Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Blackrock
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Blackrock restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 74 restaurants in Blackrock and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Blackrock restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Blackrock Restaurants
1. The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
Russell St - BA1
“The only Michelin star restaurant in Bath and it certainly stands out from the rest” – Chris Cleghorn has been at the stoves of this celebrated cellar for over 10 years now and it continues to inspire high praise, with “inventive and delicious” cuisine and tasting menus “much better than the ubiquitous versions that are around today” (although they are a significantly greater investment than the à la carte price shown, at £160 and £190 per person). Opinions differ on the cellar location in a period property: to some tastes it is “only let down by the lack of atmosphere in the basement”, but to others “the setting is relaxing and the service just the right level of attentive”, making it “a romantic venue in the heart of a very romantic city”.
2. The Scallop Shell
Fish & seafood restaurant in Bath
22 Monmouth Place - BA1
“Think you know what a fish ’n’ chip restaurant is like? Think again” – this “buzzy and informal” venture (est. 2015) has really raised the bar for the genre; the “incredible” catch (“choose from the regular menu or the extensive specials board”, or profit from the bargain ‘Fisherman’s Lunch’) is “stunningly cooked” and includes “delicious alternatives to the usual cod”. On the first floor, overlooking Bath’s rooftops, is indoor-outdoor dining space The Little Scallop, while the owners also oversee popular takeaway The Oyster Shell, near the Theatre Royal.
3. BANK
International restaurant in Bristol
107 Wells Road - BS4
Limited but positive feedback, including from a London-based reporter, on this revamped former branch of Lloyds in Totterdown, which opened in 2021 and relaunched in spring 2023 with a menu based around open-fire cooking.
4. Flute
restaurant in Bath
9 Edgar Buildings, George Street - BA1
Flute is a distinctive all-day seafood destination in the heart of Bath offering Cornish seafood, an extensive selection of wines and cocktails with a kick. Flute consistently sources the freshest fish from Devon and Cornwall and...
5. Clifton Sausage
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
7 Portland St - BS8
“Why isn’t there a quality sausage restaurant like this in every town?” – Simon & Joy’s descriptively named feature has thrived for over twenty years on “quintessential English grub done really well”.
6. Robun
Japanese restaurant in Bath
4 Princes Building, George Street - BA1
This upscale Japanese three-year-old near the Assembly Rooms draws its name from the 19th-century author Kanagaki Robun, who introduced barbecued food to Japan – and is all about the robata grill. Not everyone is convinced of its authenticity, but the “good-value” and “beautifully presented fish bento box lunch” won raves, with “every element carefully crafted in the best Japanese tradition” (the full menu including sushi and sashimi, tempura, gyoza and a dainty afternoon tea).
7. Puro By Tommy Thorn
British, Modern restaurant in Clevedon
Rear of 32 - 34 Hill Road - BS21
PURO Restaurant & Bar is a modern venue for relaxed, yet sophisticated, eating and drinking.All our food is fresh, with a focus on well sourced ingredients, providing simple but quality, seasonal food. In addition to the food menu is a carefully selected wine list (...
8. The Granary & The Granary Club
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol city centre
32 Welsh Back - BS1
The Granary is a buzzy, neighbourhood all-day eatery near Queen Square in central Bristol, with a great vibe and striking interiors and has been featured in The Telegraph, The Times & Condé Traveler.Think unique, period windows flooding the space with light, ...
9. Green Park Brasserie
Burgers, etc restaurant in Bath
Green Park Station - BA1
“A good, no-nonsense place to eat, with outside heaters” – this local landmark is housed in an old 1870s station on the fringe of the city centre (next to the old Ironbridge railway line) and is celebrating over 30 years in business. Billing itself as a steakhouse and jazz bar – and they also do a good line in pizza – it doesn’t aim for foodie fireworks, but is well-rated across the board.
10. Harbour House
British, Traditional restaurant in Bristol
The Grove, Harbourside - BS1
There’s no doubting the amazing location of this riverside restaurant: one of the South West’s last remaining 19th-century transit sheds (and FKA the Severnshed), it was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of the city’s impressive suspension bridge, and later hosted the first exhibition of a then-unknown artist by the name of Banksy. These days the attractive space, also with terrace seating, attracts praise (including from Jay Rayner, who found it “shipshape and Bristol fashion”) for its “varied menu” of “hearty dishes” (burgers, pork chops, fish ‘n’ chips); the worst anyone had to say about this year was that dishes range from “excellent to ok” – and the same reporter would “definitely go back”, so hey!
