Graze – restaurant review

Bath Ales may be named after our near neighbours but being based in Warmley we can still claim them as our own.

In recent years they have undergone rapid expansion, not just within Warmley where they moved to a larger site and now have a brewery within a brewery, Beerd, but elsewhere in their pubs and restaurants portfolio. 

Beerd the beer came after Beerd the pizza and craft beer bar, well ahead of two curves in Bristol. It was the first bar to introduce the concept of dozens of craft beer on tap, paving the way for the likes of Small Bar and The Beer Emporium. And Bristol still can’t get enough of good pizza; see Flour & Ash and Pizza Workshop as prime examples, with the Casamia team due to go back to their roots and open a pizzeria in their new home of The General as early as this month.   

On the pubs side, The Wellington in Horfield is surprisingly Bath Ales’ only traditional boozer in Bristol, undergoing major refurbishment in recent years and now boasting guest rooms overlooking Horfield Common.

The brewery is also responsible for the cafe and restaurant within the Colston Hall’s foyer. Colston St Bar & Kitchen remains a popular meeting place and pre-gig watering hole, but Gordito never attracted too much of a crowd despite some of the tastiest tapas in town and has recently been transformed into Bristol’s second Beerd.

And then there is Graze. Bristol led the way when Graze opened in a former post office on the corner of Queen Square in 2009, and there is now a trio with others in Cirencester and Bath, the latter virtually sharing a platform at Bath Spa railway station.

The promotional blurb says that Graze is “a fresh and sophisticated take on the traditional British pub… inspired by bars and chophouses in London and New York”.

It’s certainly a stylish joint, with dark purple leather banquettes lining one wall, and the bar featuring dark black lamps, dark wood and aquamarine tiles.

Unsurprisingly, Bath Ales and Beerd selections feature strongly in the choice of cask, keg and bottles, with most of the wines available by the glass or bottle.

The dining room here is split into two, the left side as you walk in is the bar area, with the restaurant to the right, but on a recent Monday lunchtime it seemed more fluid. My seat was near the open kitchen with a full-sized bull head above the pass an indication of what most people come to Graze for.

From sirloin, ribeye and porterhouse all the way up to 450g of prime centre cut fillet chateaubriand for £45, steak is Graze’s stock in trade.

I went for a 225g flat iron steak for £10, 10p of which went to the Hare Foundation charity. Sliced into five pieces, it was a well-cooked piece of meat, juicy and marbled if a little on the chewy side. A liquefied bone marrow butter was a fine accompaniment but it was served with a film indicating it had perhaps spent a little too long under the hot lamps of the pass.

It’s almost but not quite head-to-tail dining here at Graze, with salt-cured ox tongue among the starters and pig cheek among the specials on a recent Monday lunchtime visit as Storm Imogen was lashing against the windows.

You can be sure that Bath Ales hasn’t finished expanding yet. Watch out for more developments both inside and outside the brewery.

Graze, 63 Queen Square, Bristol, BS1 4JZ
0117 927 6706

www.bathales.com/our-pubs/pid/graze-bristol/

Photos by Darren Shepherd