Prego, Westbury Park: ‘A restaurant not pandering to ephemeral trends’ – restaurant review

Bristol is lucky enough to have a handful of great little Italian trattorias. Your friendly neighbourhood restaurants; the ones where birthdays have been celebrated, relationships initiated and friends gathered.

The ones where you know the staff and the menu, where every visit is also a jaunt down memory lane. Twinkly lights and relax in the familiar sights – that’s Prego.

Between its Italian site and its now extinct Spanish venture across the road, Manna (now Little French), the team behind Prego have acted as a launch pad for many of Bristol’s hospitality ventures. Alumni have gone on to open Bomboloni, Muiño and Bell’s Diner.

Prego has been in Bristol just a short while longer than I have and barely a conversation about restaurants with a certain demographic has passed without it being lauded as a local gem.

On a recent Saturday night, the restaurant was bustling with exactly the opposite crowd to those partying to Aphex Twin at Forwards festival on the Downs only a few hundred metres away.

On the menu are small plates, formerly known as starters, a healthy section of pasta, meat, fish and pizzas too.

There’s something for everyone. Which is risky. As Taylor Swift wrote: “A friend to all is a friend to none.” Very wise. Hopefully the team in the kitchen are able to keep up with the demands of such variety.

Three little rice balls went to market and were sadly eaten by the big bad Meg

Three arancini appear shortly after the delivery of a cool glass of garganega cortese, the crisp rice balls a little light on the promise of squash but otherwise respectable.

The fried squid is also light on the squash, which is fine because squid and squash are not a good combination. Unless you refer to squid playing squash, at which it may well be adept due to its many arms.

This squid is long past the point of playing squash, though it has been battered. Crisp and fresh, if slightly underfried.

The squid was a little too fresh and could have spent a few seconds longer in the fryer

A plate of garlic bread arrives that appears to have gone into shock. It’s floppy, pale and slightly sweaty. Cruel perhaps, but instead of calling the nearest first aider, we eat it. Or at least some of it.

Both myself and my dining partner, who also has considerable experience of eating out, were unable to discern whether the bread had been stuffed with a bland stringy cheese or whether it was in fact just raw dough.

It turns out it doesn’t matter, because either way it was inedible.

The garlic bread is having a stonk, call the bondulance

Our mains consisted of large plates, which is refreshing in itself. Crab linguine with fresh pasta was almost spot on and a very enjoyable plate, if perhaps a little heavy handed on the citrus.

It was quite dark in Prego, hence the slightly worse than average photo quality

Lamb shoulder was similarly good; the Italian equivalent of a roast with cannellini beans and salsa verde. Safe, solid and rather substantial.

So much so that we definitely didn’t need the potatoes that my carb-obsessed friend insisted on, which was fortunate as they were drowned in a similar raw-dough cheese to the garlic bread, had relinquished any crunch that they once had and succumbed to a creamy nothingness.

Potato and cheese, so often a reliable combination, fell short here

Sbriciolata, handwritten on the chalkboard, intrigued. Neither of us had ever had it, and so it was ordered for dessert. As we waited, we guessed that it would perhaps be a creamy concoction, similar to panna cotta or semi freddo. We were wrong.

Plum and ricotta sbriciolata is an Italian crumb cake, like a crumble but with better posture, served here with roast plums and amaretti cream. A sweet note on which to end a very enjoyable evening in the ‘burbs.

A meritorious dessert

In fact that wasn’t the end of the evening, as we then ventured across the Downs to catch the end of Aphex Twin’s ear-splitting set. In an attempt to distract myself from the rhythm-devoid noise, I reflected on Prego.

It is everything an Italian neighbourhood bistro should be, and I am glad that after ten years it is still going so strong. It is the darling of Westbury Park, a reliable friend that is loved by the locals and rightly so.

Aside from the sides, which should probably be avoided, the food was commendable and it was most assuring to spend the evening in a restaurant that isn’t pandering to ephemeral trends.

I shall return, probably with my dad, who loves a classic Italian restaurant and instantly turns his nose up at small plates, any sense of snobbery and overwrought seasoning. An apt summary indeed.

Prego, 7 North View, Westbury Park, Bristol, BS6 7PT
www.pregobar.co.uk

All photos: Meg Houghton-Gilmour

Read next:

• Bristol’s most stylish new cafe
• Hospitality leaders and friends embark on charity climb
• Bumper beer giveaway for Bristol24/7 members

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: