News / New Openings
21 of Bristol’s best new restaurants, pubs, bars and cafes
Every month, the city of Bristol delivers unto its residents delicious new food and drink. And there are no signs of it slowing down any time soon.
From a hatch serving coffee in Stokes Croft to a restaurant in Clifton transplanted from London’s most exclusive enclaves, here are a few of the last few months’ most noticeable new openings:
is needed now More than ever
Alex Does Coffee
61 Old Market Street, BS2 0EJ
The clue is in the name. Alex does coffee at Alex Does Coffee on Old Market Street and Alex does coffee very well indeed. She was formerly an in-house barista at a law firm and has opened her first cafe as part of Two’s Company Studios, sharing the ground floor with a screenprinting company who have printed her loyalty cards; and with artists studios and creative workspaces on the two floors above. The coffee served here is from Extract in St Werburgh’s, with bottles of cold brew also available.
Bambalan
Podium level, Colston Tower, Colston Avenue, BS1 4XE
‘Bambalan’ is Puerto Rican slang for lazy bum – and it’s also the name for this bar and restaurant from the team behind Hyde & Co, Milk Thistle, Pata Negra and The Ox. With a huge terrace overlooking the centre, Bambalan has a summery feel and is the sort of place that when inside it’s easy to imagine being on holiday. For that real summer holiday feel, enjoy sangrias or margaritas by the jug, or perhaps the Bambalan fruit cup with Beefeater gin, Regal Rogue Bold Red vermouth, Triple Sec and soda.
Better Food
Better Food, 1-5 Gaol Ferry Steps, Wapping Wharf, BS1 6WE
If you enjoy food and drink, it will be a big challenge to leave Better Food on Wapping Wharf without a bulging shopping basket. Its aisles are tightly packed with fresh fruit and veg, bread, dairy, meat, poultry and seafood, wine, beer and cider. You get the feeling that each and every product has been carefully chosen by founder Phil Haughton and his team. But the shop is only half the fun. Head towards the Floating Harbour side of these multiple units and there is the cafe overlooked by a mural by Andy Council.
The Cauldron
98 Mina Road, BS2 9XW
Magical USPs among Bristol food and drink openings are increasingly hard to find. The Cauldron on Mina Road in St Werburgh’s is most definitely unique, however, in cooking with pits of charcoal, a 60-litre cast iron cauldron and a Victorian iron stove. It’s what chef and co-owner Henry Eldon, most recently executive chef at The Cowshed, calls ‘heirloom’ cooking techniques. It’s confident and assured cooking with a twist (deep fried custard anyone?), and fiercely local and seasonal.
Chums
22 Chandos Road, BS6 6PF
Mark Farrell sits on a small table next to the bar at Chums being regaled with tales from a fellow jovial Irishman who is spinning an anecdote so enthusiastically that he has stood up from his chair. Many more anecdotes will be spun here. It’s virtually the law in a micropub – the second in Bristol after the Drapers Arms on Gloucester Road – which resolutely forbids any form of electronic entertainment. So no flatscreen TVs, no jukebox, no music, just contented chatter and the clink of glasses.
Emmeline
116 Cheltenham Road, BS6 5RW
This is a cafe-cum-florist geared up for takeaway breakfasts and lunches of sandwiches, salads and wraps that can be ordered along with your coffee to go through a hatch that opens onto the pavement. Emmeline has flowers for sale adding splashes of colour from the white walls. Small but perfectly formed, Emmeline is set to entice those who love flowers and want quick healthy food and drink to take away, as well as those whose Instagram game is strong.
Este
7 Greenbank Road, BS5 6EZ
‘Made with love’ is the tagline of Este just around the corner from the Greenbank pub. This small cafe is certainly lovely, occupying a corner site flooded with natural light. Breakfast and brunch are served from 9am to midday, from Hart’s Bakery pastries to a full English. A Latin street food-themed lunch sees empanadas available from 12.30pm, with salad bowls and daily specials such as Brazilian coxinhas – chalked up on the blackboard as “little bundles of chicken joy”. Drinks include coffee from Extract, a selection of Pukka herbal teas, Colombian hot chocolate, and smoothies with intriguing additions such as frozen kale and bee pollen.
Five Grains
39 Baldwin Street, BS1 1RB.
If former mayor George Ferguson had had his way, the whole of Bristol from Broadmead to Temple Meads would look like this: broad, shady pavements filled with tables and chairs bordered by a host of coffee bars and gaggles of chattering customers, the epitome of European café culture. At least Five Grains are on board with the blueprint, white metal tables sitting out front on the wide pavement, serving authentically Lebanese atmosphere from the same owners of next door shisha bar Nova.
The Ivy Clifton Brasserie
42-44 Caledonia Place, BS8 4DN
The attentive service is of the standard you would expect in a top hotel, with food of the highest order at high prices, and fixtures and fittings to match. Cliftonites seem to have already adopted this restaurant as their own and The Ivy name certainly has pulling power. But its other-worldliness will also be off-putting for some, and only time will tell if this luxurious new arrival will be able to pack in the punters to justify The Ivy owners’ decision to choose Bristol as their first UK outpost outside the capital.
Left Handed Giant tap room
Unit 8 and 9, Wadehurst Industrial Park, St Philip’s Road, BS2 0JE
This is only Bristol’s second permanent tap room following the success of Moor Beer less than a mile away on the other side in St Phillip’s. Watch out for the possibility of more opening soon. Currently only open on Friday and Saturday, for the uninitiated this newbie is tricky to find. But head to the very start of the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, go down the road to the right and keep going and you’ll soon find it, to quench your thirst with some quite exceptional brews.
