bosco could pull it off. It was very easy to book at table through the website and when we arrived for a pre-theatre dinner at 6pm there were already 4 or 5 other tables occupied with a good number of children. We were shown to a table right at the front of the restaurant in front of an open floor to ceiling window which given the dropping temperature outside and a sparsely decorated luke warm restaurant was not a particularly nice welcome to Bosco. Luckily the waitress cottoned on to the not-so-great table choice and asked if we would prefer to sit nearer the back of the restaurant to which we immediately agreed on the proviso that they could claim the table back at 8pm. As we were due at the theatre by 7:30pm this was fine. Had we visited on a hot sunny day, then the window seat would have been an excellent choice so I'm glad the waitress used some common sense to move us.
The inside of Bosco took a long time to renovate, which given the size of the massive pizza oven is no surprise. However, it feels not finished. The walls are exposed concrete with exposed pipework. I know this is trendy; however it made the place feel cold. Perhaps with a bustling service it would warm up and keep the heat in.

There were an assortment of different places to sit; bar seats by the pizza cooker and also by the bar were mixed with a some low tables in the center of the restaurant and a line of tables across the back wall. We were sat in the bank of tables along the back wall which was great to watch the service; but we were right next to the "front of house" point which meant the phone rang almost constantly and there were lots of panicked conversations taking place within earshot.

There seemed to be a lot of emphasis being put on the booking sheet and it was very apparent that the staff were a week into their new jobs.

We were asked promptly for our drink order and when we requested a few minutes to decide what we were eating first we were then abandoned for a while and then approached again for a drink order and then abandoned again until someone noticed that our menus had been shut on the table for quite a while. I'm not sure why the waitress who took the drink order couldn't take the food order at the same time.
We decided we had to sample the pizza after reading about how pizza had inspired the opening of the restaurant and we also decided to try a pasta dish. We opted for the Emila - Romagna pizza for £9.50 which came topped with Italian sausage, Napoli tomato sauce, Fior di latte, wood roasted onions & sweet peppers and the Ox cheek ragu, rigatoni & smoked mozzarella also for £9.50. We also opted for the Primitivo to accompany our meal for £13 a carafe.

The food took quite a while to arrive, but we decided this must have been because of the baked Ox Cheek Ragu dish.

Both dishes were very appetizing but the Ox Cheek Ragu was fantastic. Very high meat content which was super soft and plenty of lightly smoked mozzarella on top. It was utterly divine. The pizza was ok, we didn't feel it was amazing and was certainly trumped by the pasta. This was a shame as we were expecting great things from the pizza. Perhaps we should have tried one of the more adventurous bianco pizzas but having never sampled a real-life pizza from Naples I can only talk from personal taste. The topping was very watery and sparse. The sausage was tasty; it contained a lot of star anise which was the main flavor coming through.

We wrapped up our meal with a double espresso each and made our way to the Hippodrome. The bill came in at under £30 and we did use a 20% off voucher we collected from another restaurant. The service was ok but I would imagine on a busy service it might be slow. If I was to visit again, I'd have to order the Ox Cheek ragu and for that dish alone I can recommend visiting but for pizza I would return to Beerd as that is the pizza I can't stop thinking about. We were debating how successful Bosco will be in the location it is and what trade it will catch. For us it would be a special visit as it's not in a location that is very accessible to us but seeing as most tables last night were families that bodes well for the future.

Prego, Westbury Park

Prego
7 North View, Westbury Park, Bristol, BS6 7PT
http://www.pregobar.co.uk/

When we went to London earlier in the year, we walked past the Wyndham theatre when Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy are starring in David Hare's Skylight. When we returned I found out that NT:Live were doing a live screening on the 17th July. All cinemas in Bristol were sold out, but Scott cinema in Henleaze held an Encore screening on 5th August. I booked tickets and then immediately booked a table at Prego via email.

Prego is a Italian restaurant in Westbury Park right on the edge of the downs. The restaurant is clean and tidy and obviously thriving in its location. We booked for the early opening of 5:30pm and were pleasantly surprised to find 5 other tables booked at the same time; two of which also came to watch Skylight (great minds and all that!!). Prego runs an early dining deal (Tuesday - Thursday) where all pizzas are £6.95 and seeing two of the tables booked last night also had children it seems a cheap way out eating out with the family.

