Manna and Bravas

Manna & Bravas may sound a bit like an upmarket deli (or a '70s pop duo) but these are in fact the names of two separate wine bars that have opened in Bristol in the last two weeks. And what a great addition they are to the Bristol restaurant scene.

Bravas is the welcome consequence of the Bravas supperclub, which I never managed to get to, and is basically a tapas bar - a pretty authentic one at that. There are small circular tables at the front you have to perch at on stools, a glass-covered counter and some tightly packed tables at the back with - I vaguely remember - some fairy lights festooned around the place. I came straight there after a heavy couple of days in London so my recollection is a bit hazy.

There are typically tapas-y things to eat like lustrous fat green olives, a slightly over-gooey tortilla, chorizo in cider and excellent patatas bravas served, imaginatively, as deep-fried potato slices to be dunked in an accompanying punchy bravas sauce. One to try at home, definitely.

Other good dishes were some impeccably fresh, simply fried hake, a perfectly cooked lamb chop and some very tasty Iberico pork. But it’s the wine as much as anything I’d go back for - a brilliant short list of artisanal Spanish wines and, of course, sherries. I was off-duty with friends so didn’t take notes - or photographs - the light was too murky.

I was going to go back before writing about it but last night happened to be the opening night of Manna, a similar set-up in the Westbury Park neighbourhood so it makes sense to group them together. It’s run by the team who operate the immensely successful Prego opposite but is in fact more like a restaurant with small plates - similar to Flinty Red, if you’re a Bristolian and familiar with that.

This kitchen obviously likes meat too. There was a first class slab of brawn, nicely seasoned with tarragon, a lovely sticky pice of veal cheek with what tasted like home-made morcilla (certainly I’ve never tasted morcilla with as much cumin in it) and some outrageously rare onglet lavishly scattered with grated horseradish - but served without chips to which I think they’ll have to succumb in the long run.

Other dishes sent out (unbidden, but thanks) included some beautifully tender chargrilled squid with a punchy salsa, ‘butifarra’ (Spanish-style meatballs) with beans and aioli and fresh peas in their pods with mature parmesan (pecorino would have been better, I think). Oh, and we also ordered a pissaladière which was correctly oniony rather than tomatoey. The winelist is pretty short but decent and there’s a good selection of beers including two from one of my favourite West Country brewers, Moor’s of Pitney in Somerset.

The interesting thing about the tapas/small plates format is that it’s not cheap, or not cheap if you’re as greedy as we are. At Manna we spent about £30 a head (excluding the complimentary dishes), at Bravas about £38, the same as a conventional meal. But you don’t have to spend that much - you could drop in for a glass and a couple of dishes. And this style of eating means a faster throughput than a conventional restaurant, hence more profit for the restaurant and a greater likelihood these places will be around for some time. All good news.

Which should you go to? It depends what part of Bristol you live in or whether you're just visiting. Bravas is more central with more of an urban vibe. Manna, on the basis of last night’s experience, attracts the sort of crowd you might find in a local village pub and is more of a neighbourhood joint. But I suspect it will pull in people from wider afield as the word gets out.

We’ll certainly be back to both.

Bravas is at 5 Cotham Hill. Open Tuesday-Saturday 5-11pm www.bravas.co.uk Manna is at 28 North View, Westbury Park, BS6 7QB www.mannabar.co.uk Check the opening hours 0117 970 6276

A tale of two restaurants: why good food is not enough

I’ve had two meals recently, one in Bristol, one in Bath that have underlined why ability in the kitchen doesn’t necessarily make for an enjoyable restaurant experience. Of course you need good food but there are so many other factors - design, location, service and above all, good old-fashioned hospitality that determine whether you leave looking forward to going back again.

