Punchbowl Ale House & Kitchen - Review
Posted on: 2018-05-11
Our rating:
With its stylish, modern makeover, laid back and unpretentious atmosphere and first-rate gastronomy, Punchbowl Ale House & Kitchen is definitely back on Bristol's not-to-be-missed food and drink map.
'Putting the punch back into Old Market', so the Punchbowl Ale House & Kitchen's promotional blurb proclaims. And it's one time when the hyperbole is an honest, accurate reflection of the actual venue: new, improved and more than able to land a well-aimed left hook at much of the competition. For what once used to be a rather grim, shoddy boozer has been transformed into a beautiful little gastrpub; a glorious awakening from lugubrious chrysalis to resplendent butterfly.
Reopened in 2017 after what can only be described as a seriously major internal and external refurb, this Grade II listed pub dates back to 1872 and still has its striking Victorian green-tiled frontage. Stripped of its previously dark, squalid interior, the pub now has a refreshingly light, airy and utterly contemporary feel, comprising as it does of one long bar with a view of the open kitchen at the end. A modernised, large beer garden is now the perfect spot for some summer sun al fresco imbibing.
Drinks-wise there's a plentiful selection of beers, ciders, cocktails, wines and spirits and, unsurprisingly, Wickwar (who owns the pub) has lined the bar with some of its best, most popular ales (Bob, Falling Star). The stock regularly rotates though, and there's often a range of beers from further afield as well as local breweries.
Of course, along with the revamp of Punchbowl Alehouse & Kitchen (in its previous incarnation just Punch Bowl) comes a total overhaul of the menu, which has eschewed its progenitor's limited range of pork scratchings and pickled eggs in favour of a much more appetizing, contemporary menu.
Now then, it serves a truly scrumptious range of lunchtime bites (sarnies for a fiver including Classic BLT and breaded cod fish fingers with homemade tartare sauce), then shifts up a gear in the evening with a wider range of starters, mains and sides. Their Sunday roasts are also generating considerably excellent word of mouth.
From the pleasingly small, concise menu (always a good sign because it generally means the chef executes a limited number of dishes well), I went for the 6oz Rump steak with triple cooked chips and watercress salad (£11). It's often said you can tell how good a chef is by how well he can cook a steak; in which case Head Chef Adam Gibson must be one of the best chefs currently manning the kitchen of any pub in Bristol.
My request to have it cooked well done resulted in a faultless cut of steak; not burnt to a cinder on the outside and dry and leathery on the inside like some places, but robustly cooked all the way through (no pinkness) yet still maintaining an exquisite succulence, tenderness and flavour. Without doubt one of the best steaks I've chomped on in a long time, a pot of fabulously intense, piquant peppercorn sauce (£1.50) was the perfect, zingy accompaniment, whilst the triple cooked chips were magnificent wedges of potato-based, crispy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside wonder.
Also lured by the promise of an early evening meaty mouthful, my fellow dining diva opted for the same but asked for her steak to be cooked medium rare. With a well cooked outside and glisteningly pink inside, it was another prime example of ultimate meaty perfection; moist and packed with flavour, her addition of a pot of red wine jus (£1.50) was equally as heavenly a condiment bedfellow.
Of course, no steak and chips is complete without a portion of onion rings (£3), and a large bowl of these lightly-battered beasties were devoured with equal, gluttonous enthusiasm. Huge rings of onion deep fried in a light batter, it was a delectable contrast of soft oniony interior sweetness and deliriously satisfying exterior crunch. Proper onion rings done the proper way.
A five minute pause and loosening of a belt notch or two later, and a generous slice of homemade brownie with English berry coulis and Chantilly cream (£4.50) was a more then satisfactory finale; warm and sweet with the tart coulis and soothing cream cutting through the brownie's decadently intense richness.
When we popped in on an early Thursday evening, Punch Bowl Ale House & Kitchen was doing a brisk and steady trade, mainly for post-work drinkers sipping on ales, ciders and gins. But the food here cannot be underestimated and it's indubitably fair to say the gastronomy being served here elevates itself to more than being merely pub grub; it's a lot more than that and deserves to be recognised as so. (I did notice our food was getting some enthusiastic, slightly envious glances from surrounding imbibers, so perhaps next time they're in they'll do the right thing and try the outstanding food for themselves.)
General Manager Sarah Welsh oversees everything with steady, confident aplomb and knows how to keep her customers happy (she was merrily chatting away to several regulars) and she's supported by affable, efficient staff; while Head Chef Adam Gibson is irrefutably a gastronomic maestro who uses the finest, freshest ingredients to produce food which is effortlessly several notches above much of the other gastropub grub currently being served in the city.
With its stylish, modern makeover, laid back and unpretentious atmosphere and first-rate gastronomy, Punchbowl Ale House & Kitchen is definitely back on Bristol's not-to-be-missed food and drink map.
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.
