Bringing you the best of Bristol Bites – the definitive guide to food and drink

Having been closed for several years, the old Bar Med site on Welsh Back has now been given a new lease of life. Indian restaurant and bar Namaskar Lounge has been in the pipeline since early last year, and finally opened its doors before Christmas. With a plethora of Indian restaurants already in existence in Bristol, I’m pleased to say that this place is a cut above the rest.

Decor-wise, its smart interior, with more of a nightclub feel to the downstairs bar, flat screen TVs on the walls and futuristic lighting sets it apart from the “standard” furnishings that tend to feature in the majority of Indian restaurants. The owners certainly seem to be making it a destination venue…not just in its decor, but also in terms of its food and drink offerings.

Unlike the majority of Indian restaurants, Namaskar Lounge prides itself on its drinks (see the drinks menu here) as well as its food.The wine list ranges from £15 to £20 per bottle, and I was intrigued to see Indian wines included on the list. Beer drinkers can enjoy a decent range in bottles or on draught, but the real focus here is on cocktails.

At £5.95 – £6.25, cocktail prices are very reasonable, and in addition to a list of “classics” you’ll find a range of cocktails with an Indian theme, including ingredients such as Darjeeling tea, tamarind and cardamom. Annoyingly, I was having an alcohol-free night, but will definitely be back to try the “Indian Summer” – a cocktail starring Mount Gay rum, fresh tropical fruits, chilli and balsamic vinegar.

Instead, I opted for a non-alcoholic and very refreshing watermelon and cucumber punch (£2.25) to start, followed by a decidedly lurid but very tasty rose and cardamom lassi (£3.20) later on. The bringing – without asking – of a Namaskar-branded glass bottle of tap water was also a nice touch.

While there are more “standard” options on the menu (click here for full menu) such as samosas, chicken tikka, kormas and bhunas, there’s also a large number of dishes that I had not previously seen on the menu of any Indian restaurants that I had visited in the past.

For our meal, a selection of dishes chosen by Namaskar’s manager. The presentation of all of the dishes that we were served was far above and beyond what we’re used to in Indian restaurants- the pictures speak for themselves.

A starter of Namaskar Stuffed Peppers (£5.50) gave us two halves of sweet red pepper, stuffed full of delicately spiced minced lamb and served with a thin, cool yoghurt sauce. It was accompanied by the same fresh, crunchy salad of carrots, red onions and red cabbage as our Jeera Chicken (£5.90), a generous portion of on-the-bone chicken in a fragrant cumin based sauce with garlic and ginger. Great textures and flavours.

Our main courses were outstanding, right down to the Pulao rice (£2.50), fragranced with whole cloves and cardamom pods. A creamy and buttery Dal Makhani (£4.95) – a Punjab lentil and red kidney bean dish – was perfectly executed, with a decent amount of bite to the pulses and ripe for mopping up with our garlic (£2.25) and tandoori (£1.85) naans.

The main dishes were selected from Namaskar’s specials menu, and gave us the opportunity to try two dishes that we’d never previously seen. The lamb adrakh (£14.50) may be more expensive than you’d expect to pay in many Indian restaurants, but is well worth the money. “Adrakh” meaning “ginger”, the spices in this dish were fantastic. Medium spiced and including cinnamon in addition to the aforementioned ginger, the lamb was lovely and tender and quickly devoured.

The chicken patiala (£12.90) is something that I probably wouldn’t have ordered on looking at the menu, but I’ll certainly be trying it again. Chunks of chicken tikka, green peppers and onions make up the basis of the dish, which is wrapped in an omelette and cooked with spinach. A bit of an odd combination, we thought, but once it arrived, my dining companion couldn’t stop raving about it. The thin wrapping of omelette added a sweet edge to the chicken and vegetables, which seemed odd at first but was by far our favourite dish of the evening.

Unsurprisingly, we were defeated by the sheer amount of food we placed in front of us…but were impressed when we were asked if we’d like the rest to box up and take home. Now that’s service.

