The beer tides are turning

For so many years we have been presented with wine lists in restaurants, offered wine flights to go with our tasting menus and suggested glasses of bubbly as “the very best way to start a meal, madam”. The only place you would find customers heartily chugging beer with a meal was your local Indian restaurant.

But now I’m pleased to see that beer’s stock seems to be on the rise.

As a food blogger, I spend a lot of my time eating, photographing and writing about food. I think it’s fair to say that food is a big part of my life. But so is beer. I grew up with parents in the real ale industry, and I don’t go a week without a pint or four.

Beerd Kingsdown

I love pizza. I love beer. Beer loves pizza and pizza loves beer. It’s all one big happy family, and a family that is brought to Bristol courtesy of Beerd in Kingsdown.

Beerd is owned by Bath Ales, and has been providing a plethora of local and international brews for some time now. Excitingly, they are also currently running a pop-up in Clifton village for those of you who don’t fancy the walk over (lazy bones). However, as I am also a lazy bones, I prefer to frequent the location that’s simultaneously close to my work and my home. More time for drinking.

The Townhouse Set menu

My partner and I often disagree about deals and discounts. When the bottle of wine says “was £14.99, now £8.49”, she will pick it up, content that it’s a bargain. I, perhaps the more cynical of the two of us, will make noises that it probably was never worth fifteen quid in the first place.

What I can’t disagree with however, is real value for money. And that is why I came away feeling supremely content after sampling the early-bird menu at the Townhouse on Whiteladies Road. Three courses for a tenner. Ten pounds!  When I saw that, I decided I need to take my cynicism and give it a damn good go.

Birch

If there was an award for the highest proportion of glowing reviews in the shortest period of time, I think Birch restaurant in Southville would probably take home the prize. In the few short weeks since they have opened, I have seen countless reviews highlighting just what a star of a place it is. Bristol folk are lining up to get a piece of the action.

So in order to break with tradition, I am going to start my review with the things I didn't like about Birch. The negatives of my meal and the little niggling annoyances I haven’t been able to let go. So here goes…

On the day I went, my birthday in fact, it was raining. Like end of days raining. And my hair got wet, and lost some of its oomph.

Okay, now that’s the negatives dealt with. Let’s talk about the rest...

The Glassboat

How do you feel about restaurants on boats? I've thought about this a lot recently (I know, get a life). I used to associate them with slightly weird cafés and dodgy seafood. Admittedly I think this must stem from the ropey one in my home town. But I really haven’t had a great experience thus far.

Thankfully Bristol is awash (haha) with boat restaurants, none of them ropey. And I had the pleasure of visiting Glassboat a couple of weeks ago with my family. I can report it was neither slightly weird nor dodgy. 

In fact, it pretty much smashed it out of the park. Or harbour. Marina? Oh, you get my drift.

Katie & Kim's Kitchen

I haven’t lived in Bristol for very long. This annoys me because I hear about all these long-lost lovers of Bristol food that I have missed out on. Katie and Kim’s horsebox was one of these things. I’d heard mention of them in relation to the Street Food Awards (they took the title in 2013), but had never had the opportunity to try out their famous grub.

That was until last week, when I visited their newly opened (and permanent) café on Picton Street in Montpelier. Finally I had the chance to sample the goods!

And oh, how good they were…

Bakers & Co

You guys know I like brunch right? In fact, I love it. It has all the best things about breakfast, but with the added enjoyment of a lie-in. Thankfully Bristol has a fair amount of options for those of us looking for our mid-morning food fix. You can choose from nearly any cuisine in any area of the city and not be disappointed. The problem with this however is that when opening somewhere new, you have to be pretty special to stand out.

And that is just what Bakers & Co is hoping to do. The ‘San Francisco style’ café opened on Gloucester Road in March to a whole host of anticipation. Brought to us by the people behind the hugely successful Bravas on Cotham Hill, the Bristol community’s expectations were sky high. I visited a few weeks after opening, to see if it could live up to the hype.

Mathilda's Chilli Bar

When I heard that a new chilli restaurant was opening in the Bearpit, I knew this was somewhere I was going to try very hard to love. I think it’s the attraction of a restaurant that is confident enough to serve one thing. Mathilda’s Chilli Bar serves chilli. Admittedly it comes in two varieties, but that’s about it. Like chilli? Go to Mathilda’s. Don’t like chilli? Don’t. It’s as simple as that.

