Bristol, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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”.

“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”.

“Imagine a fine dining tasting menu with an imaginative wine flight explained by a knowledgeable waitress, then realise you are sitting among a pile of cargo ship containers…sort of weird but it works” – the surprising formula at this 14-seater in Bristol’s Cargo development, helmed by ex-L’Ortolan chef Elliott Lidstone and wife Tess. It received real raves this year, with fans proclaiming Elliott’s “brilliant and well-balanced” food that’s “superb value for money” too, whether you go for the £59 per person tasting menu or the à la carte.

A “mainly plant-based” (but not only) dockside diner, on Wapping Wharf, that was set up in 2017 and is part of the six-strong ‘The Pony Family’ group, which also includes a Root spin-off in Wells, Somerset, as well as a cookery school. The “intriguing establishment” (one of a number of container-based venues in this foodie city) offers a “very interesting selection of plates”, and, given their ethos, the “veggie plates are the best”.

“Top-quality steak, well cooked to order on BBQ-style griddles” draws an enthusiastic crowd to locally based Sam Elliott’s “very popular” flagship, which has branches in Cardiff and Birmingham. There’s a “buzzy atmosphere” (although it can veer into downright “noisy with the wooden floors”, so it’s “not a place for a quiet meal”). A spin-off all-day cafe/restaurant, Prime by Pasture, opened in Bristol in summer 2025.

“Unique” Clifton institution, where diners overlook swimmers in the restored 1850 pool below, while feasting on “consistently excellent dishes (often wood-fired), from a vibrant and frequently changing menu” – and the two activities can be combined in a ‘Swim and Eat’ package, with “great healthy options for those that want ’em” (there is also a spa and five newly opened bedrooms in a townhouse across the road). “This continues to be a favourite Bath/Bristol restaurant for a great meal almost 17 years after it opened – the atmosphere is quite literally exceptional”, while the Mediterranean-inspired food is “startlingly brilliant at these prices”. Top Menu Tip – “some fantastic inexpensive wines: try their Greek white!”.

“In a neighbourhood cafe setting, this is Italian-inspired cuisine of the highest order; and large plates for sharing work brilliantly” – so say fans of Pegs Quinn and his wife Mary’s white-walled and welcoming corner-site in Southville.

“It’s not a fish restaurant, but we had the best sole of the year there. Plus that crab... we don’t even like shellfish, normally, but mmmm that crab…” – this neighbourhood bar-restaurant on the corner of Stokes Croft and Montpelier is modest in size (33 covers, including 4 at the window bar), but “absolutely brilliant” for its local fan club – “amazingly friendly, and packed even at lunch”. The menu is short but changes regularly.

2022 Review: The team from the former Pony & Trap in Chew Magna – nowadays The Pony Chew Valley – opened for the first time in Bristol with this new venture in May 2021 (rather late in the day to inspire survey feedback). The menu features dishes cooked over open fire from chef Hugo Harvey. But the ‘bistro’ appellation seems a bit of a misnomer, as the only evening option (there is a cut-down lunch alternative) is a 4-course menu and you need to pay up-front if you book in advance (which is the presumption).

2024 Review: “Standards remain consistently high” at this Redland boozer – “part of the Pony and Trap Group” and offering “a step above pub food” (though not straying from the classics and laying on proper Sunday roasts). Top Tip – “there are two rooms upstairs you can have for exclusive use of groups”.

“Incredible cooking” – “honestly some of the best anywhere my mind is blown every time I eat there” – is proclaimed by many fans (which, in her April 2025 review, included Sunday Times critic Charlotte Ivers) of this “stripped-back, busy dining room” from chef Jan Ostle and his wife Mary Wilson, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The hyper-local menu showcases “loads of home-grown ingredients” from their own regeneratively farmed kitchen garden, and preparation is “imaginative and well thought out”. Ratings were dragged from 5/5 this year, by one or two diners nonplussed with what they saw as a heavy-handed approach to sustainable dining (“friendly service but disjointed by the obligatory extensive biography for each dish…”, “prioritisation of ethics over quality… terrible meal in parts, amazing in others… just tone down the creation of self-righteous plates and keep turning out the good ones!”).

2024 Review: Limited but positive feedback, including from a London-based reporter, on this revamped former branch of Lloyds in Totterdown, which opened in 2021 and relaunched in spring 2023 with a menu based around open-fire cooking.

2022 Review: “Recently opened of all places in a retirement village” – a modern development of 64 apartments in Redland – “but open to the public”: this September 2020 newcomer is run by local caterers CleverChefs and occupies a light-filled space with open kitchen overlooking an arboretum garden. Open from breakfast and throughout the day, it wins strong early feedback for “assured cooking at reasonable prices”.

2022 Review: Opened in June 2021, this tastefully revamped old pub is the work of the Eggleton family – the team behind The Pony & Trap (now known as The Pony Chew Magna). The offering, realised by chef Jordan Meagher, “centres around proper ‘pub classics’”.

This former private home eight miles from Bath features a “restaurant with a great vibe” and a “really diverse wine list” – making it “perfect for a night away”. The famous ‘25-mile menu’ is a doddle here: the property has its own 30-acre deer park, the largest kitchen garden in the group, an orchard, a smoke house, and even its own mushroom house with a viewing window.

This “cosy little place with exceptional cooking” from chef Freddy Bird and his wife Nessa (also of Little French in Westbury Park) is “well worth a visit if you’re in Bristol”, with “welcoming, comforting food” that finds inspiration across Europe. “A well-executed sharing seafood platter with English sparkling wine makes for a great romantic meal”, while “friendly service is accompanied by good advice”.

“Love the ambience… no pressure to quit the table and nice to overlook the river” – such are the plus points of these flexible, comfortable and welcoming homes-from-home in the Home Counties and in London near Tower Bridge and in Putney. Celebration? Both locations also feature funky little Thames-side ‘igloos’ seating up to 8. Looking for great food too? Don’t bother! “Disappointment” is often registered regarding the salads, pizza and other very middle of the road fare – keep your celebrations as liquid as possible…

2024 Review: This Clifton late-2022 newcomer serves brunch all day and Asian dishes in the evenings. No feedback as yet, but if Bristol Live are to be believed it’s a promising new option on this well-known restaurant strip that’s something of a “hotspot” at weekends.