The Stable - Food Review
Posted on: 2016-05-13
Our rating:
The Stable, then, remains one of the consistently consummate, premier pizza venues in Bristol, its unpretentious, vibrant atmosphere and stunning location the ideal place to stagger out - as we indubitably did - very well fed and slightly cidered up.
Pizza restaurants are aplenty in Bristol but there are only a handful of places you know you're going to something special every time - and The Stable on Bristol's harbourside is precisely one of the places.
This veritable hot-spot for pizza, pies and cider has been filling the stomach's of the city's hungry masses since it opened in 2013, and it's very rare indeed to walk by when it's not packed to the rafters with gorging and quaffing gastronauts.
When my pizza-chomping paramour and I visited on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon for a pre-theatre refuel, the venue was alive and buzzing with diners and drinkers taking advantage of its top-notch food and its superb al fresco cider-supping facilities.
It's tick-box, contemporary decor of terracotta tile floor, exposed brick walls, green enamel factory lamps, long wooden tables and leather booth seating gives it a funky, modern rustic vibe, while you can see the chefs churning out their pizza magic in the open plan kitchen.
With around 70 ciders on draught, in bottles or boxes, The Stable is an alcoholic wet dream for those partial to a pint of the fermented apple juice. We took advantage of the cider tasting board, a selection of five ciders which, at £7.50 for five one-third pint samples, represents great value for supping some of the diverse range of ciders available.
For starters, our garlic bread with cheese (£5) was a sumptuously dripping fresh pizza base smothered in a very generous veneer of punchy garlic and parsley butter.
My doughy disc-loving doyenne plumped for The Blazing Saddle (£13), loaded with fresh tomato sauce, unctuously melt-in-the-mouth slow roasted pulled beef, caramelised onion, grilled red pepper and mozzarella and slathered with a liberal, large zig-zag of sour cream. (You can also add jalapeno chillies if you fancy giving it an extra, fiery kick.)
I went for The Longhorn Jim (£13.50) and it was equally epic in size and flavour, the perfectly cooked, blistered base piled with ground beef, chorizo, field mushrooms, roasted red onions, fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella and draped with several slices of exquisite West Country smoked ham.
A hefty wedge of baked caramelised apple and ginger cheesecake with crunchy pecan praline, a drizzling of chocolate toffee sauce a hearty blob of clotted cream (£5.50) left my food-crazed filly in paroxysms of orgiastically eye-rolling delight. My slice of warm, soft and sweetly gooey chocolate brownie with clotted cream (£5.50) elicited pretty much the same reaction from me too.
The Stable, then, remains one of the consistently consummate, premier pizza venues in Bristol, its unpretentious, vibrant atmosphere and stunning location the ideal place to stagger out - as we indubitably did - very well fed and slightly cidered up.
5/5
Reviewed by Jamie Caddick with photos by Su Anderson for 365Bristol.com - The Bristol website
Article by:
Jamie is a writer, blogger, journalist, critic, film fan, soundtrack nerd and all-round Bristolian good egg. He loves the music of Philip Glass, the art of Salvador Dali, the writings of Charles Bukowksi and Hunter S Thompson, the irreverence of Harry Hill, and the timeless, straw-chomping exuberance of The Wurzels. You can sometimes find him railing against a surging tide of passing cyclists, or gorging himself senseless on the Oriental delights of a Cosmos all-you-can-eat buffet.