Telling your customers that their credit card will be docked £68 per person if they cancel within 48 hours (if they can’t resell the table) isn’t a good start. Which is what happens when you book at Casamia in Bristol. The two chefs Peter and Jonray Sanchez-Iglesias shot to fame a year or so ago when they won Gordon Ramsay’s Best Restaurant competition on Channel 4 and the pair are undoubtedly talented but that kind of attitude doesn’t make for a cossetting experience.

Nor does their inflexibility. Given the fact they had a no-choice menu we’d been asked to express dietary preferences (no dairy, in my husband’s case) so with the exception of the last course where they provided a rhubarb sorbet they simply left out the offending ingredients. My broad bean tart was a delicious creamy mouthful. His was a tart shell with a few skinned broad beans. My John Dory with lemon jelly (lovely and the best course on the menu) arrived with a creamy cider sauce, his was totally undressed. It was as if the kitchen were saying ‘oh FFS’.

You got that sensation a bit too with the main course of roast lamb with mint jelly which came with a spookily Bisto-ish gravy (not that I'm suggesting for a moment it was). The boys, I remember from my one previous visit, used to go in for foams and other elements of Heston-esque molecular gastronomy. Obviously that didn’t go down too well with the locals so they seem to be saying ‘you want a roast dinner? We’ll bloody give you one’. The lamb was cooked at a fashionably slow temperature, granted, but to be honest my late mum cooked a better roast dinner than that. And she served potatoes which were notably absent, replaced by an ‘onion and garlic family’ of crunchy, undercooked spring onions and leeks.

Obviously the Sanchez-Iglesias brothers don’t approve of carbs. Or fat. Which is praiseworthy and I’m sure they’re the fitter for it but if your customer asks for some bread as we tentatively did, “no I’m sorry we don’t have any” is not a good response. Nor is a powdery, fat-free (I would guess), granola-style topping with undercooked rhubarb going to satisfy someone who spots rhubarb crumble on the menu.

The minimum you can spend on food in Casamia is £45. On a Friday or Saturday night the menu is £68 or £88 - or 88 sterling pounds as they irritatingly put it - with an extra £40 or £55 respectively for an accompanying wine flight. With service, water and coffee that could easily top £250 for two - a lot to pay for a restaurant without views in a suburban shopping parade.

There are similar problems at Menu Gordon Jones, the bizarrely named new restaurant in what looks like a converted estate agent's on the corner of the busy A367 on the outskirts of Bath. Like the Sanchez-Iglesias brothers the eponymous chef has an impressive pedigree (Martin Wishart, Martin Blunos and The Royal Crescent) but only offers a ‘surprise’ no choice 5 course menu. At least it included some delicious and imaginative red cabbage and caraway bread though that appeared to be one of the courses. And the asparagus soup was as good as any I've had. But serving ox cheek and then reverting to fish is a disorienting experience and plays havoc with with your wine choice. And with just one other table (the place only has 14 covers) it lacked any real warmth or atmosphere. Although they only charge £25 for lunch, which is a bargain for the quality of food they offer, I wouldn't go back.

Obviously the economic situation is tough for new start-ups but in their desire to express themselves it’s as if these chefs have lost sight of what a restaurant experience should be. OK, they spring a surprise menu on you at Noma but Noma is Noma with one of the most talented chefs and brigades in the world and the food is not only cutting-edge but delicious.

The main problem is that none of these chefs has grasped the importance of a stylish (though not necessarily expensively fitted-out) interior and a warm and welcoming reception which is what separates successful restaurants from merely good ones. Compare this with the recently opened Dabbous whose eponymous restaurant works like clockwork. Or Ollie Couillaud’s Lawn Bistro in Wimbledon which is casual, friendly but with no lack of culinary fireworks. It's a shame.

What do you think of no choice or surprise menus? And is it fair for restaurants to charge for no-shows - a growing problem for the industry?

Beerd, Bristol - the new face of pubs?

If you were going to open a new business would you send up your potential customers? Calling a beer bar Beerd and - cheekier still - getting your waitresses to wear T shirts with 'beerdy weirdy' on the back seems a high risk strategy akin to calling a new nail salon Chavs. Especially if some of your punters are not noted for their sense of humour.

