Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Bristol
Hardens guides have spent 34 years compiling reviews of the best Bristol restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 45 restaurants in Bristol and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Bristol restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Bristol Restaurants
4.
1766 Bar & Kitchen
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
King Street - BS1
2021 Review: “Better food than expected” is to be discovered in this striking, light-filled (perhaps “noisy”) space – part of the recent £25m renovation of the UK’s oldest theatre, dating back to, er, see if you can guess. Open all day until an hour after the last evening performance, it aims to be a community hub, serving a menu devised by head chef Coco Barone (ex-Glassboat and Rosemarino). There are also pre-theatre deals, obvs.
5.
Pasta Ripiena
Italian restaurant in Bristol
33 Saint Stephen's Street - BS1
2021 Review: It’s not fancy (wood banquettes and orange school chairs), but this small new Redcliffe Italian turns out “wonderful” fresh stuffed pasta – a USP in this country – that’s full of “interesting seasonal flavours”. The owners, behind Pasta Loco, are fast building a local empire, having opened a deli/café, La Sorella, two doors down from the premises in May 2019, followed by trattoria Bianchi in the old Bell’s Diner (RIP).
6.
Marmo
Italian restaurant in Bristol
31 Baldwin Street - BS1
A characterful city-centre building backdrops this “very relaxed” (and trendy) wine bar and osteria – regarded as “one of the best restaurants in Bristol” nowadays. Cosmo Sterck (of London luminaries Brawn and St John) turns out “fantastic Italian food” from a “small menu with great ingredients and lots of nice sharing starters”, while his wife Lily looks after the wines, which are of the organic and biodynamic kind. Kudos for the “bargain set lunch” (two courses £24 per person, three courses £27 per person) – “the price of a main course in many less impressive establishments”.
7.
San Carlo
Italian restaurant in Bristol
44 Corn Street - BS1
This “slightly old-fashioned Italian in a splendid room” from Carlo Distefano’s “good-quality chain” is “always packed” as it approaches its 30th anniversary next year – perhaps because it is “so consistently good: never had a bad meal here”. There’s a “reassuring” quality about the whole operation, which is “welcoming to children (and adults), with a stylish ambience and generous portions of traditional Italian food”.
8.
riverstation
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
The Grove - BS1
2022 Review: In the unusual and attractive setting of a former river-police station, “this long-established dockside restaurant still continues to offer value and quality, despite the change in ownership a few years ago (to Youngs)”, although nowadays in a much less foodie vein than in its heyday over 20 years ago. As of a 2018 refit, diners can opt for the Pontoon Bar, a popular brunch/lunch haunt, while upstairs “pre-theatre meals are also popular”.
9.
Adelina Yard
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
Queen Quay, Welsh Back - BS1
“Amazed more people aren’t raving about this place…” – Jamie Randall and Olivia Barry have run this conventional-seeming but ambitious venue in Queen’s Quay for nearly 10 years now. It perennially inspires quite limited feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but such as there is says its 12-course tasting menu for £80 per person is “very reasonably priced, creatively presented and very good”.
10.
Gambas
Spanish restaurant in Bristol
Unit 15 Cargo 2, Wapping Wharf - BS1
“Imaginatively prepared seafood dishes – Spanish but each with a twist – make a trip to this dockside container in Bristol a real pleasure”; like its sister Bravas, the formula is tapas, and at this “lively”, “good value” spot there’s a particular focus on fish (the headline prawns but also a “truly delicious” seafood salpicon). The owners’ hospitality group Season and Taste added a Mexican venue Condesa, on Whiteladies Road, to their now four-strong portfolio in March 2024, having received six-figure funding from the South West Investment Fund.
11.
Box-E
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
Unit 10, Cargo 1, Wapping Wharf - BS1
“An amazing little place in a shipping container in Bristol docks, with one chef and one waitress serving up great food” – former L’Ortolan head chef Elliott Lidstone and his wife Tess have run this 14-seater in the Cargo development for six years. Their “excellent, imaginative food and wine” – consumed in “an unpretentious if not overly comfortable setting” – represents “extraordinary value for money”, with a seven-course tasting menu at £55 per person. “It’s very busy, so you must book”.
12.
