Souk Kitchen, Clifton - Sunday Roast Review
Posted on: 2016-12-12
Our rating:
It was one of the best Sunday roasts we'd ever eaten. Period. A variation on the traditional and (now, by comparison) slightly bland covers of plated British Sunday classics dished up in a cornucopia of restaurants across the city.
Some restaurants garner such impressive and enthusiastically fervent word of mouth that eventually dining there can pose the risk of being hyped to such an extent they ultimately prove a let-down. Absolutely not the case with the really rather terrific Souk Kitchen in Clifton, which had been on my culinary hit list for some time and at which I finally managed to snatch a table on a cool and sunny Sunday afternoon.
Firstly, let me confess my sins. I've always been somewhat snidey and suspiciously derisory about the raft of eateries that postulate the idea of 'a contemporary twist on an old classic', or 'a new take on a traditional favourite', or any such epithet of that ilk. I'm a bluff, gruff old traditionalist so, for me, very often the old fashioned way, the traditional way is the BEST way, no matter how you try to give firm food faves a fresh lick of gastronomic paint. Until I tried Souk Kitchen's truly astounding, outstanding, mouthwatering, gustatory-overloading Sunday roast.
But first, I feel, some background. Souk Kitchen on Apsley Road, towards the top of Whiteladies Road, opened in 2014 and is the sister establishment of its popular same-name venue opposite North Street's Tobacco Factory. It specialises in Persian street food and is open for business to satisfy your need for a feed for brunch, lunch and dinner.
There's a definite Middle Eastern feel to the place - which was packed to the rafters and fantastically buzzy when my brother and I visited - and it's furnished in colourful tiles and decor that evokes the spirit of Mediterranean street food stalls and markets. Laid back but brimming with the infectious energy of spirited, chatting diners, there's also a front covered terrace and a small deli at the back where you can purchased hard-to-find Middle Eastern products and ingredients.
Inspired by cuisine from a diverse range of Persian gastronomy that reflects Turkish, Moroccan, Syrian and Iranian cuisine, the brunch menu takes in dishes such as cinnamon French toast, poached eggs and Moroccan chilli jam and seasonal fruits. A good selection of mezze dishes and large plates are served concurrently alongside the brunch offerings.
Sunday lunch is served from 12pm to 3pm with a small selection of starters such as chef's dips and flatbread and marinated olives. But the Souk roasts take imposing centre stage with meat options including Greek herb, roast garlic and lemon marinated bone in pork loin with crackling, shredded slow roasted mechouia spiced shoulder of mutton, chargrilled ras-el-hanout spiced half a chicken poussin, and a vegetarian option of roast mushroom, spiced lentil and caramelised leek stuffed gozleme.
I went for the pork loin (£13.50), a huge, exquisitely tender and moist medallion of meat that arrived on a impressively colossal bed of golden, crunchy roast potatoes with pomegranate, raisin Moroccan spiced red cabbage and small, sweet al dente sprouts. This was accompanied by a dish of winter vegetable, yoghurt and feta cheese bake, hazelnut dukkah and a generous jug of all spice cinnamon jus. The symbiosis of flavours and textures was simply extraordinary, every flavour discernible from the other without any one being entirely overpowering. Sweet, sour, savoury, spicy; it was an utterly sublime marriage of lubriciously tantalizing culinary hedonism. My innate distrust of contemporary tweaks to old classics was turned on its head. I literally ate my words.
My brother went for the shredded slow roasted shoulder of mutton (£14.50) which he thought was - well, I'll hand it over to him to describe in his own words: "My mutton was slow roasted to the point it was melt-in-the-mouth and falling apart, packed with honey, herb-infused and aromatic flavours. The Greek potatoes were amazingly crisp and moreish, the red cabbage was frankly a revelation and hit every flavour point of sweet, sour, savoury and spicy, while the spiced jus was so good I could have drank it like tea, the spice hitting you gently but with no flavour lost on the palate."
In other words, it was one of the best Sunday roasts we'd ever eaten. Period. A variation on the traditional and (now, by comparison) slightly bland covers of plated British Sunday classics dished up in a cornucopia of restaurants across the city, Souk Kitchen, for us, set the standard for a new approach and appreciation of a roast. Flavours, textures and ingredients you might initially balk or wince at, but ones which indubitably offered a deliciously fresh, reinvigorated re-invention of the nation's favourite. Using top-quality sourced ingredients and cooked by serious heavyweight kitchen talent, it was a game-changer.
We plumped for a pudding - a hefty wedge of not-too-sweet-or-rich dark chocolate torte with a scoop of palate-cleansing, subtly-flavoured pear sorbet (£6.25) - but it was a pure, needlessly epicurean (though admittedly sublimely satisfying) finale to a magnificent lunchtime blowout.
Souk Kitchen, then, has, in its own way, redefined the Sunday roast with its adept, Middle Eastern approach and fusion of Mediterranean-inspired ingredients. Unsurprisingly, it won Best Mediterranean Restaurant in the 2016 Bristol Good Food Awards. A bright, buzzy, vibrant venue with peppy staff and stunning gastronomy to match, Souk Kitchen might be an alternative take on your average Sunday roast, but it's incontrovertibly one of the best in the city.
Atmosphere 5/5
Service 5/5
Food 5/5
Value 5/5
Souk Kitchen, 59 Apsley Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2SW. Tel: 0117 906 7690.
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