Klosterhaus: ‘Proudly and exuberantly extravagant’ – restaurant review

Staff in matching floral print dresses greet guests at the door of Klosterhaus, with a cheerful welcome followed by a temperature check on the forehead with a digital thermometer.

Bristol’s most opulent new restaurant opening of the year was planned and presumably also paid for before the coronavirus pandemic. So its arrival on a drizzly October day comes as somewhat of a reminder of a much more optimistic outlook for the hospitality industry.

At a time when some of our city’s best restaurants such as Flour & Ash and best cafes such as Convoy Espresso have been forced to close for good due to Covid-19, the coming of Klosterhaus looks as if it is from another planet and another time.

Bristol doesn’t really do big and brash. Yet this is what Klosterhaus is, backed by the deep pockets of the D&D London group for who this is a rare foray outside of the capital, where their Paternoster Chophouse doubles as the First Dates restaurant on Channel 4.

Klosterhaus occupies the historic Friary Building in Quakers Friars, which was previously Brasserie Blanc and for those with longer memories, the city’s register office.

The surroundings of Klosterhaus may be Instagram catnip; the food not so. Soused herring with herring caviar, sweet mustard, potato and apple salad – photo by Martin Booth

At the centre of the dining room is a bar around which there is space for around a dozen velvet-backed stools for those perhaps finishing their shopping trip to nearby Harvey Nichols with a glass of fizz.

Next to the champagne flutes balanced on the bar are dappled glass steins, for this is a German restaurant where German draft beer for £5 is available alongside cocktails from £8 to £11, and champagnes including a magnum of Taittinger for £150.

Klosterhaus is open for brunch, lunch and dinner, promising to showcase Mittel- European cuisine alongside German classics inspired by the German heritage of executive head chef Bjoern Wassmuth, also in charge of the menu of D&D’s German Gymnasium in King’s Cross.

Klosterhaus is located within the historic Friary Building in Quakers Friars – photo by Martin Booth

Staff here cannot be faulted for their attentiveness, and there are so many of them: three at the front desk during most of my lunchtime visit, with a collection of iPads, pieces of paper and that digital thermometer.

Others wandered around looking for something to do, and it took two waiting staff to deliver each dish: one to take it from the kitchen and place it onto a small fold-up table, and another to pick it off that table to serve it to diners.

There are 34 staff pictured on the Klosterhaus website and D&D must be congratulated for providing these jobs for Bristol as job cuts elsewhere continue to bite.

Currywurst remains the ultimate Berlin street food – photo by Martin Booth

Warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce – photo by Martin Booth

At lunch, appetisers start at £6.50 for the Jerusalem artichoke soup, with hotdogs and burgers from £9.50, and mains from £13.50 for the Caesar salad up to £27.50 for the venison Baden Baden.

Sausages and schnitzels have their own section of the menu and my lunch set menu (two courses for £20 or three courses for £25) included a currywurst for the main course, which came with triple cooked chips balanced like a game of Jenga.

Currywurst’s origins are as street food in Berlin, but the trio of curry, ketchup and sausage has been pimped to the max here, with a curry-infused pork sausage and curried tomato sauce.

For a starter, a soused herring came with herring caviar – something that I was definitely not expecting to eat in Bristol in October 2020 but an indication that no expense has been spared here. It was not just for show either, instead adding a satisfyingly smoky flavour to the sweet marinated fish.

For dessert, an apple strudel was a multi-layered delight, and provided just the warmth I needed for stepping back outside into the pouring rain for my cycle ride back home to more prosaic surroundings than this.

The farewells from the staff at the door were just as cheerful as the greetings on the way in, despite the smiles being hidden behind masks.

A German restaurant in opulent surroundings was definitely not what I was expecting to arrive in Bristol in the midst of a global pandemic. But Klosterhaus is proudly and exuberantly extravagant, if not a little out of kilter with the rest of our city right now.

Klosterhaus, The Friary Building, Quakers Friars, Bristol, BS1 3DF
0117 452 3111
www.klosterhaus.co.uk

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