Pasta Loco – restaurant review

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.

Their family is also responsible for the pop-up Cafe Mulino in St Werburgh’s from which this restaurant has spawned, with Ben’s brother Joe the head chef at Bellita also on Cotham Hill and another cousin Olivia Barry a co-owner at Adelina Yard on Welsh Back.

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).

Pasta made up all of the main courses, with a larger menu coming soon, with starters from £4.50 including the alluringly alliterative prosciutto, peach and pecorino. 

The concertina windows had been opened up onto the street outside and if the pavement were not only just larger than the a string of spaghetti, this would be an ideal space for diners to spill outside.

A cosy dining room has space for some 40 covers, with the slats of wood covering the ceiling mirrored on the bar, chairs and benches, and the bulbs hanging from the ceiling wrapped in brown paper.

A printer malfunction meant that the day’s menu was explained in loving detail by Dom, responsible for front of house duties with Ben behind the stoves in a kitchen that can just be glimpsed beyond the well-stocked bar.

From that bar, wine is available in the glass from £3.50, while the average bottle costs less than £30, with the delicious prosecco Fior di Frizzante Tappo NV available for £4.50 by the glass or £27 for the bottle.

Forgoing starters, we instead were presented with a complimentary antipasti board of succulent green olives, sweet piquante peppers, sweet and earthy marinated artichoke quarters, juicy sundried cherry tomatoes, and crispy bread the consistency of poppadoms.

A risotto rustled up from scratch for the vegan on the table contained girolle and shiitake mushrooms, dill, and a few chives, and was fresh and fragrant.

The pasta here is a thing of beauty – the delicate strings on my linguine could have been small octopus tentacles, the rest of the dish almost bobbing on top of a vibrant sauce just begging to be tipped up and drunk.

Among the trio of puddings, a delightful chocolate delice had chopped up pistachios sprinkled on top, its richness offset by a dollop of creamy mascarpone.

Twelve years has been a long time to wait for cousins Ben and Dom, but they have done their family very proud indeed with this restaurant and recognised from whence they came by putting several framed family photos on the walls.

Pasta Loco is yet another excellent new opening this year in Bristol.

Pasta Loco, 37A Cotham Hill, Bristol, BS6 6JY
0117 973 3000

www.pastaloco.co.uk

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