Evening Post Review
Food and drink: 9 / 10.
Service: 9 / 10.
Atmosphere: 8 / 10.
Value for money: 8 / 10.
Owned by Adam Denton, The Cowshed is an immediately inviting place with flagstone floors, exposed stone walls and chunky wooden tables, some of which have been fashioned into butchers’ blocks. It feels like a Cotswold pub that has been transported brick by brick to Clifton. The concept here is bring the English countryside to the city so it’s all about the provenance of the meat and fish being served up.
Staff are well versed in telling customers exactly where the steaks come from, how long they have been aged and how many GCSEs the cow has. Short of bringing the cow’s ear tag and medical notes to the table, a plate of steaks and different cuts are shown to diners at the table and it’s a nice bit of theatre.
In the evening, there are three different steaks on offer – all free-range and dry-aged for 28 days – starting with the 8oz rib-eye tail steak (£13.50), moving up to the 8oz sirloin at £15.50 and the 6oz fillet steak (£16.70). Sauces and side dishes are extra.
And then there’s the pot-roast Cotswold White Chicken (£7.10), the lamb cushion leg steak (£11) and the fish of the day, which changes depending on the market.
We popped in for lunch which has a different menu to the evening but one that is excellent value at £10 for three courses.
There are lots of places offering lunch for similar prices but not using ingredients of this quality, and it was no surprise the place was doing a roaring trade on Tuesday lunchtime when most restaurateurs were watching tumbleweed blowing past their windows.
Starters at the Cowshed come in the shape of tapas-sized “small plates” which are all the rage in fashionable London eateries at the moment. This meant we had a parade of bite-size nibbles to munch on before our main courses arrived and they were all enjoyable.
There was a light and fresh pile of potted crab (without the butter lid), a bouncy and well-dressed salad of rocket, smoked almonds and grilled artichokes, a deliciously piggy echine of porc (charcuterie made by curing part of a pig’s neck), rosy red smoked duck with blue cheese and plum relish and thick slices of rare roast rib of beef with gherkins. All simple stuff, skilfully executed.
And then came the main courses, nearly all of them served in the sort of blue-rimmed white enamel dishes you last saw when you went camping with your parents.
There was a juicy steak and thyme-infused gravy pie topped with a faultless shortcrust pastry lid, and a separate bowl of creamed Savoy cabbage liberally seasoned with salt and white pepper.
And then there was a mixed grill featuring a plump pork sausage, a ridiculously tender lamb chop, a thick slice of bacon and a piece of steak, served with a bowl of stiff, buttery mash. A small rump steak was medium rare as requested and served with piping hot, salty chips. The meat had bags of flavour.
Yet despite all of this excellent meat, one of the star turns was the caramelised onion, cheese and potato pie (also available in the evening) which was one of those comforting, farmhouse kitchen dishes that costs pence to make but which had all four of us fighting over. Beautifully presented in a dinky enamel dish with layers of crisp, golden potato like a lamb hot pot, the filling was a mixture of sweet onions, tangy Gruyere cheese and potato.
We finished with an unctuous chocolate marquise served with slices of orange and a light caramel sauce and hot, straight-from-the-oven madeleines which had been flavoured with honey and spice and served with lemon curd. They were the best madeleines I’ve had since Richard Corrigan’s Lindsay House in London and better than those I had at St John .
With a few glasses of wine from a decent list, our bill for four hungry people barely dented the £60 mark which seemed remarkable value.
Owner Adam’s first restaurant feels like it has been open for years thanks to the chef’s wealth of experience in London s best kitchens. It’s a formidable partnership and one that deserves to quickly establish itself as one of Bristol’s must-visit new openings. I genuinely can’t wait to go back… as soon as my waistband allows me.
MARK TAYLOR
Crackerjack
Bristol Evening Post