So, Bath Ales' new opening in Bristol - a craft beer and pizza bar along the lines of the new places that have been opening in London (Brewdog, Craft Bar & Co and Draft House) - is a brave move and one I hope will succeed.


Its audience is obviously going to be very different from the CAMRA crowd. The airy rooms are dotted with brightly coloured tables, the bar sports bright neon hand pumps, lots of bottles and - shock, horror - keg beer. It's a student area - near the university and next to the hospital. Will they be interested in bottles of Scheider Aventinus at £7.95 a pop and small tapa style bowls of padron peppers at £4? I'm not sure.


They should go for the pizzas though our youngest, just out of uni and a pizza aficionado pronounced them underseasoned. I thought they were pretty good myself with a fantastic crust but I think I just chose a more interesting topping (prosciutto, artichoke, olive and mushroom). They were hard to cut on the somewhat slithery plates though and took a fair while to come which I'm guessing could mean a long wait on a busy evening.

Still it was only the first full day's trading and the friendly staff were eager for feedback. Apparently they'll be changing the beers regularly and they obviously know how to serve them, as you'd expect from a brewery-run operation. My half of Thornbrige Jaipur was in very good nick. And it's great to find them available in thirds for tasting as well as halves, two thirds and pints.

An interesting development. Cool beer places serving 'craft beer' rather than 'real ale' are going to be one of the hot trends for 2012, I reckon. Let's see if I'm right.

Lahloo Pantry: a thoroughly modern tearoom

I'd better get the disclaimer out of the way first. Kate and Neil of Lahloo Tea live practically opposite me so I'm hardly likely to diss their new venture, Lahloo Pantry which opened in Bristol yesterday. But having been there at lunchtime today I can honestly say that it's brilliant - an all day café where you can drink really good tea and eat (and this is what worries me) wickedly delicious cake.

It's in a former Asian deli on Kings Road just off Boyces Avenue in Clifton village. Upstairs there's a communal table which would be fabulous for someone coming in on their own to sit and read. Downstairs, a cosy cafe with tables outside when it's fine.


You can have breakfast, lunch or tea so at 12.30 my daughter and I had lunch and breakfast respectively. A perfectly wobbly smoked haddock tart with a range of salads in her case; soft boiled eggs and soldiers in mine. Or soft boiled in theory. The kitchen was struggling with an induction hob which was turning out one egg uncooked and one hard (ironic when they'd produced cakes as perfect as these chai brulée tarts). They may have given up and be serving scrambled eggs by the time you read this.


They will apparently be doing takeaway (takeaway cake!) once the containers arrive (another glitch) and you can, of course, buy one of the very beautiful tins of tea you can see lining the walls.


If you're familiar with smart London cafés like Peyton and Byrne or Konditor and Cook you'll feel quite at home. This is a great addition to the Bristol eating out scene.

Thali Café's Bombay chips

It's become a bit of a ritual to head for our local Thali Café for a takeaway the first night we're back from holiday. The justification being we're too tired to shop and cook and besides, if we've been in France, which we usually have, we've had to survive two weeks without spicy food. And if we order the dairy-free, veggie thali it's healthy, we tell ourselves. Ish.

Unfortunately a new temptation lay in wait. On a sign just by the till, as alluring as the display of sweets by a supermarket checkout - Bombay potato chips.

Well, I had to try them, didn't I? In the interests of research.

And regrettably they were fab. Thinly cut from new potatoes, I would guess, dunked in pakora batter and deep fried they were probably as fattening as family pack of KFC. Good though. Oh-so good. Especially with a fresh coconut raita with (I think) mustard seeds.

And they cost just £1.95, drat them.

Just keep away.