We decided to skip starters in favour of dessert later and we decided to share a couple of dishes; a pizza with parma ham, rocket, parmesan and Tuscan extra virgin olive oil and a carbonara dish with guanciale, free range egg, parmesan and cream.  We also sampled a glass each of the 2013 Inzolia/Catarratto (a brave choice considering we are normally red wine connoisseurs).

The food arrived quickly, each generously portioned. The pizza was fresh, non-greasy and tasty. The pasta was wonderful and I would say it was even better than the carbonara we ate in Venice which has always been our standard to compare too. High praise indeed.

We finished off our meal with an espresso and a couple of the desserts; chocolate mousse on a florentine base and limoncello and forest fruit semi-freddo. The puddings were both pleasant but a little disappointing for the price of £5.95 each especially following that amazing pasta. But never the less, we enjoyed every morsel.

Service was quick, polite and prompt and the bill was a welcome sight at under £40, a lovely change from being pleased to see change from £80 which seems to be the going rate in Bristol!

It was lovely to be able to walk down to the cinema; overall a perfect date and one I can see becoming a regular thing especially as we can cycle so easily from our house.

If you get a chance to catch Skylight either in the West End or at a cinema then I can highly recommend it.

The Ethicurean, Barley Wood Walled Garden

The Ethicurean
Barley Wood Walled Garden, Long Lane, Wrington, Bristol, BS40 5SA
http://www.theethicurean.com/

The Ethicurean, for us, is one of those places all your friends rave about, have been too and love but due to circumstances we've just never quite got there. It took a offer on an archery experience nearby to finally get us to make the trip. Husband was a keen archer in his youth so for our 4th wedding anniversary I took advantage of a offer for a reduced price 2 hour session. The place was in Redhill just past Bristol Airport. I knew the Ethicurean was out that way somewhere and was pleased to discover it was a mere 4 minute drive from where we would be spending the morning attempting to hit targets with wayward arrows. I booked easily over email and the restaurant was easy to find with a little help from Sat Nav.

The Ethicurean is part of the Barley Wood Walled Garden and when we arrived and parked in the car park at the bottom of the garden, the sun was shining and we decided to mooch around the garden a little seeing as we were early. The garden is a delight and its wonderful to see some many of the ingredients used in the Ethicurean menu are sourced on site from the garden.

The restaurant itself is at the top of the garden in what looks like an old potting shed. There is a lovely outdoor seating area and the restaurant do a mixture of lunch service, afternoon tea and dinner service.

We were booked for lunch and took our seats at the front of the building which gave us a wonderful vista over the gardens and out over the hills. We were thinking perhaps we should sit outside in the glorious sunshine, but husband pointed out the ominous black clouds making their way rapidly towards us. The building was simply decorated with a rustic feel and we could imagine the room at night lit up with candles. Very romantic. We did comment that it might be a great place to visit around fireworks night as you could watch the fireworks go off around the area.

We studied the menu and everything sounds delicious; it was a master class in seasonal produce with many of the same ingredients being used in totally different ways throughout the menu. We settled on sharing the Cider and Cheddar Welsh Rabbit (rarebit) with Gert salad for starters. Then I chose the
Confit leg of Madgett's farm duck, sauerkraut, sautéed potato goat bacon & cos salad for main whilst husband chose the Bavette of Gloucester beef, Kimchi, burnt aubergine & brown butter roasted hispi cabbage. I also decided to sample one of the cocktails after they were recommended by a friend and I plumped for the Gin and Juice using Barley Wood apple juice and also a glass of the Portuguese red. Husband went for a Butcombe blond.

As our starter arrived, the heavens opened and our view was reduced to mist, rain and gloom with a hint of thunder and lighting. The Rarebit was lovely though and a welcome distraction from the weather. It was a very large slab of bread with a very tasty rarebit topping which had a lovely twang. The salad that came with it actually complemented the rarebit with its tangy dressing. It was very large for a starter so we were glad we shared.