Mokoko
2 Gaol Ferry Steps, Wapping Wharf, BS1 6WE
Out of the traps first in Wapping Wharf, Mokoko take up three units split roughly into thirds: a service area with a table groaning under the weight of pastries, an open kitchen, and a narrow seating area with overhanging lamps that look like large takeaway coffee cups. It’s already become a popular spot, with outside tables at a premium at sunny weekends and popular options included the breakfast muffin with pecans and sultanas, beetroot brownies and carrot cake, with coffee from Bath’s Easy Jose.
The Nook
Commercial Road, BS1 6TG
Redcliffe’s newest opening in the not much missed Velindra pub is from the same team as The Doghouse on St Stephen’s Street in the Old City, and the latest in food offerings in the neighbourhood, with Casamia and Pi Shop literally just around the corner. More than just a pretty face, the food is admirably good. This pub-cum-restaurant will doubtless be popular with the new neighbours in The General as they continue to arrive.
Pasta Loco
37A Cotham Hill, BS6 6JY
It’s a family affair at Pasta Loco on Cotham Hill, with cousins Ben Harvey and Dom Borel putting a 12-year dream into reality by opening a restaurant together. The focus at Pasta Loco is homemade pasta, with a recent Saturday lunchtime menu containing reginette in tomato sauce with aubergine and goat’s curd (£8), linguini with clams, mussels, chilli and pangrattato (£10) and pappardelle with nduja sausages, mascarpone and Sicilian cherry tomatoes (£8.50).
Pickle at Underfall Yard
Underfall Yard, Cumberland Road, BS1 6XG
Pickle can be found within the new visitor centre at Underfall Yard, with a splendid view of the Floating Harbour from its outside seating area. It may not be a huge space, but compared to Pickle’s two wagons near Temple Meads it is cavernous. Breakfast served from 8am on weekdays includes breakfast rolls, porridge and toast; with lunch of speciality sandwiches or jacket potatoes. On a recent visit, the sandwiches included hot chick (poached chicken, bacon, chilli mayo, tomato, cucumber, rocket and pickle for £4.95) and mushroom magic (roast mushrooms, red onion, marmalade, goat’s cheese, rocket and tomato for £4.50).
Pi Shop
Lower Guinea Street, BS1 6SY
It’s two down, one to go for the family team behind Casamia, whose Pi Shop pizza restaurant is next door to Casamia’s home since the beginning of this year. Think of your favourite experience eating pizza and turn it up to 11. It’s exactly what you would expect from pizzas made by a group of chefs who have earned their spurs helping Casamia gain and subsequently retain its Michelin star, and have spent months ensuring that the pizzas here are as good as they can possibly be.
Psychompomp
145 St Michael’s Hill, BS2 8DB
Psychopomp is a microdistillery that just happens to have a bar attached. But my oh my, what a mighty fine bar it is. “We’re a working gin distillery,” co-owner Danny Walker says. “We sell gin and tonics if people are thirsty while we are making gin.” Made in a basement in Montpelier for the last two years, Psychopomp could have located to an out-of-town industrial unit and hugely increased production. They decided not to go down that route, and inside a small former shop is their unique tap room.
To The Moon
27-29 Midland Road, BS2 0JT
To the Moon has been opened by a couple whose backgrounds are in music and fashion. Chris and Gemma searched high and low before finding two next door units in this up and coming corner of town. Chris jokes that he has always thought Gemma’s face looks like a moon, so the name stuck and now the pair are combining their two loves in this new bar which is also due to be a shop selling mostly sustainable female fashion. The selection on the shop rails will be from local designers, and the beers follow this same formula.
Turtle Bay
221-223 Cheltenham Road, BS1 4DA
This is the second Turtle Bay to open in Bristol with the Broad Quay restaurant rapidly becoming the place to go for jugs of after-work cocktails. Step inside and leave behind the wet Bristol summer and be transported to the Caribbean. The interior designer has gone mad with every pastiche of Jamaica you could imagine. Even the barber’s pole outside is in the colours of the Jamaican flag. Turtle Bay may have cornered the cocktail market but its food is just as flamboyant and fun.
The Westbury Park
Northumbria Drive, BS9 4HP
What a transformation. It’s as if the new owners of the Westbury Park have got inspiration from the superhero films being shown in the Orpheus cinema across the road. Perhaps best known as the Kebab & Calculator from The Young Ones – this pub has benefitted from a £250,000 refurbishment from the team behind The Grace, Greenbank, Knowle and Zazu’s Kitchen. Food here has proved so popular since opening that some diners have taken to eating at the bar.
Wild Beer
Gaol Ferry Steps, Wapping Wharf, BS1 5WE
Based near Evercreech in Somerset, Wild Beer was founded in 2012 by a pair of friends who met while working at Bristol Beer Factory and fancied going it alone. They opened their first bar in Cheltenham last year but have long been looking for a site in Bristol and were not able to turn down the opportunity for this prime location. Some of their beers are also in cans and bottles, but here it’s all about the beers on tap, served in one-third, a half or two-third glasses and costing from £2.75 to £5.25.
Wilson’s
24 Chandos Road, BS6 6PF
The choices here are all chalked up on a patch of wall painted black in this 24-cover restaurant from Jan Ostle, who has moved from just around the corner at the Kensington Arms where he used to be head chef. And the choices here will all change weekly, based around many ingredients which Ostle and his wife Mary – who he shares kitchen duties with – have gathered, grown or hunted themselves. This gastronomic treat of a street has another stunner in its midst.