Blackrock, Italian Restaurant Guide

St John and Brawn alum Cosmo Sterck and FOH wife Lily “serve up exceptional wine” at their stylish debut solo venture (est. 2019), in the city-centre – “an interesting, predominantly French wine list featuring some very unusual options”. It’s accompanied by a “short” and “delicious” seasonal menu that’s consistently highly rated in a good number of reports (including a well-priced weekday lunch).

2021 Review: It’s not fancy (wood banquettes and orange school chairs), but this small new Redcliffe Italian turns out “wonderful” fresh stuffed pasta – a USP in this country – that’s full of “interesting seasonal flavours”. The owners, behind Pasta Loco, are fast building a local empire, having opened a deli/café, La Sorella, two doors down from the premises in May 2019, followed by trattoria Bianchi in the old Bell’s Diner (RIP).

“Surprisingly good food” that is “a significant cut above that of a typical Italian chain” – and which is “in the current climate reasonable value for money” – ensures that this long-established venue in Carlo Distefano’s national chain is “always busy”. Some even rate it the “best Italian in Bristol”, and it has “excellent fish, too”.

2021 Review: Taking over the Montpelier premises that for over 40 years housed the much-loved Bell’s Diner (RIP), this summer-2019 Italian yearling is from the team behind local hits Pasta Loco, Pasta Ripiena, and La Sorella. Top Tip – very competitively priced lunch deal.

2022 Review: This much-loved neighbourhood restaurant on the border between Westbury Park and Henleaze recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, with the founders having come a long way since their days as floorlayers; their “very pleasant” Italian food can now also be consumed on the heated, covered and fairy-lit terrace spawned during Covid times.

2021 Review: The USP of this “very relaxed” yet “lively” Bath pizzeria is the ability to choose your dough as well as the topping on your pizza; not just regular and gluten-free, they also offer hemp, seaweed, black rice and turmeric bases, plus distinctly adventurous toppings (“who knew pistachios on a pizza could be so amazing?!”). A Bristol branch opened in March 2019.

This brightly painted Bedminster corner site opened in late 2022 and delivers a selection of diverse European small plates of French, Italian and Spanish inspiration. Quickly awarded one of the tyre men’s ‘bib gourmand’s, we’ve rated it on limited feedback to-date, which is all complimentary. More reports please!

2023 Review: ‘Authentically Italian, sustainably British’ says the tagline of this new Wapping Wharf container restaurant, run by friends Gilda Lombardi and Delphi Ross, which specialises in numerous varieties of pasta made on-site daily. It opened in May 2022 – too late to generate feedback in our annual diners’ poll – but the Bristol press says it’s proving a big hit locally.