Bristol Beehive Christmas Menu review
Posted on: 2014-12-12
Our rating:
This goes way beyond your average pub grub Christmas menu fare. These are gastronomically cosmic offerings, rendered with care, precision, flavour, and the kind of immaculate, eye-for-detail presentation you'd expect from a Michelin star restaurant.
At this time of year it can be nigh on impossible to find a pub that serves a decent Christmas menu. So many times have I had to endure bone-dry meat, abysmal roast potatoes, peas as hard as bullets, and gloopy, lumpy gravy. Thanks to The Beehive, however, you need look no further for one of the best Christmas menus in the city.
Dating from the 1930s, this red-brick Art Deco building has been a public house emporium serving patrons in the vicinity since 1936. And while it's fair say the place has become something of an institution, it's also fair to say the place has had something of a chequered history, changing landlords numerous times and consequently losing some of its once loyal and supportive customers.
Winning back trade can be an extremely difficult task to accomplish, particularly for a pub like The Beehive which is nestled out the way off the top of Gloucester Road on Wellington Hill West. But there's absolutely no question that husband and wife team of Rufus and Dawn Roberts have absolutely nailed it, transforming the venue into a warm, welcoming boozer and restaurant, full of character and charm - and absolutely stunning food.
The main lounge has been given a total make-over and thoroughly refurbished, and they plan to extend and enhance the rest of the pub in the new year. It's an invidious task seeing as it’s a big pub with one of the largest gardens in Bristol, but it’s evident the new incumbents are more than up to the challenge.
Sunday lunches are proving particularly popular and they’ve hosted fish and chip nights - but I was here to sample the Christmas menu. And boy, was it good.
Two courses are £19.95 and three courses £23, with children's portions available at £10 for two courses and £12.50 for three courses.
I kicked off with cranberry and chestnut falafel; perfectly cooked, crispy on outside, soft on the inside, generously-sized orbs that were perfectly complemented and enhanced by a pot of subtly flavoured minty yoghurt. My partner was positively salivating at the mouth-watering, heavenly ham hock terrine, served with sourdough bread and tasty home-made pickles.
We both plumped for the traditional roast turkey main. Hands down, it's one of the best Christmas dinners we've ever head. The turkey was perfectly cooked, succulent and an amply portioned slab of meaty unctuousness. It was accompanied by blissfully rendered roast potatoes, sublime sage and onion stuffing balls, crunchy pigs in blankets, and an expertly cooked vegetable selection of sprouts, butter-soaked carrots and sweet garden peas. Drizzled with flavoursome white wine gravy, we barely spoke a word as we eagerly gorged on this festive food feast.
I finished with a trifle cheesecake - a twist on the traditional dessert fare, and with a deliciously buttery base, trifle-flavoured cheesecake, topped with a swirl of proper trifle cream, and a few blobs of jelly. The other half's coffee semifreddo was equally exquisite, a semi-frozen creamy pudding of coffee, honeycomb and Tia Maria with a thick and deliciously dark chocolate sauce.
This goes way beyond your average pub grub Christmas menu fare. These are gastronomically cosmic offerings, rendered with care, precision, flavour, and the kind of immaculate, eye-for-detail presentation you'd expect from a Michelin star restaurant.
It's clear that Rufus has surrounded himself with a sterling, consummately professional team of chefs in Steve O'Neill and Ed Kite. These are true maestros of the kitchen, gastronomic wizards who can skilfully give traditional classics their own unique twist while retaining the satisfying flavours and thrilling inventiveness you'd expect from two people who are clearly passionate about food.
This is a pub that deserves to do well and be packed to the rafters with hungry, thirsty patrons sampling the culinary delights and fine beverages it has to offer. Rufus is the epitome of the perfect, archetypal landlord: down-to-earth, gregarious, loquacious, and infectiously enthusiastic and proud about his role overseeing the redevelopment of this gem of a pub.
Word of mouth, the comfortable, relaxed vibe, and the quality of the food should see it flourish and cement its well-deserved reputation as one of the best, newly-invigorated pubs in the region. If there's any justice in the world, The Beehive should really make a buzz in Bristol. Believe me, you won't find a better, more perfectly executed Christmas dinner or a friendlier, cosier, more welcoming public house in Bristol.
5/5
Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol
Contact The Beehive Bristol at:
112 Wellington Hill West, Bristol, BS9 4QY
Tel. 0117 9490078
Email. eat@beehivebristol.co.uk
Website. www.beehivebristol.co.uk
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.