Henry Herbert's Scotch Eggs

Henry Herbert's Scotch eggs are a thing of beauty. Not that you'd know it from this hastily snatched photo while I was interviewing him for my article in the Guardian today. He used to be head chef at the Coach & Horses in Clerkenwell where they were his signature dish.

They are served warm (if you're lucky and get to his Chipping Sodbury butcher's just as he's made them), crisp on the outside with the yolk just the right side of runny, gently oozing into the perfectly spiced sausage casing. I almost wept when I ate mine. Oh, alright, I didn't but it was good. The best Scotch egg I've ever eaten.

Apparently there was quite a buzz about them a year ago when he did a Scotch egg masterclass reported here by Cara of Gourmet Chick.

Henry also makes scrummy-looking pies, (I say looking, because I haven't got round to trying them yet), meatballs, terrines and homemade chicken kievs.


At Ruby & White in Whiteladies Road in Bristol, the other butcher I visited, they make up their own marinades which they sell in little pots for £1. I tried a Moroccan-style lemon and saffron one with a guineafowl I bought from them which was really tasty. If you had to buy the ingredients from scratch you couldn't do it for that price.


They also have lots of cheaper cuts like shin and shortrib, and veal offal such as sweetbreads and kidneys as well as supermarket-style 3 packs for £10 offers. So butchers don't have to be expensive.

With their energy and imagination I hope they'll both succeed. They're making the effort to go the extra mile with late opening hours or, in Henry's case, deliveries so it's up to us locals to use them.

Incidentally there's a great follow-up discussion on Word of Mouth about butchers here.

Adam Denton, co-owner of Ruby & White.

Barley Wood Sticky Toffee Apple Cake

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I rarely get excited about sweet things so they have to be pretty special to inspire a post.

This one is. It's a speciality of The Ethicurean Cafe at Barley Wood Walled Garden in Wrington just outside Bristol. To my mind it's infinitely superior to the original sticky toffee pud which I find far too sweet. It's light and (obviously) appley with a caramelised topping and is served (bliss) with cinnamon infused pouring cream.

So obviously I asked for the recipe.

And obviously they said no.

Apparently it's taken them two years to get it to that stage (2 years! That's worthy of Heston) and they don't intend to reveal the secret of how it's done. Quite rightly, as it means that you have to go down there to get a fix.

There are many other good things on the menu including some rather fancy terrines and soups made with the gorgeous produce in the garden.


I should also declare an interest in that we're having our next Cheese School down there on October 30th which will include learning how to make cheese and matching cheeses with apples and cider from their fabulous orchards. So do sign up if you're free.

Another great Bristol supper club

Last night saw the launch of yet another Bristol supper club, this time run by food stylist and cookery book author Genevieve Taylor of An Egg a Day.


She'd taken Moorish food as her theme and cooked up an amazing feast of grilled meats and salads, spicy empanadillas, labneh and beetroot dips, pistachio meringues and fresh strawberries and - as if we weren't full enough - Portuguese custard tarts to go with a final glass of fresh mint tea (too dark to snap these by that stage).







The weather was a bit iffy so we ended up having it inside with occasional forays into her gorgeous garden which was full of enviably healthy veggies and herbs as well as the 'girls' as Gen calls her hens.



What's interesting is how different supper clubs are - which isn't so surprising when you come to think of it. Montpelier Basement, the one we've been to most regularly, is like an intimate urban bistro. An Egg a Day felt more like a private party. Brilliant food in both cases, though. It's a good way to eat in Bristol.


Gen is thinking of having another supper in September. Follow her blog for dates.

The other side of Stokes Croft

After the riots last month it would be easy to dismiss Bristol's Stokes Croft as a no-go area but yesterday it showed its sunny side in a festival that had everyone out on the streets in the most peaceable possible way.

We went down to check out the Str-eat stalls in the Bear Pit. No, we didn't know what the Bear Pit was either and it seemed uncool to ask but it's the huge recessed paved area in the middle of the St James roundabout in front of Debenhams and the Premier Inn. There wasn't much action around lunchtime (they surface late in those parts) so we drifted up Cheltenham road where people were milling round happily in the sun and ended up at The Runcible Spoon, a new café we'd heard good things about.