With a final bill for all of the above of just over £60, it may be a little pricier than many Indian restaurants, but the settings, service and outstanding food make it well worth the money. For those who don’t want to stretch the purse strings that little bit more, head in at lunchtime – their lunchtime buffet costs just £9.95, but is available at the bargain price of just £6.95 until mid-February!

Now to find a date to head back to try the cocktails…

Namaskar Lounge are taking part in the “Around The World In 80 Days” campaign – for more details, see here http://www.80-days.co.uk

Find Namaskar Lounge on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Bringing you the best of Bristol Bites – the definitive guide to food and drink

Previously known as The Picture House East, The TownHouse on Clifton’s Whiteladies Road has recently undergone a bit of a transformation. No change to the team at the helm, and much of the menu remains the same, but the rebranding includes a smartening up of the decor, a fantastic canopy to cover  the outside seating area in front of the building (complete with twinkling fairy lights!) and big plans for 2012.

We recently wrote about the restaurant’s “Pre War Prices” offer that is running until February 10th, but if you don’t manage to make it in for this crazy deal, it’s still worth booking a table for a meal that will prove to be exceptionally good value for money.

The set lunch menu – at £10 for two courses or £13.50 for three – represents fantastic value for money, and with seven starters, seven mains and six desserts to choose from, there’s something for everyone. Dishes are predominantly British-influenced with many classic regional dishes, featuring the likes of bubble and squeak soup, Lancashire hotpot, and apple pie with custard.

I was glad to see that the rare roast beef on hot dripping toast was still available when we visited, as this was something that I loved from the old Picture House East days. On this occasion, however, both my dining companion and I opted for the Stinking Bishop with new potatoes and spring onions (£2.50 supplement), being big fans of the pungent cheese.

Thick cut sauteed rings of new potato were served in a hot pan, topped with a generous slab of the cheese and chopped spring onion. A simple starter, maybe, but delicious: the cheese, when it arrived, was melting just enough to retain its form but still gooey enough to smear over the perfectly cooked potatoes. Lovely.

More sauteed new potatoes for my main, as I wanted to test out the vegetarian option! Attractively presented on a wooden board, my twice baked goats’ cheese souffle was fluffy and creamy, and served with a rich, green pureed spinach sauce in a classic combination of flavours.

My dining companion decided to go for more of a meaty option in the pork belly and black pudding pan haggerty with spring greens. A traditional Northumberland dish, pan haggerty normally sees sliced potatoes, onions and cheese layered, baked like a cake and served in wedges. We were both impressed with the presentation of this version, which layered tender chunks of pork belly, thinly sliced potatoes and black pudding – looking very similar to a slab of pork belly – on a bed of spring greens and a rich gravy. Nothing but positive feedback here.

Too full for dessert, we passed on a third course but were tempted by either the cheese board (£3 supplement) or the cinnamon and nutmeg Cambridge burnt cream, which sounded very wintry!

The Express Lunch menu offers a variety of main meals for just £6 during the day, while the Breakfast & Brunch menu has been rated by people I know, giving diners the option of a full English for under £9, or a range of other meat, fish and vegetarian dishes.

If you like your food British, well-executed and at prices that won’t break the bank, it’s worth paying The TownHouse a visit. Their cocktails are pretty good too…

Find The TownHouse on the Bristol Bites Directory…

A marketing campaign to encourage diners into Bristol’s independent ethnic restaurants is launched tomorrow.

The campaign, Around the World in 80 days, aims to raise awareness of the wide range of cuisine types available in the city.

Restaurants from all over Bristol will be running a series of exclusive offers, competitions and events during the 80-day promotion, which takes place at a traditionally quiet period of the year for the restaurant trade.

Diners will be able to take a worldwide foodie tour on their doorstep by downloading an exclusive voucher from the campaign website www.80-days.co.uk, which also includes full details of all offers and competitions as well as restaurant and chef profiles, recipes and menus.

The campaign is the result of collaboration between three Bristol marketing agencies Coconut Chilli Digital, Objective1 and Red Cherry PR. Bristol’s has a vibrant and growing ethnic restaurant scene and diners can find dishes ranging from Brazilian feijoada to Jamaican ackee & saltfish.

