Restaurants / Reviews
Bar 44 – restaurant review
Occupying two big rooms in a converted bank on Regent Street in Clifton Village, the fourth restaurant in the Bar 44 chain and the first outside south Wales is impeccably decorated. Herringbone wood floors and wooden tables are accompanied by leather upholstered chairs in a rich mahogany brown, faded cherry and a deep emerald.
The main bar area is dominated by bright mural, bottles of highly decorative Vilarnau cava and a neon sign proclaiming “sherry is sexy”, while in the adjacent smaller dining room, dark wood panelling is accompanied by classy neutrals – taupe, pale grey and cappuccino – along with some riotous Spanish tiles and half a dozen hams hanging from butchers’ hooks just as you would find in Salamanca.
Bar 44 in Clifton Village is the growing chain’s first sojourn out of Wales
Taking a seat in the quiet dining room on their first day after opening, fresh air blows through the open door and offers a view across to Royal York Crescent’s grand sweep of houses from what was most recently the short-lived Wildwood restaurant.
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It’s a coveted spot in Clifton Village and though it’s not up on Princess Victoria Street with the likes of The Ivy and Wallfish, Bar 44 feels like a good upmarket fit for this well-to-do part of town.
Attentive staff bring food and drinks menus; the former a double-sided sheet offering an enormous selection of small plates, while the drinks menu is a a chunky square coffee-table book subdivided into sherry, vermouth, gins and tonics, cocktails and sangrias, wines, cervesa and sidra with file-o-fax-style page markers so you don’t get lost in its depths.
This is certainly a place designed to come alive at night, the tapas an accompaniment to your drink rather than the other way around.
Jamon Iberico hangs on the dining room wall and takes a starring role on the menu
On the recommendation of the waitress, I select two plates from the express lunch menu (£7.50), choosing a dish of seasonal tomatoes and a plate of roast chicken croquettes from a choice of ten options including patatas bravas, a squid and prawn roll, butifarra with judion beans and sausage, and a salad from the Severn Project.
The food arrives quickly, the croquettes warm rather than hot, but well filled with a creamy blend of chicken. They are crisp and golden on the outside, the flavour verging on bland when eaten alone but excellent when paired with the sweet pea puree and the crumbled morcilla blood sausage accompaniment, which is rich and meaty.
The tomato dish with deep fried ewe’s curd
The tomato dish is more substantial than the menu let on – a colourful plate of orange, yellow and red slices of tomato topped with a garlicky reduction and plenty of herbs, drizzled with good olive oil and accompanied by deep-fried morsels of ewe’s curd.
These parcels are salty and deliciously naughty, though the tomatoes themselves could have more flavour, tasting more like greenhouse than field. There is, however, a nice little drizzle of oil and just light touch of seasoning that helps the tasty curd pockets to shine; with my plate left swimming in tomato juice and oil, desperate for some crusty bread to sweep it all up.
Bar 44 is a welcome new addition to Clifton Village and has already attracted a loyal local following, but it’s entered a crowded market for tapas and there are plenty of other places to choose from in Bristol for that true taste of Spain.
18-20 Regent Street, Clifton Village, Bristol, BS8 4HG
03333 44 40 49
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