Restaurants in Bristol
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Riverstation
A decade on and Bristol's original riverside restaurant is still setting the pace. Split over two levels (downstairs, a groovy bar-kitchen; upstairs, a barrel-roofed brasserie), the riverstation has a huge following among Bristol's fooderati, blending the best of British with exotic accents - think ravioli of wood pigeon or roast pollock with guacamole.
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Budokan
Pan-Asian food is cooked up at this exciting fusion restaurant, where diners sit at communal tables and indulge in handmade sushi, ho-fun noodles and Malaysian curries. Particularly good is the 'Rapid Refuel' menu available pre-19:00: sushi, side-dish and main, all for a paltry sum.
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Primrose Café
Hidden away down a Clifton cul-de-sac, this sweet neighbourhood bistro is a passionate proselytiser for the Slow Food campaign. The blackboard menu is strong on Cornish fish and British game, and the streetside tables are ideal for sampling the Primrose's trademark cakes.
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Papadeli
Everything from goat's-cheese tart and Serrano ham to damson jam and poppy-seed cake is stocked at this gorgeous deli, where the shelves are filled with more cheeses and charcuterie than a Provençal street market.
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Rocotillo's
Bristol's version of an all-American diner, with leather booths, open grill, chrome stools and jukebox tunes, and a menu stocked with steak sandwiches, slap-up brekkies and the best milkshakes in the west.
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Bordeaux Quay
Housed in a stonking great wharfside warehouse once used to store imported wine, this sexy, exciting and admirably ecofriendly restaurant is a treat. The vintage building has been converted with wit, imagination and plenty of environmentally friendly materials reclaimed from the original building; all the produce is deliberately chosen to cut down on food miles; and the menu gives an innovative spin to classic Provençal and Italian dishes.
There's even a cookery school where you can learn how the magic happens. Thoroughly 21st century, and drop-dead cool.
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Pieminister
Ditch that stodgy steak and kidney - the British pie goes gourmet at this Brizzle stalwart. Chomp on ingenious creations such as Poussin Boots (red wine, chicken and pancetta) or veggie Bush pie (cheddar cheese, cabbage, mushroom and onion), all drowned in lashings of mash and groovy. There's another branch inside St Nick's market.
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Picture House
This converted cinema is another sign of how far British cooking has come. The dining room is light and sexy, with picture windows, chocolate-coloured seats and blonde-wood floors, and the menu mixes Albion classics (slow-cooked mutton, pig-in-a-blanket, Eton Mess) with esoteric fare (smoked eel, wild boar, squirrel).
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Fishers Seafood Restaurant
Stripey tablecloths and storm lanterns conjure a shipshape atmosphere at this Clifton seafooderie, which takes daily deliveries from Billingsgate Fish Market. The food is simple and superb, ranging from bream fillets to full-blown bouillabaisse - here the ingredients are the star, not the chef.
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Colley's Supper Rooms
Who said dinner parties were dead? Supper at this swag-heavy restaurant feels like dining in his lordship's drawing room, with rich drapes and wine-dark colours and a stiff-backed waiter describing the dishes in painstaking detail - duck à l'orange, bread and butter pudding, roast fowl.
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Cafe Maitreya
Voted the UK's top vegetarian restaurant two years running, the Maitreya is one of the city's most inventive eateries. Forget veggie hotpots and bean casseroles, the seasonal menu is renowned for its culinary creativity, and dabbles in everything from red onion tartlette to cashew nut roulade.
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Quartier Vert
The QV has been a Whiteladies mainstay for two decades, and after several revamps has settled on Spanish and Southern Med flavours, supplemented by designer cheeses, sausages, tapas and home-baked bread. Wine-tasting and Slow Food courses will knock that philistinic palate into shape.
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One Stop Thali Café
The bustle and buzz of an Indian street market comes to this cute Montpelier diner, which serves traditional thalis (multicourse Indian dishes) that change depending on what the chef's picked up. It's fresh, spicy and authentic, and the six-course menu is ridiculously cheap.
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Severnshed
Part bistro, part bar, part architectural experiment, this amazing eatery shelters inside a Brunel-designed boatshed. A hovering bar zips around the restaurant while foodie-types dig in to the cultured food, from corn-fed chicken to fish and chips with Yorkshire caviar.
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Café Kino
Run by all-vegan owners, this co-operative café is impressive - the food's organic and local, the coffee's ethical, and there's even an alternative to corporate coke. Veggie lasagnes, leek and bacon pie and portabella mushrooms characterise the menu.
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Glassboat
The most romantic table in the city, a thoroughly Gallic affair housed in a wooden-hulled riverboat lit by globe lanterns and table-top candles. French cooking and British ingredients fuse into an enticing eating experience, and the watery views are divine.
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Mud Dock
This much-loved place has a split personality: on the ground floor is the city's top bike shop, while the first floor is an industrial-style cafe offering crispy pork, black bean chilli or sausage and mash, perfect fare for keeping those wheels spinning.
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Chandos Deli
Another excellent little deli, great for takeaway lattes and lunchtime baguettes, as well as stickier teatime treats. Judging by the queues, the Chandos certainly has the local seal of approval. There is a second branch at 39 Queens Rd, Knowles.
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Clifton Sausage
Fourteen types of banger are served at this much-vaunted Clifton gastropub, from pork, red onion and ginger to lamb, mint and apricot - but you'll also find St Mawes fish, Cotswolds beef and sticky toffee pudding on the Brit-centred menu.
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Bar Chocolat
Chocoholics beware - this shrine to the cocoa bean might be your undoing. Chocolate in every concoction is served in the cosy café, from chilled chocolate and chocolate brownies to fair-trade choc-chip cookies and petits-fours.
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Lockside
Bristolians swear this place serves the city's lushest breakfast. Bubble and squeak, dry-cure bacon and local sausages are washed down by as much toast, tea or filter coffee as you can handle.
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Gourmet Burger Kitchen
A new boutique-chain burger joint with imaginative versions including chicken, camembert and curry or aubergine and goat's cheese, accompanied of course by doorstop fries and cold beers.
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