Navina Bartlett, of Coconut Chilli Digital, said: “Many independent restaurants have experienced a severe downturn in trade over the past few months and, unsurprisingly, this includes the recent festive period.

“We wanted to do something positive to encourage Bristolians to dine out and support their favourite restaurants, or perhaps to try a totally new cuisine.”

Among the venues taking part are upmarket new Indian restaurant, Namaskar Lounge on Welshback, Chinese restaurant Dynasty, and Surakhan, Bristol’s first Korean restaurant.

Namaskar Lounge director Aiub Xec (known as Altaf) said: “I believe the campaign is an innovative way to help give local independent restaurants and higher profile and the recognition they deserve.”

Bringing you the best of Bristol Bites – the definitive guide to food and drink

The site of the old Rustic Vine restaurant on St Michaels Hill, originally closed (according to signs that were in the window) due to a gas leak, is no longer empty. Number 157-159 is now home to Bath Ales’ newest venture in the form of Beerd: a craft beer and pizza bar.

A rainy evening in December saw us making the trek up for the opening night – word had got out quickly via Twitter, and the bar was already very lively when we arrived.

The right hand side of the venue as you walk in is dedicated to a seating area, with tables and chairs mainly filled by those tucking into pizzas from Beerd’s roaring pizza oven, visible through the kitchen doors. Priced between £7.50 and £9.50, their thin-base pizzas looked and smelled fantastic, with toppings such as goats’ cheese, grilled aubergine and basil, salami and red chilli, and chorizo and roasted pepper all available.

Diners can also choose from a small selection of salads, as well as a range of snacks and starters such as pork sausage and mustard, Padron peppers, olives or a cured meat platter. Having already eaten, we chose a portion of the crispy pig skin (£3.00) to snack on – a generous share of beautifully salty crackling, including some strips with the added bonus of small amounts of meat underneath.

We opted for the left hand side of the bar, an area with a few tables dotted around but mainly standing room. A large barrel in the centre of the area provides somewhere to rest your drinks, and we sat on brightly coloured stools at a long counter opposite the bar.

All attired in Beerd t-shirts, the bar staff are friendly and happy, and more than willing to help customers navigate their way through the mindboggling selection of beers on offer. When we visited, a selection of 4 cask beers and 9 from the keg were accompanied by around 30 bottled varieties – and plans to offer more, with a blackboard at the left of the bar announcing that Dark Star American Pale Ale and Dark Star Smoked Porter were “coming soon”. The list of bottles, as you would expect, includes a number of Bath Ales varieties, as well as others from the local Bristol Beer Factory – but also a wide range from further afield. The States are well-represented, with the likes of Flying Dog and Goose Island breweries appearing on the list, as well as European brewers such as Timmermans, Brouwerij Bosteels and Küppers.

On draught, customers have the option of ordering 1/3 pint, half a pint, 2/3 pint or a whole pint of the beer of their choice. Bath Ales make an appearance here again, with S.P.A., Dark Side and Festivity available at the time of visiting, but you’ll also find a decent range of beers – and strengths! – ranging from the 4% German Flensberger Lager, to the 8.3% Raging Bitch, a Belgian-style IPA from Flying Dog, Maryland. We were also impressed with the way in which the beers from the keg were presented behind the bar!

Those who aren’t so keen on beer will find a decent selection of soft drinks (including the delicious Goose Island Orange Cream Soda) and six wines on the “Non Beery Drinks” section of the menu.

On first impressions, Beerd is a fantastic place, filling a gap in the market in Bristol. With specialist wine and cider venues already existing, it’s good to see the beer drinkers now also being catered for. I have no doubts that this place will be a resounding success, despite its relatively quiet location.

Find Beerd on the Bristol Bites Directory…

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‘Tis the season for the reopening of pubs in the Whiteladies Road area. This year has already seen the Black Boy Inn and the Red Lion being given a new lease of life, and The Jersey Lily at number 193 is the latest to have been reopened.

Manager Mike Baker brings with him a wealth of experience, having run pubs in Somerset and around the Bristol area. After two years out of the pub trade, he’s now moved to Bristol for the Lily.

