1 York Place, Bristol: ‘Does the job beautifully’

1 York Place, Bristol: ‘Does the job beautifully’ – restaurant review

The eclectic menu here wanders right across Europe – but diners will want to stay right where they are1 York Place, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1AH. Snacks and starters £5– £14.50, mains £26.50-£30.50, desserts £5.50-£10.50, set-price three-course menu £29.50, wines from £30There’s a cold television-drama rain in Bristol today: the kind of aggressive downpour that special effects teams use for gloomy crime-show night shoots so that it reads on camera, but that never happens in real life. Except it’s happening today, up here in these cream and stucco streets on the edge of Clifton. The sky is the colour of a battleship, the gutters are overflowing and nobody is walking. They are running. Now I am running, too, from a cab to the refuge that is 1 York Place. The picture windows are illuminated by warm orange lamps that act as a beacon against this lunchtime’s early evening light and the dining room is dressed in gentle Scandi shades of oatmeal. There are dried wild grasses attached to the walls, which serve to emphasise just what an escape from the storm this space will be. Continue reading...

1 York Place , Clifton, Bristol BS8 1AH. Snacks and starters £5– £14.50, mains £26.

50-£30.50, desserts £5.50-£10.

50, set-price three-course menu £29.50, wines from £30 There’s a cold television-drama rain in Bristol today: the kind of aggressive downpour that special effects teams use for gloomy crime-show night shoots so that it reads on camera, but that never happens in real life. Except it’s happening today, up here in these cream and stucco streets on the edge of Clifton.

The sky is the colour of a battleship, the gutters are overflowing and nobody is walking. They are running. Now I am running, too, from a cab to the refuge that is 1 York Place.

The picture windows are illuminated by warm orange lamps that act as a beacon against this lunchtime’s early evening light and the dining room is dressed in gentle Scandi shades of oatmeal. There are dried wild grasses attached to the walls, which serve to emphasise just what an escape from the storm this space will be. All good restaurants serve as a refuge; as a redoubt against the tiresome demands of life, work or, as today, the weather.

1 York Place, the latest Bristol restaurant from chef Freddy Bird, does the job beautifully. I first tried his cooking in 2010 at the Bristol Lido , the best-catered swimming pool in Britain. His food there was what you’d treat yourself to after a brisk 50 lengths, or perhaps after watching someone else complete them: wood-roasted fish or lamb, fat ravioli filled with long-br.