Reviews

White Lion at The Avon Gorge Hotel - Bristol Food Review

Posted on: 2017-02-13

Our resident foodie Sarah Starling casts her discerning eye over one of Bristol's most prominent restaurants in arguably Bristol's most beautiful setting...

---

The Avon Gorge Hotel and White Lion Bar are blessed with what’s possibly the best view of the Suspension Bridge in the whole of Bristol. In the past, I’ve visited for afternoon tea, and even when you’re used to seeing the bridge every single day, to be up close and personal with such an historic structure is quite something.

 

When my husband and I visited The White Lion Bar last week, the first thing I did was have a peep out of the window at the bridge, and having ticked that off my list, it was time to get on with the important business of checking out the surroundings. The White Lion Bar is the first part of the hotel to have its renovation completed. It has nods to the industrial history of the location with an exposed girder in the middle of the room, and it is open and spacious. There are lots of long tables with benches, as well as some smaller tables and some banquette seating near the window.

The bedrooms in the hotel are being renovated at the moment and the public areas will be next. The Avon Gorge Hotel’s renovation is due to the fact that it has recently been taken over by the group who own Hotel du Vin and Malmaison hotels. If you know this, there are subtle hints of cohesion in the branding, and if you’re familiar with those brands, you’ll know that they’re synonymous with good food and customer service. With this in mind, I was really excited to see what their revamped menu had to offer.

 

After ordering, we were bought a board of focaccia bread with butter and oil, and a dipping mixture of crushed nuts and sesame seeds. I loved the dipping mix. It’s a fab way to add flavour and is something a bit fun and different.

For my starter, I went for ‘Classic Prawn Cocktail’ which is £7.95. It comes in a lidded jar with the instruction to shake it before eating! The prawn cocktail has a mixture of larger tiger prawns, and the smaller North Atlantic prawns. I love prawn cocktail. It’s one of those dishes that I used to eat quite a lot as a child of the 80’s. Whenever there was a special occasion, it was my job to make a prawn cocktail. The White Lion Bar’s version also includes pink grapefruit and avocado, both of which I love. The grapefruit added freshness and tartness, and was a perfectly pleasant addition. I didn’t notice any avocado in the mix, but I don’t think the dish was any the less because of it. With good prawns, good sauce and crunchy lettuce, that’s everything you need, really.

 

Simon went for the ‘Hand-Made Scotch Egg’ which is £7.50. It is served in a little trophy bearing the plaque, ‘World’s Best Scotch Egg’ and while I’m not sure about that, it was certainly very tasty. The yolk was soft but not too runny, and the sausage meat was very flavoursome. It came with a little pot of home-made brown sauce, and a shard of crispy prosciutto.

I loved the sense of fun that’s been added with presentation the starters. It’s hard to resist laughing when shaking up your starter, or when your egg comes served in a trophy!

 

Onto the mains. I had the ‘Steak au Poivre’ at £26.95, and Simon had the ‘Gloucester Old Spot Barbeque Ribs’ at £16.50. We also ordered chips and some carrots. In a city with so many good steak restaurants, to charge just shy of £27 for a steak is a bold move. This steak though, is worth every penny. It was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. It was incredibly tender, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. Pepper sauce is one of my favourite accompaniments to steak, but in this case, not even a drop touched my steak; it was just too tasty on its own! I really cannot recommend this steak enough. The chips were also exemplary. Perfectly cooked, soft and incredibly moreish. Despite being really full, I could hardly stop eating them. There were also carrots, and my steak came with a slice of onion loaf, and they were lovely, but they didn’t get much of a look in next to the steak and chips!

Simon’s ribs were beautifully tender and the sauce was sweet and smoky. They came with onion rings, which Simon reports were great. We shared the chips and the carrots between us, and it was a lot of food.

We were really full by this point, but it’s always nice to end the meal on something sweet, so after a little break, we decided to share a portion of ice-cream and sorbet for pudding. One scoop was coconut which was lovely, as was another which had a custardy flavour. The sorbet was bitter lemon in flavour and it was nice, but somewhat too bitter when paired with the other two which were quite sweet. This pudding was £4.95.

 

I really enjoyed my meal at The White Lion Bar, and would absolutely return. I’ve talked the ear off just about everyone about that steak and chips! Our meal, coming in at around £65, is certainly not a cheap option, but the quality was undeniable. In addition to traditional mains and starters, The White Lion Bar also offers huge 18” pizzas at a very reasonable £16.95. They have some really interesting toppings too, such as brisket and pickles, or roast ham, cheddar and duck egg.

 

I also want to mention another main that sounds amazing; Roast Normandy Chicken at £15.50. It comes with stuffing, peas, carrots and jus. The reason that I didn’t order it is because it’s cooked to order and so takes around 40 minutes but I was far too hungry to wait that long. I’m always wishing that there was somewhere I could get a mid-week roast dinner and I think this sounds perfect. And I think that regardless of what I ordered, a side of those chips would be a given!

 

Atmosphere 4

Service 5

Value 4

Food 5

For more info please visit theavongorgehotel.com Address: Sion Hill, Bristol, BS8 4LD.

---