Tucked away on a corner at the top of Whiteladies Road, The Jersey Lily is a smartly decorated pub: brown and stone-coloured walls, comfortable sofas as well as tables more suitable for dining. The clientele mix is varied: couples enjoying a quiet meal for two, groups of lads downing shots of black sambuca, friends out for drinks and chat. It may be a fairly formal setting, but certainly somewhere that feels relaxed and welcoming.

There’s quite a selection of drinks on draught: Guinness, Fosters, Sagres, Symonds, Scrumpy Jack, Tribute, Butcombe, Kronenbourg, Blackthorn, Theakston Smooth Dark…with real ales priced at £3.20, ciders at £3.40, and premium lagers and Guinness at £3.65. The wine selection starts at £3.10 for a glass, and there are plenty of bottled beers, ciders and soft drinks in the fridge.

Our visit included sampling the Lily’s new tapas menu, competitively priced at £3.95 for one dish or £10 for three.

Having been brought one of just about everything from the menu, we tucked in! Highlights for us included the chilli and garlic prawns, super-succulent and with just the right amount of kick to the chilli & garlic butter. The savoury soda bread was one of my favourites, topped with brie and bacon, and the BBQ chicken wings were perfectly tender and tasty. We were also impressed with their side orders, with the onion rings and chips both beautifully crunchy on the outside and soft in the centre, and the sauteed potatoes – cooked simply with salt, pepper and mixed herbs – proved to be addictive.

For those after nourishment more of the traditional “pub grub” variety, you’ll also find a selection of dishes for under £10, including lasagne, gammon steaks and burgers.

The Jersey Lily may be a bit further up Whiteladies Road than we generally tend to go, but the combination of the relaxed atmosphere, great food and welcoming environment make the extra distance worthwhile. Hats off to Mike – I can definitely see this place being somewhere we visit more often in the future.

Find The Jersey Lily on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Sahra Lebanese restaurant

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People I chat to on Twitter will know how upset we were when Lebanese restaurant Sands closed earlier this year – and that other Lebanese restaurants we tried in Bristol just didn’t live up to our expectations. News that a brand new venue  - Sahra – was opening on the former site of Sands, therefore, was music to our ears…and we headed over a few weeks after they opened to try it out.

If you visited the restaurant when it was Sands, you’ll certainly notice some similarities. The signage just inside the gates at 95 Queens Road is in the same font and style. The website looks incredibly similar. The menu offers practically the same options as its predecessor. We were told that Sahra has kept the old Sands chefs, but they were very cagey when I asked about their connection to the previous restaurant…

Inside looks very different, though, with the toilets having been moved to just inside the front door, a small counter rather than a full bar, and a feeling of much more space inside the restaurant. Expected mosaic-topped tables, flagstone floors, embroidered cushions and ornate light fittings that diffuse light with a disco ball effect throughout the restaurant. It’s a beautiful and very relaxed venue.

The menu still offers a range of hot and cold mezza, main courses and dishes from their in-house chargrill, along with a range of set menus. On this visit, we opted for the £19.95 per head set menu (listed on the menu as the “Sands mezza”!) – a range of mezza, mixed grill and Lebanese sweets for a minimum of four people.

It was a bit too dark to take photos, but you can see the sheer amount of food they brought out…and this was just for our starter!

Soft and fluffy flatbreads were perfect for scooping up a lovely smokey baba ghanouge, and we were happy to see that the hommos was as good as we remembered from Sands. The sujiq sausage was beautifully spiced and the chicken wings tasty, although mine was a little burnt on the outside.

These dishes were also accompanied with tabbouleh, stuffed vine leaves, enormous falafel and “Laham bil Ajine” – minced lamb, onion and tomatoes baked onto a dough base. This was the only deviation from the old Sands menu, and definitely a welcome one!

Onto our mixed grill main course, and a platter of succulent cubes of chicken and lamb, plus minced lamb kebabs.

The meat was amazingly tender, and served with grilled onions and tomatoes and Lebanese rice with vermicelli. The highlight for us, as always, is the toomeh – an incredibly garlicky dip that adds the perfect punch to the meat and rice.

