Gloucester Road Ale House and Kitchen Food and Bar review

Posted on: 2016-08-09

Our rating:

Proper, comforting pub food executed masterfully, a superb range of tip-top condition ales and boasting a slightly quirky look combining modern and rustic aesthetics.


If there's any pub on Gloucester Road - in fact probably the entire city - that encapsulates how, in the proper hands, a pub can be totally transformed from a run-down, grim old boozer to a first-rate pub brimming with style, character and charm, then look no further than the Gloucester Road Ale House & Kitchen in Bristol.

 

In its previous incarnation it was known as The Foresters with a somewhat unappealing and lugubrious reputation, but an incredible overhaul and refurbishment has seen the place gutted, redecorated and transmogrified beyond all belief into a pub that is seriously one of the shining jewels in the Gloucester Road crown. 

 

The pub is now owned by the South Gloucestershire brewery Wickwar - increasingly savvy at spotting the potential of a good pub - and is in more than competent (and confident) managerial hands, the mock-Tudor black and white frontage still remaining but everything else conspicuously unrecognisable and the space being enhanced by the addition of a staircase which links the downstairs bar to the first-floor which also acts as a bar and dining area. 

Interior of the pub

Gloucester Road Ale House and Kitchen is the physical personification of the phrase 'put your money where you mouth is' and you can tell that serious cash has been spent on the refurb which is resplendent with caged filament bulbs, comfy leather banquettes, patterned tiles and bare-brick walls adorned with antique prints. 

 

Though essentially looking and feeling like a slick, smart gastropub, the venue has primarily tried to market itself as a craft beer and real ale pub that also serves food, and the chefs take advantage of the quality produce from Murrays Butchers and The Bread Store which are a stone's throw from the pub.

 

My pint of Falling Star was in such impeccable condition I had to have two of them, and there are generally five ales available on draught and four which are, understandably, from the Wickwar stable. Fermented apple connoisseurs are also treated to an impressive range of ciders which include Thatchers Gold and Mortimers Orchard. Tuesday boasts a Real Ale Sale with all cask ales going for an extraordinarily pocket-friendly £2.50 (so I know where I'm going to be spending most of my Tuesday nights from now on then).

 

The menu is to-the-point and unfussy but consists of a good representative selection of food including starters and light bites, sandwiches, salads, burgers, mains such as roast chicken and pesto pasta, seasonal vegetable risotto and slow roast pulled pork chilli, and a range of sides such as buttered green vegetables and garlic bread. 

Menu

I went for the homemade classic 100% beef burger (£8.50) which was quintessence of burger magnificence. Sandwiched between two divinely fresh buns, it was a couple of inches thick meaty patty that was cooked to utter perfection, moist, packed with a sensationally rich, intense beef flavour and perfectly seasoned with a slight peppery edge and all slathered with a generous splodge of piquant relish. 

 

The accompanying fries were the kind mum used to make and swept me back to a heady wave of homemade culinary nostalgia - skin-on, hand-cut and consummately cooked - while the homemade slaw was a sublime symbiosis of crunchy bite and creamy unctuousness.

My brother had no hesitation in going for the 8oz Somerset rump steak (£13.50), which was cooked to perfection and seasoned skilfully with pepper to add flavour but not so much it overpowered it. The garlic butter kept it exquisitely moist and the subtle flavour of garlic kept it marvelously tender when cutting against the grain which demonstrated the superior quality of the meat. 

 

The old fashioned hand-cut chips were exceptional, the mushrooms pan fried in butter were rich and delicious, and the mixed leaf salad generously drizzled with honey and wholegrain mustard vinaigrette which nicely contrasted sharp and rich flavours.

 

A supplementary bowl of onion rings (£2) were colossal, deliriously thick of batter and crunchy of bite, and gave way to thick rings of red onion for the ultimate matching combo of satisfying bite and sublime sweetness. 

Washing it all down with the remaining few mouthfuls of my faultess pint of Falling Star, my brother eschewed an alco-based beverage in favour of a Bristol Twenty double espresso which was a nice blend of caramel notes to start and a rich deep flavour to finish.  

 

With the pub running a live acoustic music evening for local performers on Wednesdays, 2-for-1 cocktails on Thursdays, the aforementioned Ale Sale on Tuesdays and a family-friendly ethos, Gloucester Road Ale House & Kitchen offers something for everyone.  

 

Proper, comforting pub food executed masterfully, a superb range of tip-top condition ales and boasting a slightly quirky look combining modern and rustic aesthetics, this is a cracking boozer that ranks among the best on the Gloucester Road strip and deserves to do well.

 

5/5

Gloucester Road Ale House & Kitchen, 99 Gloucester Road, Bristol, BS7 8AT. Tel: 0117 924 6663.

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