Kingsdown, Spanish Restaurant Guide

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.

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.

“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.

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).