It was great. Good sarnies and stuff on toast (I had beef and horseradish, my husband pressed brisket and piccalilli - surely this summer's most ubiquitous pickle? - and some first rate chips that tasted like deep-fried roasties.



It was really well-priced as you can see from the blackboard. (A gin and tonic, should we have fancied one, was just £3. We stuck to cider.)


There was a large wall of graffiti opposite complaining about the new Tesco which provoked all the trouble, urging locals to boycott it. Which seems to me exactly the right way to deal with it rather than smashing windows which hurts the very local traders the protesters claim to be protecting. If you don't like it, don't shop there. Simple. And vote out the councillors who put it there.


Just up the road there's a great vintage clothes and antiques shop and cafe called Cox and Baloney where you can buy pretty teapots and cake. And, hire Babycham glasses, apparently. That too is very Stokes Croft. And very Bristol.

Stappj - the perfect aperitivo

Even wine writers have booze-free days. Correct that. All wine writers should have booze-free days but the dilemma is what to drink at Picpoul (or whatever) o'clock. Which in my case is usually about 7pm when I wind down and think about cooking.

Up to now my favourite drink has been a tonic made in the same style as a G & T - i.e. with loads of ice and a good slice of lemon or lime but tonic always seems slightly sickly without the balancing bitterness of gin. (You can - and I do - add a dash of Angostura bitters but it's not the same)

Anyway the other day my friend Elly, patron of the wonderful Pear Café and underground restaurateur extraordinaire brought along this cute little six pack of a an alcohol-free Italian aperitivo called Stappj Bitter which admittedly sounds more Eastern European than Italian but which is a marvel.

It's a lurid vermilion red which probably owes more to E numbers than nature and tastes remarkably like Campari. Serve it cold in a chilled martini glass with a twist of orange peel and you've got yourself a hell of a cool drink.

It's available in Bristol from Licata in Picton Street and Gloucester Road at the knockdown price of £2.50 for six.

Trealy Farm charcuterie

I used to be a bit sniffy about British charcuterie. It didn't seem quite right - surely only the French and Italians had the centuries-old know-how to do it properly? And for a while all the samples of rather bland British salami and sausage I tasted bore this out.

But there's no reason why we shouldn't do it well - we have great raw materials for a start - and I'm increasingly impressed by the local charcuterie I'm tasting

Last Sunday at the Love Food Spring Festival was a case in point. There was a stall from Monmouthshire-based Trealy Farm including a very tasty venison salami, a brilliant soft chilli-spiked black pudding (for eating cold rather than cooking) and one of the best garlic sausages I've ever tasted - apparently much admired by Raymond Blanc in his recent series. They also won the title of Best UK Food Producer in last year's Observer Food Awards.


I've also had some really authentic French-style country paté recently (ironically from an Italian, Vincent Castellano who sells in Bristol's Wednesday farmers' market). There's also Bath Pig which specialises in chorizo and former chef and forager Andrew Sartain's Wild Food Larder.

Given the charcuterie craze in restaurants and wine bars at the moment they should do well.

A mushroom that tastes like a scallop

We've been eating a lot of mushrooms lately thanks to our enterprising greengrocer Reg the Veg (yes, it is called that). I've been enjoying the blewitts but yesterday we were really blown away by a mushroom I'd never heard of called eryngi.

Apparently it's a type of oyster mushroom which is also known as King Trumpet or French Horn mushroom I discover from Wikipedia. (You do have to hand it to them. They have an instant answer for everything)

They have more flavour than most of the oyster mushrooms I've tasted but, more importantly, a lovely firm texture. I cut them into scallop-shaped rounds, seasoned them and fried them briefly in a little oil and butter and they were absolutely delicious - a brilliant veggie substitute for scallops.

