St George, Italian Restaurant Guide

This “slightly old-fashioned Italian in a splendid room” from Carlo Distefano’s “good-quality chain” is “always packed” as it approaches its 30th anniversary next year – perhaps because it is “so consistently good: never had a bad meal here”. There’s a “reassuring” quality about the whole operation, which is “welcoming to children (and adults), with a stylish ambience and generous portions of traditional Italian food”.

A characterful city-centre building backdrops this “very relaxed” (and trendy) wine bar and osteria – regarded as “one of the best restaurants in Bristol” nowadays. Cosmo Sterck (of London luminaries Brawn and St John) turns out “fantastic Italian food” from a “small menu with great ingredients and lots of nice sharing starters”, while his wife Lily looks after the wines, which are of the organic and biodynamic kind. Kudos for the “bargain set lunch” (two courses £24 per person, three courses £27 per person) – “the price of a main course in many less impressive establishments”.

This “very busy Italian neighbourhood bistro” in Westbury Park was set up by floorlayers Olly Gallery and Julian Faiello – and what a success their professional volte-face has proved, with a successive wave of talented local chefs passing through its doors over the past decade. The crowd-pleasing menu – spanning arancini, pasta dishes and sourdough pizzas – features some “very good” food which you can now enjoy on the heated, fairy-lit terrace: a Covid-era addition.

A “stunning neighbourhood restaurant in lively North Street”, and with a pleasingly “relaxed environment”, where fans say the “the food is Mediterranean-influenced and has shades of The River Café” (i.e., it’s relaxed, fresh and “very inventive”, but relayed in this case through small plates). The Bedminster corner site was opened in late 2022 by Sydney chef Mark Chapman (ex-of the local Gambas tapas bar).