And speaking of simplicity, Mathilda’s is definitely setting out its stall in terms of décor. Black walls, white tiling and tea-lights in treacle tins are about as decorated as it gets (if you discount the row of tiny cacti and Tabasco sauce bottles above the kitchen). The effect is striking.

The Stable

The Stable opened on the Bristol Harbourside last year, with a promise of ‘pizza, pies and cider’. A West Country chain, they have five venues across the South-West, with a new location in Newquay due to open next month. They focus on South-West producers, and there are plenty of local name-checks to keep a Bristol food-lover happy.

The Stable is an impressively large restaurant, with huge wooden sharing tables and a vast bar which dominates the area. The venue is referred to as a ‘Cathedral to Cider’ which suggested to me that this was a place where the drink might be more important than the grub.

The Ox

I have a bone to pick with The Ox restaurant. It’s only been open a couple of months and yet it is responsible for a surge of food photography which quite frankly, on a Monday morning I could do without. Instagram is suddenly full of rare steaks. I can barely get on Twitter without seeing photos of huge home-cooked chips and delicious things on toast. It’s a good job I have my own office because it’s really not acceptable to drool at your desk.

After several weeks of torture therefore, I decided it was no good. I was going to have to try this out for myself. And so I took my big slobbery chops and got stuck in.

Thali Café Montpelier

My family love Indian food. We cook it, we order it in and we frequently get together to eat at our favourite restaurants. My sister loves it so much she held her 6^th birthday party at our much-loved local curry-house. So bearing that in mind, I could think of no better choice of restaurant for their most recent visit than long-standing Bristol institution, Thali Café.

Thali Café has been serving happy customers with Tiffin take-aways and glorious Thalis for fifteen years. They can now be found in four venues across the city demonstrating the enduring Bristolian love for all things Thali. On this occasion however, the original restaurant in Montpelier was the venue of choice.

The Gallimaufry

The Gallimaufry (or ‘Galli’) was the first place I ate in when I moved to Bristol. In that time I have eaten there on numerous occasions. Some good, some brilliant, some just missed the mark. But all in all, it’s a place which can be relied upon to serve up some decent food with an equally decent price tag.

Local producers are proudly displayed in this bar come restaurant on Gloucester Road. After opening in 2012 they were quickly named Best Newcomer at the Bristol Good Food Awards in the same year, and have upheld a loyal following ever since. The Galli serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner, in a trendy environment displaying ever changing local art and plenty of live music events to enjoy whilst drinking or dining. 

Bill's Bill's Bill's The Triangle, Bristol

I’m not usually a big fan of a chain restaurant. I think a lot of it has to do with the huge mix of dishes on the menu...if I see the words ‘Cajun’ next to spaghetti carbonara I get a bit edgy. So with that in mind, I was a little wary when I first visited Bill’s new restaurant on the Triangle.

It was my first experience of a Bill’s, as I’m reasonably northern and most of their restaurants are in the south, including fifteen just in London. The Bristol branch opened last year and hearing good things, including the buzzwords “good value”, I thought it best to try it out myself.

And it can’t have been bad...because I've been back four times since.

Small Bar

It was an embarrassingly long time before I set foot in Small Bar, Bristol’s newest craft beer venue. I have no excuse for this. However, now I’ve finally made it I can assure you it won’t be long before I return. 

Small Bar occupies a lovely building on King Street, which is rapidly becoming a real destination for decent beer in Bristol (The Royal Navy Volunteer Tavern and Beer Emporium are just across the street). The name Small Bar had given me the impression that I’d struggle to find a seat at 7:30pm on a Friday. Thankfully the place is anything but small, given you plenty of perching options to while away the evening. The interior is very pared down, with plenty of low lighting and wood giving you the feeling of a good local boozer.

The Bristolian

It’s a new year, and a very good time to be in Bristol that’s for sure. With lots of new potential eateries on the horizon I thought I would start 2014 instead with a very local haunt for me, and one many Bristolians are familiar with, not least because that’s its name.

