Restaurants / breakfast
Rocotillos – restaurant review
Occupying the space that was Zazu’s Kitchen on Pigsty Hill, the second branch of Rocotillos is so new that it doesn’t yet have a sign above the door. And, unlike its show-off sister restaurant located slap-bang in the middle of Clifton student-ville, the understatement continues as you step through the door.
The space is light and bright, with modern wooden tables and a mismatch of chairs. The space is divided in two by a few steps: the front part feels more like a sunny spot to sip a coffee and drink the paper, while the lower section, closer to the kitchen with booth seating, seems like the part that would fill up fast with serious pancakes-with-maple-syrup brunchers on Saturday mornings.
This new venture is fully licenced, with a front bar well stocked with wines, spirits and three beers and one cider on tap. A big fresh coffee machine sits in the kitchen prep area at the back of the restaurant, getting some use on this early morning just a couple of days after opening.
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The menu offers some of the Rocotillos elements you’d expect, like monster milkshakes (available in thick, xx thick and xxx thick) and pancakes from £5.45, but there are also plenty of grown-up brunch options, including smoked salmon with free-range scrambled eggs on sourdough (£7.45), ‘serious’ full English breakfasts (£10.95) and excellent value baps (£3.45 for your choice of sausage or bacon on malted wheat bread).
I opt for crumpets with scrambled eggs (£5.20) and they arrive fast and piping hot – a big plate of three toasted crumpets, heaped with trembling golden eggs. The salty butter seeps out with every bite, and there is a nice resistance in the crumpets’ crunchy tops that stops the dish being too mushy and soft. The eggs are rich and creamy – totally delicious and satisfying.
Rocotillos is a 24-year-old Bristol institution, known for its Americana nostalgia, but this new venture feels far more sophisticated. There’s a very subtle nod to the diner vibe of Queens Road – luckily no red pleather booths or black-and-white tiled walls – but padded brown leather bench seating and colourful sauces on tables in the lower part of the restaurant that add an injection of fun and stops this place from looking like everywhere else.
It feels like the second restaurant is the Clifton branch’s cool older brother who’s just come back from college with a vintage leather jacket and a motorbike. And he’s learned to cook something other than beans on toast, too.
Rocotillos, 217A Gloucester Road, Bishopston, BS7 8NN
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