10 of the best Bristol restaurants

The last time I did a round up of the best places to eat in Bristol was back in 2014. Since then the food scene has exploded to such an extent that I hardly recognise my original list.

It’s no longer possible to cram everything into one post so these are simply the places where I tend to eat most and which I feel represent a particularly Bristol vibe. (Yes, there are notable omissions but this is a personal take!)

In alphabetical order with the neighbourhood they're based in in brackets

Bar Buvette (city centre)

If you’re familiar with the natural wine bars of Paris and London you’ll feel totally at home at Bar Buvette which is owned by former River Station chef Peter Taylor and his partner Max Ososki. It serves the simple kind of French bistro food that’s hard to find these days (think duck confit and lentils) plus a great selection of charcuterie and Auvergne cheeses (Peter also presides over the fabulous Auberge de Chassignolles up in the hills from Brioude during the summer). Great natural wine obvs which rocks my boat but is not all scary!

Open evenings Tues-Sat, lunch Thurs-Sat. No reservations

Bell’s Diner and/or Bellita (Montpelier and Cotham)

I’m slightly hesitant about including Bell’s as the brilliant Sam Sohn-Rethel has just left but I’ve a great attachment to it and it’s such a Bristol institution it would be impossible to leave it out. The menu is based on fashionable Moorish (and more-ish) small plates and a great short, largely organic and biodynamic wine-list. I always find it hugely difficult to make up my mind what to order but it usually includes the salt cod fritters and the charcoal-grilled chicken oyster pinchos with chipotle and harissa yoghurt. Book in the atmospheric front dining room if you can.

Open Mon-Sat dinner, Fri-Sun lunch

Bellita is its more casual offshoot - more of a wine bar with (very nice) food. Smart, little drinks list - all wines from women winemakers. Lunchtime deal of 3 small plates for £10 is an incredible bargain. Can be (understandably) noisy but a great place to hang out with friends.

Open Mon-Sat evenings, all day Thurs-Sat

Birch (Southville)

If you forced me to choose just one restaurant that represented the soul of Bristol it would be this unpretentious small restaurant in Southville. It's run by Sam Leach and Becky Massey who used to work at St John’s and the Quality Chop House respectively. Sam cooks a short, veg-centric menu which changes from week to week depending on what their allotment produces. Eating produce this fresh is a revelation. A typical summer dish would be tiny sweet raw peas with fresh mint and a cloud of shaved Pennard Vale cheese. Desserts and home-baked sourdough bread are blissful.

Open: Wed-Sat evenings so be sure to book (Closed the first 3 weeks of August 2017)

Box E (Wapping Wharf - city centre)

Only in Bristol could you have Michelin standard food in a 14 seater container*, part of the booming Wapping Wharf development. It’s run by Elliott Lidstone (ex The Empress at Hackney) and his wife Tess and offers, clever, imaginative, contemporary food from the one man kitchen. Fish and veg are a particularly strong suit. I had some marvellous red mullet there recently together with this stylish little snack of spiced whitebait. Recently voted no 85 in the National Restaurant Awards top 100
* of which 4 are 'kitchen table' counter seats where you can take the chef's 7 course menu (£45)

Open Dinner Tues-Sat, lunch Wednesday-Saturday. Outside terrace during the summer.

Bulrush (Cotham)

Another rising star of the Bristol firmament Bulrush has just been placed at no 27 in the National Restaurant Awards top 100. It was good when it opened but has really shifted up a gear in the last year. Clever, slightly Scandified food (chef George Livesey is a fan of Faviken) in a modest Cotham neighbourhood restaurant. For £48 the tasting menu (also available for vegetarians) is ridiculously good value - they also do a £18 set course lunch on Thursdays and Fridays.

Open Tues-Sat eve, Thurs-Sat lunch. Closed from August 13th-September 7th 2017 for summer holidays

Hart’s Bakery (Temple Meads)

My regular pitstop en route to London Hart’s Bakery is conveniently situated just under the arches at Temple Meads. Great croissants, cakes and fatally irresistible sausage rolls (try the mushroom and barley one - the best veggie sausage roll I've ever tasted). You can also eat in which qualifies it for inclusion in this list.

Closed Sundays and Mondays, Open 7-3pm the rest of the week

Lido (Clifton)

With its amazing setting overlooking an outdoor swimming pool Lido’s the perfect place for a summer meal (or for undoing all the good you’ve done in the pool and the spa) There are two sections, an upstairs restaurant where you get a bird’s eye view of the swimmers ploughing up and down and a poolside cafe and bar which has a tapas-style menu. Chef Freddy Bird has done time at Moro an influence reflected in the number of dishes that are cooked in their wood-fired oven. There’s a fixed price lunch and early evening menu at £16 for 2 courses or £20 for 3. Oh, and their ice-creams are heavenly.

Open all week.

Pasta Loco (Cotham)

If you get the urge for a pasta fix head for Pasta Loco on Cotham Hill (which is also home to Bellita and the very congenial Bravas tapas bar) They do a great set lunch for just £12.50. Exceptionally warm friendly service. I use it for lunch *meetings* - at least that's my excuse. The creamy sauces, whatever they currently are, are especially good. Booking essential in the evening.

Open: Mon-Sat evening, Tue-Sat lunch

Wallfish (Clifton)

5 minutes walk from my flat, Wallfish is basically my local. Chef Seldon Curry used to cook with Mark Hix in Dorset and that coastal influence still marks the menu. Order the mussels, if they’re on, and a whole plaice or sole with brown shrimps. BYO on Wednesday evenings. £12.50 lunch or early supper from Wednesday to Friday. Great weekend brunch and open Sunday nights which is a boon. Oh, and try and get a table upstairs (or rather don’t because then I might not get mine)

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Wilson’s (Redland)

I’ve only been to Wilson’s once which should really disqualify it from being on this list but I've been gagging to go again and everyone I know who lives closer to it than I do (and both Jay Rayner and Tom Parker Bowles FWIW) continually raves about it. Jan Ostle who worked at Clove Club in London cooks a short, simple menu - I have abiding memories of a stellar roast chicken. Booked to go next month (July 2017) so will update.

Closed: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday lunch. (If you can’t get in try No Man’s Grace next door which is also excellent)

Here’s the original 2014 list which I’ve updated with closures but by and large it's woefully out of date.

Radici - Islington's spicy Italian

It’s already a bone of contention between me and my Islington-based friend T that she has an unfairly large number of good restaurants on her doorstep.

Now to add insult to injury one of my favourite chefs Francesco Mazzei has moved in with a tribute to his Calabrian roots called - appropriately enough - Radici

The site in Almeida street (just off Upper Street) has actually housed a fair number of restaurants so can’t be that easy but this smart-casual modern Italian trat should hit the spot for families and DINKIES* alike

The menu ticks all the usual boxes - antipasti, pastas, 'secondi' and pizza - but with a spicy twist. I think chilli made an appearance in every dish we ordered (just as a back note - it’s not actually hot, just piquant.)

We kicked off (unexpectedly as we hadn’t ordered it*) with a large bowl of perfectly cooked zucchini fritti which I would ask for as soon as you sit down while you work out what else to eat. Which in our case was some exemplary burrata with broccoli, anchovy and chilli (of course) and meatballs which - my only criticism - I felt would have been happier on a bed of pasta.

Mazzei has a way with seafood pasta and this incarnation with prawns, seafood and calamari was fantastic for the money (£13). If you order just one dish I would make it that - though the mains which include a salt cod and potato stew sound promising too.

T also recommended the pizza so we picked the calabrese and nduja one (great topping, good, light, nicely charred base) and you won’t be amazed to hear got only half way through. They have pizza boxes for leftovers though which suggests they do takeaway. Lucky old Islington.

Uncharacteristically we passed on the cocktails - ‘too strong for lunchtime’ opined T who then had two Aperol spritzes to make up for it while I had an appealingly aromatic ‘Sicilian Garden’ (almond, Poire William and citrus) and a slightly tired glass of Greco (the first I returned but the second wan't much better) Still the wine list is good - all Southern Italian and plenty available by the glass. There’s also a little wine room by the side of the restaurant where you could pop in for a quick one.

It’s not an intimate space. I imagine it could be pretty loud of an evening - so go on a weekday lunchtime if you’re resistant to noise but at the reasonable prices (we paid £76 for two) it’s a great option if you find yourself in that part of town.

Early days but provided they can keep up this standard it’s a bit of a find.

Radici is at 30 Almeida Street, London N1 1AD and is closed Sunday evenings and Mondays.

PS There’s a lunchtime deal of a pizza and a glass of beer for £10

Where else to eat in Islington

As I’ve mentioned locals are spoilt for choice in Islington. Other spots you might consider are

Bellanger - northern outpost of Corbin & King (of Wolseley fame)’s restaurant empire serving Alsatian (French region not dog) food in posh brasserie surroundings. Solidly reliable as all the C & K places are.

The Drapers Arms - Remember gastropubs? This is still one of the best. much loved by locals including T

Oldroyd - I’ve had good and disappointing meals at Oldroyd which is run by the former executive chef of Polpo. When he’s in the kitchen it’s great - and brilliantly located bang in the middle of the Angel end of Upper Street. Two course set lunch for £16

Sardine - a bit further down towards the City Stevie Parle and Alex Jackson’s charming southern French bistro serves better food than you’ll find in most places in Provence.

* Double Income No Kids

Disclosure. We were given complimentary aperitifs, a bowl of zucchini and a limoncello at the end of the meal.

Jikoni: modern Indian home cooking in the heart of Marylebone

What makes you want to go back to a restaurant? It may be because it’s convenient for where you live or work. The food certainly has to be good but I think the most important factor is the warmth of the welcome - whether you feel at home there.