The main courses were also great, I won the main course battle with the amazing duck course. The duck leg itself was massive, so much meat on it. The dish itself had a oriental feel to it and it was a treat for the dish to include potato as normally you would just get meat and vegetable. The goat bacon included with the cos salad was a taste explosion. Wow!

As we were celebrating, we decided to try a pudding each. Our initial choice had sold out, this was a common theme but to be expected when the ethical/environmentally friendly nature of the restaurant means food wastage is at a minimum. We plumped for the Ethicurean sticky toffee apple cake, toffee apple syrup, double cream & cinnamon and the rhubarb, white chocolate, rose water and anise tart with candied rhubarb sauce and clotted cream ice cream.

Both desserts were lovely; but not as stand out as the main course. Husband commented on how light his sticky toffee apple cake was and although I enjoyed my rhubarb tart and I could taste a small hint of white chocolate and anise it was a little lackluster. I think we also ordered at a particularly busy time as the desserts took around 15 minutes to arrive. This meant we needed to eat and run as we had another appointment to make back in Bristol rather than enjoy our food.

The weather brightened out for our return to Bristol. We really enjoyed our lunch and it was a lovely day out. Service was good considering the staff were having to check quantities of each dish to be able to inform diners what had sold out.  For us, its definitely a lunch venue rather than a evening one due to its distance from where we live. A taxi would be extortionate and add significant cost to an evening out. I would like to return with my mum and nan as I think they would love lunch here especially as they could wander around the walled garden. The other surprise was the price; very reasonable considering the reputation of the restaurant. The Ethicurean manages to balance great food with the ability to retain its casual and understated feel which is in keeping with its surroundings.  Well worthy of it's high reputation!

Koh Thai Tapas, Triangle South

Koh Thai Tapas
7-9 Triangle South, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1EY
http://www.koh-thai.co.uk

We ended up in Koh Thai Tapas by accident on the weekend. We'd met some friends down on the waterfront and decided to have a nose at the Thai festival going on in the Amphitheatre. We decided we didn't really want to pay the £2 entry fee when it looked like it was winding down for the evening and so we went in search of a beer elsewhere. Our friends asked us about the Koh Thai Tapas pop-up restaurant at the event and we told them they had a branch on the triangle. We also said it was on our list to try out as they have quite a big social presence online and we'd heard good things plus it was often on wriggle for a discount deal.

Seeing as these friends had spent their honeymoon in Thailand and were very big thai food fans we decided as we were already on our way up Park Street we would grab a beer in the Triangle branch and have a nose around. Although they weren't quite open yet, the staff were happy to show up to a table in their lovely hidden walled garden which is a lovely little find in the middle of the triangle and was perfect for what we were after. As soon as we sat down we were talking about coming back with a group.

We split a beer bucket which is a fantastic idea and it was great that they were happy to include a selection of beers which pleased all.  We also had a look at the menu as although our friends had eaten, husband, niece and I were a little peckish. We  just couldn't decide what to have so ordered everything we fancied thinking the portions would be pretty small as most dishes were priced around £6.

I ordered a tapas sized massamann lamb and the pad thai, my niece ordered the dim sum tapas and duck noodle soup and husband ordered the 24 hour ribs tapas and the rice soup. I don't know if Koh Thai Tapas have actually ever eaten tapas as every portion was huge!! Everything was delicious and well cooked and pretty authentic according to our friends. The ribs were actually THE biggest plate of ribs I've ever seen and the "tapas" portion of lamb massamann was big enough that along with a starter you wouldn't have needed anymore. We easily had enough food to feed another couple of people!

It definitely a place to go with friends and the whole place and menu is geared up for group dining and sharing. From the beer buckets to the "per head" priced menu where you tell them what you want to spend per person and they just supply a mix of different things.

The service was a little inconsistent, and one of the waiters really needed cheering up. We had a small oversight on our bill but it was fixed immediately.

But overall, we were impressed and will be back with friends for sure as the whole ethos suits communal eating and sharing with prices designed to ease the bill splitting at the end of the night.