Restaurants / Reviews
St Vincent’s
If you want a glimpse into how the other half live, then St Vincent’s now open on The Mall in Clifton Village is as better place as any to see a side of Bristol unaffected by the concerns of mere mortals.
The starters alone take in lobsters, oysters and Beluga caviar at £22 for a 10g portion.
As research, I ordered the half grilled lobster with garlic butter – the creature sliced open to be picked apart by a variety of implements. The meat was tender and still retained a chargrilled taste but it certainly won’t be a regular lunchtime option for many of those not of the Barbour jacket uniform.
is needed now More than ever
Lobster features twice among the mains, as Thermidor for £40 and grilled for £38.
Or you can pay the starter price of £14 to have it as an accompaniment to steak, with five cuts available up to a 340g sirloin, and also a cote de bouef to share with the price of that depending on what sizes are in on a particular day.
St Vincent’s is completely unrecognisable from the Royal Oak that used to be here, a popular pub that I watched many a game of rugby in when I lived nearby several years ago.
It has now been taken over by the team behind the Somerset House on Princess Victoria Street only a few hundred yards away, who also have given a new look to the George Inn in Abbots Leigh across the bridge.
Gone is the bar on the left as you walk in, replaced by a bar opposite the front windows. Up a few stairs is now a small area with stools and tables and then the restaurant in what used to be the toilets overlooking a tiny garden where French windows currently open out onto thin air.
Upstairs on the first floor is a private dining room with a round table currently set for eight, while explore further and you’ll find the brandy and whiskey lounge on the second floor with the feel of a private members club, plush red leather seats and a ceiling polished so well you can see your own reflection in it.
The spirits list here is extensive enough to warrant its own book, with a few bottles kept in an extraordinary space rocket contraption on the ground floor – just one extraordinary glimpse into another world.
St Vincent’s, 50 The Mall, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4JG
0117 973 8846
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