Ravinder Bhogal’s new restaurant Jikoni has warmth in spades. it’s a simple, cosy place if you can call anywhere in pricey Marylebone simple with decor that’s more like an upmarket tea room than a smart West End restaurant. You could be in Ravinder’s home

If she’s not on your radar, Ravinder - aka Cook in Boots - is a fabulously pretty young British chef, food writer and TV presenter who shot to TV fame when she appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word although her subsequent billing as the new Fannie Craddock couldn’t be wider of the mark.

Her style of food is clever and witty, bringing an Indian touch to British and American classics without doing anything as clumsy as fusion food. One of the highlights of the menu, for instance, is a range of tiny Scotch eggs made from quail eggs (below) of which the prawn toast scotch eggs are particularly wonderful.

Other highlights (between 5 of us we managed to eat our way through pretty well the entire menu) were an addictively crunchy sweet potato bhel, an absolutely gorgeous lobster ‘khichdee’ a fragrant lobster curry with coconut milk and a saffron and prawn fish pie which makes you wonder if you ever want ordinary fish pie again. About the only dish that didn’t do it for me was the mutton keema sloppy joe but then I’m not mad about the original. Ravinder, I suspect, is more of a fish than a meat gal.

Leave room, if you can, for the kheer crème brulée and the outrageously good banana cake with miso butterscotch, an Anglo-Indian-Japanese spin on sticky toffee pudding.

The short but imaginative wine list compiled by restaurant manager Pierre Malouf includes an attractive prosecco - and I don’t often use those words in the same sentence - from Cantina Binardi and one of my favourite South African whites, Force Majeure Mother Rock Chenin Blanc from Swartland. We also cracked open a bottle of P.U.R Beaujolais Villages which was perfect with the gently spiced food.

The final bill was about £50 a head which is more than fair for the quality of the food and this part of town. And you could probably spend less if you didn't pig out to the extent that we did.

Frankly I can’t wait to get back to Jikoni and I don’t often say that.

Jikoni is at 19-21 Blandford Street and is open for dinner 7 days a week, for lunch from Tuesday to Friday and for Sunday brunch. Ravinder’s book Cook in Boots seems to be out of print at the time of writing but second hand copies are available on Amazon

Mampuku, Bordeaux

My heart usually sinks when I’m recommended an Asian-fusion restaurant in France. It generally means a mishmash of dishes devised by a chef who’s never set foot on the continent.

Or who insists on putting a fussy Gallic spin on the food, presumably in the hope of winning a Michelin star.

But a friend I trust recommended Mampuku and another winemaker friend had invited me there so who was I to quibble?

My fears were immediately allayed on walking through the door. This is a sophisticated space - all curving contours and blond wood with a modish open kitchen along one side.

There is a concept but (thank God) our friendly waitress didn’t feel the need to explain it. You order four or six dishes between you (at 25€ or 32€ per head). Out of sheer greed and inability to make up our minds we ordered six but four would have been enough. And, hallelujah! - they were served one by one in a logical order instead of all arriving at the same time.

We kicked off in Asian mode with osakayaki - a take on okonomiyaki with authentically fluttering bonito flakes, punchy ginger puree and cebettes (spring onions/scallions) and an exceptionally good hand-chopped korean-style steak tartare with black garlic. Then Vietnamese pancakes with a punchy filling of pork with oyster sauce, with crisp lettuce leaves to roll them in and dunk into an accompanying dipping sauce. Messy but tasty.

Bao buns made with brioche dough were a clever idea but the filling was a little lacking in punch. The sweet-flavoured, seared scallops with shitake and shimeji mushrooms in an umami-rich sake broth that followed was a much better course (albeit at a 2€ a head supplement). But best of all was what amounted to a Moroccan meatball pie - deliciously light aromatic meatballs with chickpeas under a fluffy sesame flatbread lid that went incredibly well with the friend’s medium-bodied merlot-dominated Bordeaux red.

Desserts were a little half-hearted by comparison and are not I feel their strongest suit though they are included in the price of the menu. The pastry in my knafeh with poached pears was too soft and the pears too hard but it did work quite well with the Sauternes my friend had brought along. And it has to be said he demolished his Gen Mai - grilled rice ice-cream with a chocolate brownie - without too much trouble.

As he had brought his own wines (a privilege afforded to local winemakers so don’t get the idea that this is a BYO) we didn’t dip into the rather engaging and eclectic winelist which includes wines from Canada, Morocco and Israel as well as a wide choice of sakes which are available by the glass

If you’re staying in Bordeaux for a few days and tire of French food Mampuku is ideal. I’d be more than happy to go again. Expect to pay about 30-35€ a head for food.

Mampuku is at 9 Rue Ausone. Tel: +33 5 56 81 18 75

Here's Le Fooding's review (in French) if you want another take on it.