I’m reliably informed that The Bristolian in Montpelier has been around for some time. However it was rebranded and reopened a little over a year ago and, judging by the hordes crammed inside during my visit, it seems to be pretty darn popular. The whole place has a very welcoming vibe – upon entering you’re greeted by a counter bursting under home-made salads, quiches and cakes and some very friendly staff. The tables are nestled amongst pot plants with hundreds of cushions inviting you to relax and plenty of chatty folk enjoying their weekend.

Colour and Cuisine Da Boes & Motley Collective

A few weeks ago I attended an event hosted by Falmouth-based culinary events company Da Boes, in collaboration with “creative folk” Motley Collective. Having no prior knowledge of either company I was a little nervous about what to expect. A little light Facebooking uncovered that Motley Collective aim to create “visually appealing portraits using paint and props”. Bearing in mind the event was entitled ‘Colour and Cuisine’ this was my first clue that I could be in for an interesting evening. It turned out that the goal of the event was to use food to make as much mess as possible. 

Challenge accepted. 

Boston breakfast Boston Tea Party (Gloucester Road, Bristol)

I make no secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of Boston Tea Party. I am a regular frequenter of the Boston on Cheltenham Road, opting to visit for many reasons, not least because it’s five minutes’ walk from my front door. So on a blustery Autumn Sunday I decided to make my legs work a little harder, and headed off to visit their newest addition on Gloucester Road.

This particular branch opened just a few weeks ago, but is already a huge hitter on the Sunday breakfast scene. Having visited most of the Bostons, the thing that struck me first about the Gloucester Road venue was its style - the place really does look fantastic. And I admit that my expectations were high on that front, because the first thing you see as you’re walking in is a giant mural of a boiled egg. What could be a better breakfast welcome than that?

No. 12 Easton

So it’s a Saturday afternoon and my partner is bizarrely craving salt beef. Now I was worried that this was far too specific a request. However it must have been written in the stars, because this Saturday also happens to be the day that we decide to head over to No. 12 Easton for the very first time. And what is their sandwich special? Oh salt beef of course.

Lots of people have been telling me to go to No.12 after it opened in spring of this year. Now after being there, I’m kicking myself for all the months I’ve wasted! Located on the corner of Easton’s High Street, No. 12 grabs your attention with a very stylish shop front. Especially as it has the word ‘provisions’ above it. That word isn’t used enough. No. 12 is a deli and café, serving homemade grub accompanied by excellent foodie products that are available to buy.

Crème de la crème Bell's Diner & Bar Rooms

Thirteen years ago, my brother, sister and I cooked a meal for my parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary. Looking back, there are large parts of that evening that escape my memory. I do remember a hugely disappointing main course of home-made meatballs, and I remember painstakingly crafting invitations (for a meal in their own house - genius).  However, there is one memory which has burnt brightly for all this time. And that is of the crème brûlée.

My mum is not a big pudding fan. Unlike me, she can quite happily feel that her meal is complete without a dessert (she is partial to a peanut M & M however). There are few exceptions to this rule but crème brûlée is the most notable. Now, I would forgive you for thinking that this means my mum would be likely to order a crème brûlée whenever it’s on a menu. The truth is far from that. All those years ago on her anniversary, we treated my mum to a crème brûlée made by my brother’s friend – otherwise known in my mother’s eyes, as the chef who made the perfect crème brûlée. After that, there have been years of failed attempts – those with sugar that didn’t produce a true crack, those with custard that was too thick, custard that was too thin and, the very worst offenders – those with fruit in the bottom. None have come close.

Chinese whispers Mayflower Chinese Restaurant

Like most people, I have a mixed relationship with secrets. On the one hand I love being in on one, and that slight feeling of superiority it gives you. On the other, there’s the dawning realisation that in the food and drink world, that slight feeling of superiority actually makes you look like a bit of a pompous idiot. And of course, nobody likes NOT being in the know. That’s the very worst of all.

Alas, last weekend I found myself taken to a restaurant that not only had I never heard of, but that had been mentioned in the Guardian that week as one of the best tips for the South West, and I hadn’t noticed! What a double blow. I tried to point out to myself that having only lived in Bristol since January, it’s probably OK that I’d never heard of it – and to be honest, one of the best parts of living here is discovering new places all the time - however, it didn’t help the feeling that I’d been missing out. And that is a little irritating.