The Cheese Platter, Redland – ‘A cheese lover’s utopia’ – restaurant review

At a time when so many Bristol openings centre are offering ‘small plates’, a hospitality concept where the entire menu – brunch, lunch and dinner- revolves around cheese is enough to make me weak at the knees.

The clue really is in the name for recently opened The Cheese Platter. The speciality restaurant on Redland Hill is a cheese lover’s utopia where most dishes incorporate the dairy delight in some way, with diners even able to customise with their meals according to their favourite cheese variety.

It was an idea years in the making for owner Joshua Doyle who strives to “forge meaningful connections with not just local cheese manufacturers, but also breweries, distilleries, vineyards and cider mills”.

Doyle opened this relaxed, yet innovative, restaurant in November within the site that was previously home to a maternity hospital. It is the resident restaurant of a collection of later-living apartments called The Vincent within the restored Queen Victoria House, but also, and luckily for everyone, open to the public.

The starter prompts the childlike joy of eating fishcakes on a Friday night

Inside the restaurant, it is as elegant as its Victorian surroundings but, equally, unstated with minimal furnishings and chairs upholstered in studded leather the colour autumn leaves. The impeccably clean kitchen is exposed so diners can feast their eyes on the creation of their cheesy wonders.

We begin sharing smoked haddock and applewood croquettes with watercress and homemade tartar sauce (£8.50).

Shaped in perfect little rounds, the fish is in thick chunks and sauce is beautifully tart and herbaceous with nuggets of capers, the applewood’s flavour offering a teaser of cheesy things to come.

For balance we ordered a rocket salad (£5) but, to our delight, it came with slices of Italian hard cheese

For mains, while there are meat options – dry-aged sirloin steak with chicory, blue cheese, pickled walnuts and homemade chips (£26) for example, or rump of lamb with onion purée, fennel and Bath blue cheese gratin and kale (£22.50) – it is the humble macaroni that drags me in.

Macaroni and four artisanal cheeses may cost an attention-grabbing £16, but is a thing of beauty. It is served on a piping hot skillet, letting the melted cheese bubble temptingly from underneath a scorched layer. Each mouthful is lusciously creamy but not so intense it is overwhelming, leaving us fighting for the last cheesy smear. It is serious carb-on-carb action, but in the best way possible.

The schnitzel is tenderised to the max

My dining partner opts for the chicken schnitzel with fried duck egg, gremolata, gruyère and tenderstem broccoli (£18). The egg is jammy and, as she delves in, oozes on to its neighbours on the plate, harmonising the crisp layers of cheese, meat and fresh green vegetable. It was dressed to perfection with a zippy concoction of grated lemon zest, minced garlic and parsley, lightening the dish mostly covered in breadcrumbs and fried.

The whole experience is elevated by a small but robust wine list, from £6 per glass. Echoing the food, The Cheese Platter stocks a locally sourced offering seeking to forge “meaningful connections with breweries, distilleries, vineyards and cider mills” with ongoing consultation between various suppliers to ensure suitable pairings.

For pudding, a smooth clotted cream ice cream plays support to a chocolate delice

A sumptuous looking cheese board passed to my left passes on the way to couple, but I do not mourn my choices because the dessert menu is swiftly placed in front of me.

Undefeated by our hefty main courses, we conclude with the hazelnut and chocolate delice with clotted cream ice cream, honeycomb and chocolate soil (£7). We scoop titbits of each component and savour the chocolatey morsels. We also share a round of orange sorbet (£2.50), a pallet cleanser that tasted like marmalade in ice cream form – the perfect end to one of the most indulgent meals out Bristol.

The Cheese Platter, The Vincent, Redland Hill, Redland, BS6 6BJ

www.thecheeseplatter.co.uk

All photos: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

• Cheese themed restaurant to open in converted maternity hospital
• Pub’s cheese rolls go viral
• Meat Off, Park Street: ‘I wanted to impale myself with a skewer’ – restaurant review

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