Dessert came in the form of a tray of “Lebanese sweets” – various baklava, a “bird’s nest” style filo pastry dessert with cream and filled pancakes.

As always, tasty enough, but this time they were sadly a little over-chilled, making them slightly less enjoyable than normal.

Now that Sahra has opened on the site of Sands, I think we’ll be regular visitors. I’m still keen to head over for one of their Arabian Nights on the last Thursday of the month, where £16.95 per person gets you a generously portioned meal and live belly dancing.

If you were a fan of Sands, I’d definitely recommend paying Sahra a visit. Delicious Lebanese food in a stunning restaurant…what more could you want?

Note – if the following appeals, Groupon are currently running an offer for a three course meal for two for £29 – click here to buy!

Find Sahra on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Bringing you the best of Bristol Bites – the definitive guide to food and drink

Cordial & Grace is Clifton’s newest tea rooms… with a difference. You’ll still be able to get your tea and cake, or even enjoy a meal from their small brunch venue…but owner Maria Whiteman’s big selling point is her downstairs room, featuring sewing machines available to hire by the hour.

It’s a beautifully decorated place – brightly coloured paper lanterns, bunting around the walls, colour co-ordinated flowers, pink and orange bottles adorning the cafe and walls decorated in a variety of ways give the place a quirky yet comfortable feel.

Various cakes are displayed on the counter, available by the slice, and a more substantial menu is also available. I’m keen to go back and try their afternoon teas, but late on a Saturday morning, we decided to give their brunch menu a go.

First, a pot of jasmine pearl tea (£2.00) – wonderfully fragrant, and with the nice touch of an egg timer to let you know when it’s ready to drink.

For me, the leek, cheese and bacon tart (£6.95). Light, fluffy pastry, and the potentially-otherwise-overpowering saltiness of the cheese and bacon balanced out by a delicious homemade tomato confit. Definitely hit the spot.

For my friend, the all day breakfast frittata (£6.95), a satisfying, perfectly cooked wedge served with a side salad and ketchup. Happy tummies all round.

After our meal, we asked if we could be shown the downstairs sewing room. Owner Maria has carried the colour theme from upstairs through to the downstairs room: beautiful coloured glass bottles adorn the back wall, and tables are set up with sewing machines that are available to hire for just £5 per hour – including a hot drink. With six machines available, there’s plenty of space, and they’ll even take group bookings for a social occasion with a difference.

Cordial & Grace will have fabric available to buy, or you can bring your own and work away. They’ll also be running sewing workshops for those wanting to learn how to use the machines, and plan to invite others in to run workshops in other crafts.

It’s a beautiful venue – and a far cry from Indian restaurant Posh Spice, the previous inhabitants of the building. The atmosphere, service, food and choice of drinks are spot on, and the sewing element adds a quirky yet inspired touch that makes Cordial & Grace stand out from the multitude of cafes that now inhabit Clifton Village. Recommended.

Find Cordial & Grace on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Za Za Bazaar

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“Like a cross between a market and Selfridges Food Hall” is how a friend of mine described Za Za Bazaar after her first visit – and she’s spot on. The fixed price, all-you-can-eat “world banquet and bar” – officially Britain’s biggest dining venue – opened this week, and we headed along for the trial night for local companies on Tuesday.

Za Za Bazaar was completed in just 13 weeks – a ridiculously short amount of time considering the scale of the place. The £3m restaurant is housed over more than 30,000 square feet, seats 1,000 diners at any one time, has created 130 local jobs and can have up to 2,100 people dining on a single night. 36 chefs from around the world are supported by 8 porters, and their projected food consumption levels are astounding. Za Za reckon diners will consume:

• 1,300kg of rice per week
• 1,000kg of beef per week
• 60kg of pasta per day
• 2,500 chickens every four days
• A truckload of vegetables each day.

