Restaurants / Reviews
1847 – restaurant review
If there has been one restaurant trend in Bristol this year, it has been for an increased emphasis on vegetarian food.
For many years, Cafe Maitreya on St Mark’s Road flew the flag almost single-handedly for the herbivores as the vegetarian options in the city were surprisingly poor for a place where one doesn’t bat an eyelid at somebody strolling down the road wearing a hessian jumper while playing hacky sack.
This year, however, has seen the arrival of new restaurants such as Flow on Haymarket Walk and cafes such as The Black Sheep on Gloucester Road. We’ve even now got a travelling veggie van in the shape of The Spotless Leopard.
Now it’s the turn of the out of towners with the arrival of 1847 on St Stephen’s Street in the Old City.
Named after the year that the Vegetarian Society was founded, it’s not a chain yet but is getting there, with Bristol the fourth opening after Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton.
A look at the menu indicates an attempt to lure meat eaters into the fold with names like “beet bourguignon” (beetroot slaw, sauteed potatoes and crumbled goat cheese) and on the children’s menu, “fake fish fingers” made with halloumi.
Nibbles of bread came with a wonderfully smoky butter, while a delicately seasoned starter of squash and feta consisted of whipped feta, roasted butternut squash, wilted kale and pumpkin seeds just in time for Halloween.
For main, a merguez and mash (spicy puy lentil sausage, turnip and sage mash and red onion gravy) was good but not quite a worthy substitute for a carnivore like me to the real thing.
Pudding for us was a sweet chestnut pie featuring cinnamon sable, chestnut mousse, eggnog syllabub and sprinkled with praline dust.
Meals here cost £19.50 for two courses and £25 for three courses in a dining room with the hanging gardens of parsley on one wall and exposed brickwork which in fact is just wallpaper.
1847 aims to “push the boundaries” of vegetarian food, with head chef Theo Bostock – formerly at Zero Zero in Easton – also offering special chef’s table events in the basement kitchen for 10 diners.
This is certainly the classiest vegetarian joint in Bristol yet. Herbivores have never had it so good.
1847, 25 St Stephen’s Street, Bristol, BS1 1JX
0117 922 6315
Photos by Daisay Johnson