Root
Vegetarian restaurant in Bristol
Wapping Wharf - BS1
Occupying a series of old shipping containers on the wharf, this contemporary, veg-led (but not just) sharing-plates spot opened in 2017, and has become a favourite among the city’s foodies. In December 2022, owners Josh Eggleton and Luke Hassell teamed up with chef Rob Howell and Meg Oakley to launch a sibling venue in Wells, Somerset.
13.
Paco Tapas
Spanish restaurant in Bristol
Lower Guinea St - BS1
Andalusia comes to the West Country at chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’ tapas venture on the Bathurst Basin, named after his Seville-born father, and featuring an authentically dark-walled setting replete with sherry barrel tables; both the à la carte or £75 per person tasting menu, which secured one reporter’s affections this year, feature many dishes cooked over a wood fire, and the front of house are notably solid. Yes, a visit can be “very expensive”, particularly if you lay into the Spanish wines and sherries, and “price sensitivity” remains a regular feature of commentary (perhaps “puzzling given the affluence of Bristol”) but given the “incredible, innovative cooking” on offer, most reports suggest you get what you pay for. (Stop Press: In October 2024, the closure of the family’s flagship ‘Casa’ was announced, with any vouchers for eating there now redeemable here).
14.
Pasture
Steaks & grills restaurant in Bristol
2 Portwall Lane - BS1
This Bristol-based steakhouse group with outlets in Cardiff and Birmingham wins praise for its “reliably good” performance – “Chateaubriand was good, well cooked and service very good with engaging staff”. On the debit side, one or two reporters find it “good but expensive – money could perhaps be more wisely spent elsewhere”; and “very noisy – not a venue for two or four but OK for a larger group”.
15.
Lido
Mediterranean restaurant in Bristol
Oakfield Place - BS8
“As quirky as ever” – this “imaginative tapas” restaurant occupies the upper floor of a restored and operational mid-Victorian swimming baths in Clifton, so diners have “unique views of the swimmers below, making an interesting change from the standard restaurant experience” – “in summer, life here feels a little Mediterranean”. Top Tip – the £50 all-in swim, spa and eat packages.
16.
Sonny Stores
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
47 Raleigh Road - BS3
This “brilliant neighbourhood Italian” from chef Pegs Quinn (ex-River Café) and his wife Mary Glynn is “so friendly and welcoming, it’s like being a guest in someone’s home” – “the room is nothing to speak of, but that doesn’t matter as it’s about the conviviality and the awesome cooking”. Top Tip – “the set lunch is tremendous value for cooking of this quality”.
17.
Bar 44
Spanish restaurant in Bristol
18 - 20 Regent Street - BS8
2021 Review: “Proper jamon, a good selection of small plates, and an excellent Spanish wine list with a wide range of good sherries” – “a great drinks list with something for everyone” – help inspire positive reviews on this Hispanic yearling – “a great new addition to Bristol” and the first English branch of a small minichain originating near Cardiff.
18.
Nadu
Indian, Southern restaurant in Bristol
77-79 Stokes Croft - BS1
This “fun and quirky” Stokes Croft three-year-old from the team behind Clifton’s Nutmeg – chef Saravanan Nambirajan and restaurateur Raja Munuswamy – specialises in the Tamil cooking of southern India and Sri Lanka ‘with a modern twist’, washed down by rum and arrack-based cocktails. Top Menu Tip – the signature ‘share and tear’ dosa made with 48-hour fermented rice.
19.
Bravas
Mediterranean restaurant in Bristol
7 Cotham Hill - BS6
2023 Review: Well known down Brizzle way, this small (16 seats) tapas haunt has an outsized reputation for its authentic approach. Our feedback is limited, but it’s a favourite for one or two of our reporters who award it very high marks. It’s part of a local group, and its siblings include Cargo Cantina and Gambas.
20.
Bokman
Korean restaurant in Bristol
3 Nine Tree Hill - BS1
2023 Review: “Some of the most exciting food I have eaten in ages” has made this two-year-old Korean with a “short but tasty menu” a big hit in Bristol and beyond. Chef Duncan Roberts, who has worked for Joel Robuchon in Paris, and his wife Kyu Jeong Jeon moved to Stokes Croft from South Korea, and their fans include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Top Tip – tongdak – whole chicken stuffed with sticky rice and grilled over charcoal.
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