11. The Pig near Bath
British, Modern restaurant in Pensford
Hunstrete House, Hunstrete - BS39
2023 Review: “Fantastic for a foodie weekend” – this comfortably boho country-house hotel in the Mendip Hills from the Pig group owes its vibe to the shabby-chic interior designed by Judy Hutson, wife of Robin Hutson (ex-Hotel du Vin and Soho House) who founded the chain a dozen years ago with backing from Ineos billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. The 25-mile kitchen sourcing regime results in some “amazing local ingredients” on the table.
12. The Queen's Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Chew Magna
Silver Street - BS40
2022 Review: Opened in June 2021, this tastefully revamped old pub is the work of the Eggleton family – the team behind The Pony & Trap (now known as The Pony Chew Magna). The offering, realised by chef Jordan Meagher, “centres around proper ‘pub classics’”.
13. The Pony Chew Valley
British, Traditional restaurant in Chew Magna
2022 Review: After 15 years, the Michelin-starred Pony & Trap gastropub in Chew Magna – owned by chef Josh Eggleton and his sister Holly – is to reopen in a new guise in 2022. The Eggleton siblings have also opened Pony Bistro, in Bedminster (see also) and this, their former HQ, will operate ‘no longer as a gastropub, but as a wedding venue, cookery school and restaurant’.
14. Paco Tapas
Spanish restaurant in Bristol
Lower Guinea St - BS1
Andalusia comes to the West Country at chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’ tapas venture on the Bathurst Basin, named after his Seville-born father, and featuring an authentically dark-walled setting replete with sherry barrel tables; both the à la carte or £75 per person tasting menu, which secured one reporter’s affections this year, feature many dishes cooked over a wood fire, and the front of house are notably solid. Yes, a visit can be “very expensive”, particularly if you lay into the Spanish wines and sherries, and “price sensitivity” remains a regular feature of commentary (perhaps “puzzling given the affluence of Bristol”) but given the “incredible, innovative cooking” on offer, most reports suggest you get what you pay for. (Stop Press: In October 2024, the closure of the family’s flagship ‘Casa’ was announced, with any vouchers for eating there now redeemable here).
15. Pasture
Steaks & grills restaurant in Bristol
2 Portwall Lane - BS1
This Bristol-based steakhouse group with outlets in Cardiff and Birmingham wins praise for its “reliably good” performance – “Chateaubriand was good, well cooked and service very good with engaging staff”. On the debit side, one or two reporters find it “good but expensive – money could perhaps be more wisely spent elsewhere”; and “very noisy – not a venue for two or four but OK for a larger group”.
16. Box-E
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
Unit 10, Cargo 1, Wapping Wharf - BS1
“An amazing little place in a shipping container in Bristol docks, with one chef and one waitress serving up great food” – former L’Ortolan head chef Elliott Lidstone and his wife Tess have run this 14-seater in the Cargo development for six years. Their “excellent, imaginative food and wine” – consumed in “an unpretentious if not overly comfortable setting” – represents “extraordinary value for money”, with a seven-course tasting menu at £55 per person. “It’s very busy, so you must book”.
17. Root
Vegetarian restaurant in Bristol
Wapping Wharf - BS1
Occupying a series of old shipping containers on the wharf, this contemporary, veg-led (but not just) sharing-plates spot opened in 2017, and has become a favourite among the city’s foodies. In December 2022, owners Josh Eggleton and Luke Hassell teamed up with chef Rob Howell and Meg Oakley to launch a sibling venue in Wells, Somerset.
18. Gambas
Spanish restaurant in Bristol
Unit 15 Cargo 2, Wapping Wharf - BS1
“Imaginatively prepared seafood dishes – Spanish but each with a twist – make a trip to this dockside container in Bristol a real pleasure”; like its sister Bravas, the formula is tapas, and at this “lively”, “good value” spot there’s a particular focus on fish (the headline prawns but also a “truly delicious” seafood salpicon). The owners’ hospitality group Season and Taste added a Mexican venue Condesa, on Whiteladies Road, to their now four-strong portfolio in March 2024, having received six-figure funding from the South West Investment Fund.
19. riverstation
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
The Grove - BS1
2022 Review: In the unusual and attractive setting of a former river-police station, “this long-established dockside restaurant still continues to offer value and quality, despite the change in ownership a few years ago (to Youngs)”, although nowadays in a much less foodie vein than in its heyday over 20 years ago. As of a 2018 refit, diners can opt for the Pontoon Bar, a popular brunch/lunch haunt, while upstairs “pre-theatre meals are also popular”.
20. Adelina Yard
British, Modern restaurant in Bristol
Queen Quay, Welsh Back - BS1
“Amazed more people aren’t raving about this place…” – Jamie Randall and Olivia Barry have run this conventional-seeming but ambitious venue in Queen’s Quay for nearly 10 years now. It perennially inspires quite limited feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but such as there is says its 12-course tasting menu for £80 per person is “very reasonably priced, creatively presented and very good”.
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