We had them with braised fennel* and buttered spinach*, also from Reg which I have to say is right up there with the best London greengrocers (although they could do with updating their website ;-) If you live in Bristol you should use them.


A creamy fennel purée or creamed spinach would have been even better but I couldn't be bothered to go and buy cream . . .

Hobbs House G-Stone

To be frank, G-Stone sounds more like a sex toy than a loaf but it's my favourite new bread.

Tom Herbert of Hobbs House Bakery brought it along to Cheese School the other night. It's a small but perfectly formed stoneground loaf, moist and malty that's apparently made from - and I quote the website - coarsely ground wholemeal wheat flour, organic cut wheat, sea salt, yeast, planet-friendly organic palm fat (love that!), organic molasses and water. You can see its lovely crumbly texture below and on the slideshow-style pix on their website. It's great with cheese - especially cheddar but I'm enjoying it with honey at breakfast too.


I topped up my supplies in the Better Food Company's new Whiteladies Road store (below) yesterday but you can also buy it on-line as part of a bread selection along with the Hobbs House Shepherds Loaf which Trethowans Dairy uses for its legendary cheese toasties (which I've now worked out how to make at home). Last orders for Christmas are on Wednesday 22nd (I would have thought weather permitting) but you could always buy someone an online gift voucher.


It underlines what a brilliant place Bristol is for bread - the best city outside London I'd have said.

Oh, and apparently the reason it's called G stone is that it was named after a Hobbs House baker, Graham, who helped create it. And the fact that it's shaped like a stone. Quite prosaic really . . .

The brilliant Bristol Cider Shop

Just two weeks before the end of the year I stumbled upon one of my best Bristol finds of 2010, the new Cider Shop on Christmas Steps. And would you believe one of the owners is called Peter Snowman? You couldn’t make it up.

Anyway great story. He and his partner Nick Davis came up with the idea a few months ago when they were sitting drinking cider in The Orchard. They wondered why there wasn’t a cider shop in Bristol, the heart of cider country and with very little knowledge of either cider or retail (Peter worked for the Prince’s Trust, Nick was a tree surgeon) decided to set one up - in the front room of Peter’s cottage.

Amazingly they got a licence and managed to open three weeks after that, stocking bottles from small artisanal producers from within 50 miles of Bristol and a changing selection of cider on draught. All are made from juice rather than concentrate. I tried three: West Croft Cider’s Janet’s Jungle Juice (6.5%) a pure, fresh appley medium dry cider, the crisp dry Wilkins Farmhouse (6%) and a pure fragrant Hecks Blakeney Red perry which were all terrific. Most are under £2 a pint.

You can bring in your own container or buy one from them or buy by the bottle. They’ll deliver larger orders locally for parties and if you’re stuck for a present and live in the Bristol area they even do cider hampers. They should have a fully functioning website early in the New Year. (At the moment they don't even take credit cards! Now remedied - see comment below)

You can keep track of what they're up to on their Facebook page

Dream custard creams from Hart's Bakery

Bristol is already unfairly well-provided with artisan bakeries but here's another one from Laura Hart who used to bake the fantastic bread and cakes at Lido and before that at Q.V. and Bordeaux Quay.

I met her today at the Made in Bristol Craft Fair where she was running a joint pop-up tea and biscuits stall with Kate Gover of Lahloo Tea. She'd baked some amazing-looking mince pies and these delicious heart-shaped custard creams which tasted almost exactly as I remember them when I was a child, only crumblier and slightly less sweet. (Apparently the secret is using Bird's Custard Powder in the filling.)

She also sells her bread, croissants and cakes in Hampton Lane (just off Cotham Hill) from 8am to lunchtime Monday to Friday and normally has a stand outside Planet Pizza in Gloucester Road from 9am to lunchtime on Saturdays.

You can keep tabs on any other outlets via her website www.hartsbakery.co.uk