The Stable in Bristol review scores 5 out of 5 - Terrific Pizza and Cider
Posted on: 2015-05-28
Our rating:
The Stable is a fantastic, laid back and totally unpretentious venue that serves the best, tastiest pizzas in Bristol. Time to start planning my next visit then. Another 5/5 review for them!
Just as there are certain books and films in your life you have to re-visit every couple of months, so the same applies - for me, at least - with certain restaurants. The Stable on the harbourside in Bristol is one of those eateries that repeatedly pulls me in on a regular basis like some kind of all-consuming, inevitable tractor beam.
Since it opened in 2013, this huge warehouse-sized establishment has been proffering its pizzas, pies and ciders to Bristol's gastronauts, and the place has impressively gone from strength to strength strength. Testament to its popularity is the fact hat every time you pass there's a hungry, surging throng of enthusiastic eaters sat quaffing one, or several, of its myriad ciders and chomping one of its masterfully made pizzas. When I visited on a splendidly sunny May afternoon, it was no different and the restaurant was doing a brisk trade with plenty of hungry punters.
It is a massive place and hits all the right notes when it comes to the kind of trendy, contemporary restaurant design - exposed brick walls, terracotta tile floor, green enamel factory lamps, long wooden tables and several leather booth seats around its circumference. It's a busy, buzzy place that brims with an atmosphere of fun and activity, and its sense of gastronomic theatre is enhanced by the long, open-plan kitchen at the end where you can see the chefs working their culinary magic before your very eyes.
I'll get to the pizzas momentarily, but when its slogan pronounces ciders it seriously means ciders. An eye-popping, gut-busting, leg-wobbling selection of around 70 on draught or in bottles, the majority of which are served from boxes behind the bar. Orchard Pig, Thatchers, Burrow Hill, Bridge Farm and Westons to name but a miniscule selection of five. My self-imposed cider-swigging abstinence led me instead to a bottle of Cornish Orchards apple juice, my partner the Cranberry and Raspberry Sparkle, which were fizzy, fruity and quaffably delightful.
The restaurant does serve a selection of pies and salads, but if you're going to throw yourself unremittingly in to the true, full-on Stable experience then you have to try one of their pizzas.
After a deliciously doughy disc of cheesy garlic bread (£5.00), my Longhorn Jim pizza (£13.50) was really something to write home about. Loaded with ground beef, chorizo, field mushrooms, roasted red onions, fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella and topped with West Country smoked ham, the contrasting, unctuous intermingling flavours of sweet, spicy, rich and salty blended in to a lip-smackingly harmonious orgasm on the tastebuds. The thin base was consummately cooked with the occasional burnt, tasty blisters of dough from the oven.
My partner's The Blazing Saddle (£13.00) was packed with slow roasted pulled beef, smoked bacon, caramelised onions, grilled red pepper, mozzarella and a drizzling of sour cream. (She passed on the option of a liberal sprinkling of jalapeno chillies for fear of the bowel-based ramifications that would inevitably result later.) It was another circular example of awesomely executed, impeccably cooked pizza perfection and full of well-fused flavours.
Dessert came in the form of baked caramelised apple and ginger cheese cake topped with pecan praline, toffee sauce and a generous dollop of clotted cream (£5.50). Light, soft cheesecake made way for the crunchy pecans and was undercut by the tangy, zesty hit of ginger and apple, sensationally counterbalanced by the heavenly clotted cream. I'll leave my partner to sum up her warm chocolate brownie with clotted cream (£5.50): "It's the best chocolate brownie I've ever had - slightly crispy top and moist, oozing chocolate in the middle." 'nuff said then.
In a great location and with energetic, friendly and attentive staff, The Stable is a fantastic, laid back and totally unpretentious venue that serves the best, tastiest pizzas in Bristol. Time to start planning my next visit then.
5/5
Reviewed by Jamie Caddick on 28 May 2015 for 365Bristol - the leading events and entertainment website for Bristol
The Stable Bristol
Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5UH
Tel. 01179 279 999
Web. www.stablepizza.com
Article by:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.
