Bristol chef has two restaurants in UK’s top 100

Not content with just one restaurant in the UK’s top-100, a Bristol chef has two of his establishments included in the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2021.

The prestigious list from Restaurant magazine features the best 100 places to eat across the UK as voted for by a panel of chefs, restaurateurs and food writers nationwide.

This year’s list is topped by Moor Hall in Aughton, Lancashire, followed by The Angel at Hetton in North Yorkshire and Core by Clare Smyth in London’s Notting Hill.

Bristol representation on the list comes courtesy of Casamia at number 28, whose citation says has had a recent “major rethink”.

Casamia opened at The General in Redcliffe in 2016 after the Sanchez-Iglesias family moved it lock, stock and barrel from its original home in Westbury-on-Trym.

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“The number of covers has been reduced to allow for longer menus of even more refined and focused modern cooking, but the biggest change is the restaurant’s overall attitude,” says the National Restaurants Awards description.

“Though far from stuffy previously, Casamia was run along relatively traditional lines but has now joined the likes of Ynyshir and Carter’s of Moseley to offer something fun, irreverent and far more expressive of its young team’s personality (and of how they themselves like to eat). Cue the music being turned up and the lights dimmed.

“Former Ynyshir chef Zak Hitchman heads the kitchen and describes the experience as ‘less of a restaurant, more of a weird gig with food’, offering a blind, 20-odd course tasting menu for a not-inconsiderable £180.

“Though there is more of an emphasis on live fire cooking, it’s not a rip off of his former employer with the menu focused on the same high quality local produce that Casamia has been using for years, while also reimagining some of the harbourside restaurant’s existing ideas and flavour combinations.”

Casamia is not the only restaurant overseen by Peter Sanchez-Iglesias in this year’s top-100 list, with Decimo in The Standard hotel in Kings Cross featured for the first time, placed at number 89.

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“This slick and rather sexy venture atop The Standard, London is accessed via a pill-shaped red lift that runs up the side of the hotel, transporting diners to a stunning 1970s-inspired dining room.

“If that sounds a bit vibe-y and Instagram-friendly that’s because it very much is, but the presence of celebrated Bristolian chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias ensures Decimo is not all fur coat and no knickers, as it so easily could have been.

“The tenth floor (get it?) restaurant shares much of the same DNA as Sanchez-Iglesias’ Michelin-starred Paco Tapas, but bolts on some Mexican dishes and influences for good measure. Key dishes include croquetas de jamón; marinated red peppers; patatas bravas; crab and jalapeño aguachile; and – most infamously – a fabulously expensive tortilla topped with caviar.

“Alongside these dishes are simple grilled items served with minimalist garnishes (in some cases nothing at all) including Mangalitza pork chop; rib of beef; langoustines; and monkfish. The drinks list is as focused and precise as the cooking, and offers one of the largest selections of mezcals in the capital.

“Designed by Shawn Hausman, the 130-cover space has panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows that provide views of the St Pancras Renaissance’s intricate roof immediately to the north and surprisingly uninterrupted views of the London skyline from all other directions.

“The Standard and Sanchez-Iglesias have created one of the capital’s most transportive restaurants, bringing a slice of sun-soaked 1970s Los Angeles to London.”

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Read more: Raising The Standard – hotel review

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