Bambalan - Bristol Food Review
Posted on: 2017-03-13
Our rating:
Bambalan has recently opened in Colston Tower by the same great people who started The Ox in Clifton. The name doesn’t automatically give away that they offer Mediterranean and North African style food, but they do and they do it well. Here’s our review:
With a roof terrace overlooking the city and ping pong tables outside it’s clear at first sight that this restaurant is a hub for people who want to let loose and have fun. When we arrived on a Saturday lunch time it was busy and full with groups of young friends, some I assumed to be students, enjoying the casual relaxed atmosphere.
The décor has a Lebanese feel to it but with a contemporary twist. There are a mixture of tables and booths; the booths appeared to be full of young twenty-something friends, whilst the tables were family-oriented. It’s obvious that people come here for the chilled out vibe and for the great value food. They offer a lunch time deal, a kebab and lots of toppings, for £5 Monday to Friday 12-2pm.
We were seated in a cosy booth and given some mezze to try (all £5 each). One was roasted cauliflower with harissa, pomegranate seeds and hazelnuts, and the other was a bowl of house falafels with pickled red cabbage, tahina and coriander. Both dishes were filling, for a starter, and tasty. Thanks to the harissa the cauliflower was very spicy and the tangy pomegranate seeds complemented it nicely. The falafels were almost bright green which was quite a novelty and the sauce they were covered in helped to give them flavour. It was more than enough for two people and could actually feed 3 or 4.
On Saturdays they do a brunch menu which offers something a little different to the usual fry up, so I ordered the veggie breakfast which includes grilled halloumi, baked eggs, hummus, tabbouleh, slow cooked tomato, mushroom, potato & chickpea hash brown, spiced beans and flatbread (£8). Yes I’m sure you can tell by the sound of it that this is a great dish for someone who is starving, plus they also do a meat version with grilled merguez sausage and streaky bacon (£10). When it was put in front of me I was happy with the portion size and it is well worth the price tag, it was just a little disappointing in some areas such as the size of the halloumi and tabbouleh. The tabbouleh was one spoonful and I would have liked more halloumi, but the huge folded squidgy flatbread made up for what was lacking in other areas. There was also some hummus underneath the flatbread, so there were a fair amount of accompaniments to the dish.
We had heard that the flatbread pizzas here were really good so my dining guest had the pizza with garlic-braised greens, goat’s cheese, soft-boiled egg and lemon zest (£8). It was a nice pizza and the garlic was probably the strongest flavour, because the goat’s cheese wasn’t prominent, but we’ve had better pizzas in Bristol. Bambalan have a charcoal robata grill and rotisserie so rather than pizza you could opt for a burger, chicken, kebabs or flatbreads with dips. There is lots of choice so you can’t fault them for that.
The desserts were delectable. We shared a Bambalan baklava sundae which has apple compote and vanilla ice cream (£5.50) and a rhubarb pistachio Eastern Mess (£6). I was surprised that the baklava wasn’t soggy because it was sandwiched in between layers of ice cream, but it was crispy and sweet as it should be. It paired so well with the apple compote and ice cream and it was a combination I had never seen before in a restaurant, but one that I would have again in a heartbeat. The Eastern Mess was beautifully presented with little rose petals all over it. Once you dig your spoon in it’s like a mousse with little bits of meringue here and there, and wonderful rhubarb streaks running through it.
Taste-wise everything was great and for the most part the portion sizes were good too. It’s worth going to because it offers a type of food and a huge amount of space to enjoy that is hard to come by in Bristol.
Atmosphere 5
Value 4
Food 4
Service 5
Address: Podium Level, Colston Tower, Colston Avenue, Bristol BS1 4XE. Check out Bambalan's website here and find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Article by:
Born in Bath, Safia has lived on the outskirts of the city her whole life and is the Editor of 365bath.com. After studying journalism in Bristol she now spends a lot of her time searching for new foodie delights in both cities and finding new things to do. You're most likely to find her sipping a soya latte in a lovely little independent cafe!