The extravagance doesn’t stop there. The bar offers over 300 different drinks from around the globe, including Indian lassi, Brazilian beer, Swedish cider and Thai-themed cocktails.The front entrance leads to a beautiful downstairs bar area, with exposed pipework and brown leather seats, which has space for 300 diners should the 700 seats upstairs not be enough.

The upstairs restaurant can be accessed via either stairs or a lift (the lift doors are copper-plated – I was told by the restaurant’s project manager that there was only one sheet of copper left in the country after they’d finished the restaurant) – and is an assault on the senses as soon as you walk in. The chatter of hundreds of diners, the smell of so many different types of food in one place, the noises of various foodstuffs being fried, pans being clattered onto stoves, chefs shouting to each other, the number of people milling around filling their plates with weird and wonderful combinations…it’s not a place for the faint-hearted.

Aiming to create the feel of a Far Eastern market, the restaurant is divided into “stations” for various types of cuisine. Helpfully, each diner is given a place mat that doubles as a map, so that they can decide where to go next.

While much of the food is available on a help yourself basis from large serving dishes on the counters, it’s also good to see that plenty is made in front of you: including sushi, Vietnamese pho and Indian breads.

Our group managed to sample a wide number of cuisines on offer between us – some opting for one region at a time (recommended by Za Za), some coming back to the table with plates laden with very strange combinations of foods. Highlights for us were the Indian snacks (our Indian colleague was raving about them!), Chinese duck pancakes, Vietnamese pho and dumplings.

Other options were a little hit and miss. The ribs were enjoyed by some, but deemed too chewy for others. The sushi looked fantastic, but was a little bland (and mostly involved crabsticks). And the dessert counter gave the choice of cupcakes, “Mr Whippy” style ice cream, a chocolate fountain, and a selection of mini desserts that were very much style over substance.

Lunch is priced at £6.99 Monday-Friday and £9.99 Saturday-Sunday, with dinner bookings costing £12.99 Monday-Thursday and £15.99 Friday-Sunday. Children get a great deal, with under 5?s able to dine for free, and those aged 5-11 getting their meals half price. Drinks are a little on the expensive side, but 5-7pm happy hour deals on beers and cocktails on weekdays make them more reasonable.

I’m not really sure what to make of the place, to be honest. It’s a great venue for large parties with differing tastes when it comes to eating out, and has a buzz that makes it ideal for celebratory occasions. While it’s certainly far superior to other all-you-can-eat venues in the city, it’s a little overwhelming in terms of its size. There’s no denying that the food is great value for money, but it remains to be seen whether the owners – who are planning on opening another seven “super-restaurants” across the UK at a cost of £10m over the next 18 months – have been a little too ambitious with their plans…

Find Za Za Bazaar on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Pictures by SWNS

Britain’s biggest restaurant threw open its doors yesterday in Bristol – serving up to 2,100 diners a night.

Za Za Bazaar – an all-you-can eat buffet – will dish up over a tonne of rice and nearly 5,000 chickens every week.

The 30,000 sq ft harbourside eatery can seat over 1,000 customers at a time, with two sittings per night.

But the 120 staff will have their work cut out – with over 8,000 dirty dishes to wash on a busy Saturday night.

It is the first of a new nationwide chain of eight restaurants, with Za Za Bazaar hoping to create 1,000 new jobs over the next 18 months.

The restaurant is styled on the street markets of the Far East but serves food from all four corners of the globe.

A team of 36 chefs and eight porters will serve up everything from Chinese, Indian and Tex-Mex to piri piri chicken, pasta, pizza and traditional British food.

There will also be salad, sushi and deli sections, an entire stand devoted to desserts, and a bar serving 300 different drinks from five continents.

Around 80% of the food will be prepared and cooked in six ‘pods’ on the restaurant floor to add to the street atmosphere. Diners will be able to select their ingredients which will then be cooked fresh for them.

The project is the brainchild of Nitin Bhatnagar, a renowned international chef who learned his trade at the famous Taj Mahal restaurant in Mumbai.

He said: “The vibe is the buzz of the night market. If you go to Bangkok or Singapore, you will find night markets with people selling delicious things, vying for your business, trying to get you to taste their food.

