Bristol

[wgallois]

Has there ever been a thread about food in Bristol in egullet? I can't find one and I thought it might be an idea to start one, partly as a thread allied to indiagirl's request for information on London (I think she mentioned that she would also be staying in Bath, so a Bristol trip might also be on the cards).

Bell's Diner in Montpelier gets quite a lot of press these days, though I think it can be a bit hit-and-miss. My first four dinners there were excellent, but perhaps two of the last three were a let-down (though the last of these was more than two years ago). When it is on form, it offers excellent Franco-Mediterranean cooking with top-notch British ingredients. Just up the road from Belle's is Licatta, a fantastic Italian supermarket that sells three kinds of pecorino, great olives, expensive bottles of Barolo, tins that have gone out of date, and nice big bunches of herbs. Also in Montpelier is an excellent Chinese supermarket.

In Cotham I'd recommend Chandos Deli for their French cheeses, Old Possum's for their cheap food and wine, the Highbury Vaults for 'pub grub' and the nice garden at the back, and the Algerian place on Chandos Road whose name I forget (I didn't rate Red Snapper, which is opposite, though many rave about it).

Moving closer to town, Brown's is a great place for a drink or a coffee, especially if it's sunny and you can sit outside. There are a whole group of restaurants close to the Christmas Steps, and my recommendation would be Boca Nova - a Brazilian restaurant, which offers South American-tinged Mediterranean food. I am struggling to remember precise dishes which I had there, but I remember thinking that their soups were the best that I had ever had. They have a fantastic lunch deal.

There are heaps of places to eat in the yuppified waterfront area (Watershed, Arnolfini, Severnshed etc), of which the best would seem to be the bar area of the River Station, which offers deli classics at reasonable prices.

Further afield there is Glasnost, which I remember liking, though my abiding memories are of being given a bowl of peanuts at the start of the meal, feeling unpleasantly full after two courses, and struggling in the taxi on the way home. I'm sure the food was good, though.

[Paul Bell]

Bell's Diner was rather a miss when I went there, it was OK but no more than that, pleasant place to sit though and it probably warrants another visit.

The River Station is a good place to sit on a nice day (if you have one of the tables near the windows or on the balcony) it does get very noisy and hot, food is sort of modern british fusion quite pleasant, bit overpriced coz its trendy.

My favourite restaurant used to be Markwicks but Stephen Markwick sold it, it is now called Lords although the staff are I believe the same with the former deputy now head chef. It is a nice room, a converted bank vault with lots of wood panelling, very good wine list and again modern british/french food.

Paul

[Vivian Mallinson]

I was very sorry to see the end of Markwicks, it was one of my favourite restaurants ever.

There are plenty of places in Bristol where you can experience solid, competent, slightly overpriced, slightly unmemorable cooking: Bell's Diner, Riverstation, Quartier Vert et al. I've been to Boca Nova once and loved it, Red Snapper once and hated it. Not tried Deasons yet, was put off by Jay Rayner's review in the paper a while back.

'The Algerian place on Chandos Road': is that Okra? I had a tagine there which wasn't very nice.

I no longer live in Bristol but I still shop at Bristol Sweet Mart for Asian ingredients and Vine Trail for keenly priced French wine.

[Rifqa]

Byzantium is a rather interesting restaurant, (French-Mediterranean) although my memory of the food there is of an excess of balsamic vinegar. You can get a 'food lantern' for your starter or desert, with little tasters of lots of things, a bit gimmicky perhaps, but very enjoyable. The interior is impressive with a great view of St Mary Redcliffe church.

The Lebanese restaurant (Sands) on Queens Road is good; nice olives, wine, and hearty mains, as well as sticky, fragrant puddings.

I have eaten downstairs in the River Station in their cheaper bar/cafe several times and loved it. On the one occasion that I ate upstairs in the proper restaurant, just a couple of weeks ago, I didn't enjoy it at all. The food was very mediocre, relying on heavy, sweet flavours. The bread was strangely cold, and the service poor.

Teohs (there are two branches: one in St Pauls and one in Bedminster) is an interesting place, hit and miss as well. It is a pan-Asian restaurant, and suffers from trying to cover too many countries. If you order well though (avoid Malaysian) it can be delicious, and it is ridiculously cheap.

[Sarah74]

For pure unadulterated fish, then the Fishworks Seafood Cafe at the top end of Whiteladies road is great. We have eaten there recently and went for the sleeves up, no glamour dish of 'everything from the front row and everything from the second' approach (i.e. seafood platter). We had a whole lobster, crab, oysters, scallops, clams, mussels, prawns big and small along with an excellent bottle of wine and some roasted butternut squash (random I know but I love it!!!)

Byzantium - I went there at lunch time last week and it was like eating in a morgue. No atmosphere at all. But the food was good and apparently it is so popular that they are already booking for Christmas.

BTW - excellent thread as I have only just moved down here and would really love to hear all your recommendations.

[wgallois]

How could I have forgotten? A great Bristol favourite for lunch is the Hope and Anchor pub, where they make a fantastic Ploughman's. You get to choose three or fours cheeses, meats etc. to go with a set of salads, and they generally offer twenty or thirty well-kept cheeses on the menu. They do offer a large range of food, but I've always found the Ploughman's to be the best deal. Very busy for lunch at weekends.

[wgallois]

Scratch those comments about the wonderful Ploughman's at the Hope and Anchor. Went there for dinner last night and found the Ploughman's redesigned and distinctly inferior to its previous incarnation. It is now smaller and less well-made. Where before one got a big selection of tasty salads, the plate is now dominated by an iceberg-led lettuce extravaganza, with rather tasteless rice and potato salads tucked under the leaves. The range of cheeses available is still excellent, but the food appeared to have gone downhill more generally as Becky's cannelloni was pretty insipid. The chips with cheese, however, is a very good example of the dish, with a generous second layer of cheese to be found under the top layer of chips.