Reviews

Plead The 5th in Bristol - Restaurant Review

Posted on: 2015-02-19

Owner Chris Bell has established a fantastic addition to the US-food themed craze in the city, and is one place genuine Bristol gastronauts would be wise to take very seriously and pay a prompt visit.

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With the recent craze for Dude food and the proliferation of venues specialising in burgers, steaks, ribs and pulled pork, if you're going to set up a new restaurant capitalizing on the trend you'd better make sure it either competes with or stands out from all the others. There's absolutely no question that Plead the 5th on Park Row triumphantly succeeds on both counts.

The three-floor location, which includes a bar downstairs, used to be home to the Mamma Mia pizza and pasta emporium, but, as you'd expect, it's been given a thorough and completely radical American-style makeover. The walls are lined with funky pop art posters including Obama and Batman, red, white and blue are the inevitable colours of the tables and seating, and when we visited there was an intriguing selection of hits by Queen and Michael Jackson given a distinctly twangy, Yankee hoe-down interpretation. 

 

My fresh baked potato skins with cheese and bacon potato skins with a pot of chive dip was a sublime way to kickstart our US gastronomic excursion. The skins were exquisitely crisp on the outside, fluffy on the outside, and the melted strong cheese contrasted perfectly with the thin strips of crispy bacon. My partner's pulled pork skins were equally heavenly (I had a few mouthfuls of course, it's my job), the juicy, tender strips of pulled pork mixed with a rich, tangy barbeque sauce that was truly a knock-out prelude.

The main act consisted of a burger stuffed with blue cheese and mushrooms served with lettuce, tomato, gherkins, skin-on fries and crunchy apple coleslaw. The burger was impeccably cooked, thick, succulent and oozing melted blue cheese and mushrooms every time I took an eager mouthful. The skin-on chips were simply awesome, thin, slightly scraggly looking devils but, sprinkled with some salt from a recycled glass Coca-Cola bottle (nice touch) sent the taste buds into blissful overdrive. A burger filled with pulled chicken was my partner's main course which was equally sensational. 

The portions were so generous we had to let a good 15 minutes pass until we could even contemplate gloating over the dessert menu, but with a hearty Yeehaw!, gloat we did and found space in our rapidly engorged bellies to share a Cajun style chocolate French toast served with homemade peanut butter ice cream and toffee apple sauce.  

Sweet but not sickly, spongy, slightly waffley, slightly eggy, it was a third act to supercede all third acts, and the peanut butter ice cream (even though, bizarrely, I don't like actual peanut butter) was moreish and slid down a treat. 

Owner Chris Bell (who was also mucking in and affably serving the patrons when we dined) has established a fantastic addition to the US-food themed craze in the city. He's also clearly surrounded himself with confident, supremely competent chefs in Mark Campbell and Nathaniel Thomas, and staff who, on our visit, was the warm, gregarious and efficient Fabio Roberts. 

Some might yawn at the prospect of another potentially contrived American diner-style restaurant, but this is one place genuine Bristol gastronauts would be wise to take very seriously and pay a prompt visit. With food of this quality and gut-busting portion sizes and staff of this calibre, it gives the likes of Grillstock and Five Guys a very real run for their money. 

5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol - the leading events and entertainment website for Bristol

 

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