Clifton Restaurant Guide

“Unique” Clifton institution, where diners overlook swimmers in the restored 1850 pool below, while feasting on “consistently excellent dishes (often wood-fired), from a vibrant and frequently changing menu” – and the two activities can be combined in a ‘Swim and Eat’ package, with “great healthy options for those that want ’em” (there is also a spa and five newly opened bedrooms in a townhouse across the road). “This continues to be a favourite Bath/Bristol restaurant for a great meal almost 17 years after it opened – the atmosphere is quite literally exceptional”, while the Mediterranean-inspired food is “startlingly brilliant at these prices”. Top Menu Tip – “some fantastic inexpensive wines: try their Greek white!”.

2023 Review: Well known down Brizzle way, this small (16 seats) tapas haunt has an outsized reputation for its authentic approach. Our feedback is limited, but it’s a favourite for one or two of our reporters who award it very high marks. It’s part of a local group, and its siblings include Cargo Cantina and Gambas.

Clifton-ites and Bristolians have been flocking to Mitch Tonks’s smart seafood specialist (plus on-site fishmonger) for two decades — and no wonder since it “never disappoints”. Catch from Brixham and Cornwall (including the namesake crustacean) is cooked to fine effect over the Josper grill, and their “jazz nights (the last Sunday of every month) are a hit” as well.

Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan was – as of mid 2025 – rumoured to be on the verge of buying a £1 billion stake in Richard Caring’s restaurant empire, of which this famous brasserie chain is the crown jewel. Presumably, he’s more interested in ‘rolling out’ the brand in The Gulf and beyond rather than dropping by for a Salmon Fishcake and ‘Ivy Chocolate Bombe’, but if he’d asked the opinion of our annual diners’ poll, we’re not sure that he’d sign on the dotted line. “How can a restaurant with this heritage produce such uninspired, tick-box food?” is a question merited by its poor ratings, ditto what explains the “very slow and disinterested service”? The answer may be that “you don’t come here for the food, obviously” but for the “gorgeous” interior design and “picturesque” locations that continue to underpin their appeal. Let’s hope for the Sheikh’s sake that the middle classes of the Arab World are as undiscerning as those from the UK!

2022 Review: A restaurant of two halves partly inspired by Kiwi chef Stephen Gilchrist's home country of New Zealand, and also featuring an adjoining Argentinian tapas bar with counter-style seating – both highly regarded for their unusual combinations and accent on foraging. Only the latter, Chandos Social @ Otira, was open as of October 2021 – and offering tapas menus to share per couple – so do check ahead before you visit.

“Incredible cooking” – “honestly some of the best anywhere my mind is blown every time I eat there” – is proclaimed by many fans (which, in her April 2025 review, included Sunday Times critic Charlotte Ivers) of this “stripped-back, busy dining room” from chef Jan Ostle and his wife Mary Wilson, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The hyper-local menu showcases “loads of home-grown ingredients” from their own regeneratively farmed kitchen garden, and preparation is “imaginative and well thought out”. Ratings were dragged from 5/5 this year, by one or two diners nonplussed with what they saw as a heavy-handed approach to sustainable dining (“friendly service but disjointed by the obligatory extensive biography for each dish…”, “prioritisation of ethics over quality… terrible meal in parts, amazing in others… just tone down the creation of self-righteous plates and keep turning out the good ones!”).

2022 Review: “Recently opened of all places in a retirement village” – a modern development of 64 apartments in Redland – “but open to the public”: this September 2020 newcomer is run by local caterers CleverChefs and occupies a light-filled space with open kitchen overlooking an arboretum garden. Open from breakfast and throughout the day, it wins strong early feedback for “assured cooking at reasonable prices”.

2024 Review: “Standards remain consistently high” at this Redland boozer – “part of the Pony and Trap Group” and offering “a step above pub food” (though not straying from the classics and laying on proper Sunday roasts). Top Tip – “there are two rooms upstairs you can have for exclusive use of groups”.

This “reliable” venue from the “good-quality chain” serves “generous portions of traditional Italian food in a stylish ambience” – one of Bristol’s busiest restaurants for 30 years, it was Carlo Distefano’s first outside Birmingham as he set about creating what is now a global group, with an increasing presence in the Middle East.

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”.