Restaurants / Reviews
Mayflower, The Horsefair: ‘A welcome return in a new location’ – restaurant review
Flitting speedily up and down the street, people are going about business along the Horsefair. But a warm and soft glow is cause for pause.
Peering in these large open windows people are huddled together on round tables, almost a dozen on some.
Our mains arrived in quick succession to our starters
We’re at Mayflower, which has made a welcome return in a new location as their former home next to the Bearpit is reduced to rubble ahead of the site being redeveloped.
It’s been open only a week when my colleague and Food and Drink Guide Editor Karen and I visit but already it’s packed. We’re shown to a table and a basket of complimentary prawn crackers are placed down.
We’re quick to order so as to avoid waiting. As a vegan, options tend to be limited for me but Chinese restaurants are often a safe choice with their penchant for tofu.
Karen is even further spoilt for choice with the meat and seafood options.
Having had this dish at several other restaurants, I thought I knew what to expect. But this surpassed my culinary experiences
Our first dishes arrive after a reasonable wait. In front of me is the vegetable hot and sour soup (£5.80), while Karen has pork and prawn filled wontons in chicken stock soup (£8).
A familiar smell of white pepper wafts up to my nose as I lift the first spoonful to my mouth. Sourness surfs the wave of the tomato base, becoming the dominant flavour, before the spice cuts through.
The texture is like that of Cup-a- Soup, packed with thinly sliced sweetcorn and carrots, with the addition of peas and finely shredded tofu. Except this is fresh, flavourful and without the additives – a perfect winter warmer.
Before we can finish our starters, the mains arrive. I have opted for salt and chilli tofu (£13.50); and after much deciding, Karen settled for the long life noodle soup with crab meat in egg white sauce (£16.20).
Whatever the tofu is coated in makes for a heavenly crunch before I reach the silky melt-in-the-mouth middle. Sprinkled over it, the excess of chilli, garlic and salt fall away.
Karen is less pleased with her dish. While impressive in portion size, she has to dredge the bowl around
to find any crab meat. She surmises that she just picked the wrong dish and with so many options, we’re hopeful the next one will be better.
Mayflower, 10 The Horsefair, Bristol, BS1 3HT, www.mayflowerbristol.com
All photos: Hannah Massoudi
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