“This is the atmosphere that we are trying to create. Maybe you will try a satay here, something from the barbecue there – whatever catches your eye. You meet friends or your family. You have a beer, then go back for something more to eat.

“We are creating the ambience of the streets. We are getting the outside inside – making a great place for our customers to explore.

“There will be tuk-tuks and artwork and street designs from a range of cultures. Everything will be comfortable, informal – and right at the centre of everything will be our food.

“We are creating something entirely new for the UK restaurant market. No one else is creating food fresh on the scale that we are doing at Za Za Bazaar.”

The two-storey restaurant, on the site of a former nightclub, took three months to refurbish at a cost of more than £3 million and will employ a total of 120 staff.

Punters at the weekend will pay £15.99 for an evening buffet, with the same meal costing £12.99 during the week.

Za Za Bazaar restaurant manager Phil Maddock said the business is targeting a niche market of ‘high end’ buffet food which currently doesn’t exist in Britain.

“We’re convinced it will work because it offers something for everyone, including families and large groups of diners,” he said.

“We have the intention to roll Za Za Bazaar out intensively across the country and hope to have five or six sites in the next 12 months.

“We’re looking at 15,000 to 40,000sq ft sites in locations with high footfall, including retail areas.”

The Bristol branch was opened to selected VIPs and local businesses on Tuesday night with a full public opening tomorrow.

In total, it will serve up:

• A whole truck load of vegetables every day
• 1,300kg of rice every week
• 60kg of pasta per day
• 15kg of fresh ravioli prepared on the premises each day
• 18kg of pizza flour used to make fresh pizzas every day on the premises
• 4,000 bread rolls baked on the premises on a Saturday
• 2,500 chickens consumed every four days
• 1,000kg of beef consumed a week
• 6 fridges – the biggest 400 sq ft
• 8,000 dishes to wash up on Saturday night (which are fortunately washed on an automated conveyor belt system).

Cosmo in Croydon, south London was the UK’s previous largest restaurant, catering for a mere 800 at one time.

Bringing you the best of Bristol Bites – the definitive guide to food and drink – in association with Bristol24-7

In the past, I’ve only ever visited The Flyer for a pre-Bishopston Supper Club drink but had never sampled the food. A Mitchells & Butlers pub (the same family as The Mall in Clifton Village, among others), we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

Price-wise, the menu is fairly standard for pub fare. Mains are priced from £8 to £15, with starters around the £5 mark and menus changing seasonally. With the statement that the menu ‘is based on carefully sourced ingredients and all dishes are cooked to order’, we were also pleased to see some local ingredients starring in this season’s dishes: Gloucester Old Spot sausages, West Country beef burgers and Cotswold lamb leg steaks all taking centre stage.

A starter of potted beef with a horseradish and chive creme fraiche (£5.50) hit the spot: the beef well seasoned and the flavour of the horseradish distinctive but not overpowering. No sign of the chives, sadly, and the potted beef suffered from an excessive amount of butter on the top, as many tend to do. Minor complaints, though.

Having heard praise for their burgers in the past, I chose the handmade West Country beef burger with mature Cheddar, smoked bacon and chips(£8.75) as my main. The thick cut chips were perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle (and with the skins on – just the way I like them!), and the red cabbage coleslaw (seemingly homemade) which accompanied my main was a nice counter to the more salty elements. The burger itself was enormous, served in a generously proportioned bun and a slightly redundant piece of striped greaseproof paper. While well-seasoned, the meat was a little over-charred on the outside, and more well-done than I’d normally go for in the middle.

My dining companion enjoyed her generous portion of oak smoked salmon with beetroot creme fraiche and rye bread (£5.25), followed by a perfectly-cooked, melt-in-the-mouth shin of beef (£11), served with a rich red wine and oyster mushroom sauce and an enormous portion of horseradish and chive mash.

As far as pub grub goes, it’s not bad, but a little hit-and-miss in places. It’s worth signing up to their mailing list if you’re interested – they quite often send out emails with newsletter subscriber-only offers, including completely free meals from time to time when they’re testing their new seasonal menus…

Find The Flyer on the Bristol Bites Directory…