Reviews

The Clifton Pub & Kitchen in Bristol - Sunday roast review

Posted on: 2015-07-01

The Clifton Pub is a Sunday roast winner and a genuine contender in the increasingly gladiatorial Bristol pub skirmish for one of the best in the city.

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Hold on to your roast potatoes - the battle for Sunday roast supremacy has got even more competitive with The Clifton Pub and Kitchen in Bristol, which is serving up its own fantastic plates of deliciousness of one of the nation's favourite dishes.

Located on Regent Street in Clifton Village, The Clifton Pub and Kitchen is pub restaurant that is full of laid-back, easy-going charm. It comprises of a main bar which extends to a dining area and veers off to a neat, cosy gastronomic sanctum which, when I visited, was full of animated families enjoying the atmosphere, drink and food. 

The tables are evenly spaced, the leather seats are bum-satisfyingly comfortable, and the decor is light and airy with wood panel flooring, chandeliers and enamel lamps. The walls are also adorned with the colourful, eye-catching work of local artists, and there was a funky background soundtrack of reggae and ska music. There is also an open-plan kitchen - a particular favourite feature of mine - so you can see the chefs busily serving up their culinary offerings. 

Drinks-wise, there are Cask Marque accredited real ales, four ciders, seven lagers, four on-tap speciality beers and a range of wines and spirits. Sharp's Doom Bar, Gem and Orchard Pig's Maverick were a few on offer during my sojourn, and my pint of Thatcher's Old Rascal cider was crisp, refreshing and delicious. 

But to the serious business of food. The Sunday roast menu - served until 6pm - lets you choose from Cherry Orchard pork loin, parsnip, carrot, cranberry and Stilton nut roast, half roasted Shropshire chicken or 21-day-aged West Country beef.  

My partner and I went for the free-range Cherry Orchard pork line with crackling (£12.00), which was served with roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables of carrots, broccoli and springs greens, a homemade Yorkshire pudding and gravy.  

It was absolutely faultless. The pork was so tender it fell apart with a single stroke of the knife and melted in the mouth, the roasters were fluffy and crispy, the veg consummately cooked and the carrots deliciously al dente. The Yorkie was an estimable example of batter-based brilliance and the ladling of gravy was sufficient without drowning everything on the plate. We also couldn't resist two side orders of cauliflower cheese and creamed leeks (£3.50 each) which were equally heavenly - the cauliflower cheese superbly baked and appropriately, pungently cheesy, while the leeks were dreamily creamy and orgiastically silky smooth.

For dessert, I plumped for sticky toffee pudding with vanilla pod ice cream (£5.50), the intense, sweet and rich pudding sufficiently counterbalanced by the awesome, light ice cream.

My partner opted for the chocolate praline profiteroles with salted caramel ice cream and caramel sauce (£5.50), stacked up in a half pint glass and delicious enough to send her into heightened paroxysms of intermittent 'ooohs' and 'ahhhhs'. 

The Clifton Pub and Kitchen is a cool, chilled out, vibrant venue where the welcome is warm, the staff are chatty, convivial and attentive, and the Sunday roasts really are second to none. And in an area of Bristol where you might expect the price tag to err on the more wallet-busting side, it also represents sensational value for money for such a full-on plate of British classic meat and veg awesomeness. 

A Sunday roast winner and a genuine contender in the increasingly gladiatorial Bristol pub skirmish for one of the best in the city.

5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol - where local information matters.

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