New Years Roastings at The Vittoria

New Year New Roast I say. The first Sunday in January we had a table booked at the Vittoria on Whiteladies road to try one of Chris & Jo's roasts. There have been murmurings about how good their food is and so wrapping ourselves up warm we went to meet friends for lunch. For anyone who hasn't been to the Vittoria it is a tiny pub, so booking is always advisable for Sundays. We were given a friendly and warm welcome as we ordered some drinks and browsed the menu.

The most refreshing thing to note is the roasts are all under £10 which these days is almost unheard of. Roasts have got very expensive in the last few years, many places charging £15 and up which I find difficult to swallow at times. The meat is the pricey part, sure, but potatoes and veg as we know are relatively cheap commodities, is it the labour then? What makes a £15 roast better than a £10? Are there any hard and fast rules? We don't really go out for a roast more than a couple of times a year because of this, plus if I make a roast I can eat approximately a billion roast potatoes as opposed to the allocated 3-4 given to me if I go out for one.

Back to the Vittoria. On the menu was chicken, beef, pork and a veggie/vegan option. Each roast has it's own appropriate sauce accompaniment, chicken for example has bread sauce, Chris & Jo are very happy to discuss gluten free options and ingredients as one of our table can attest. I decided to go for the pork belly, definitely a soft spot roast wise, Rich went for chicken. Beth and I decided to share a home made scotch egg to curb our hunger whilst we waited for a roast, at £2.50, it would have been rude not to.

A huge plate piled with an array of roast items arrived in front of us. This was a proper roast plating such as you get at home. There was stuffing, mashed swede, cauliflower cheese, green beans, red cabbage, parsnips plus roasties, a yorkshire and a big slab of pork belly. We tucked into the feast with gusto. There is no doubt that Chris & Jo know how to do a roast. It was tasty and I mean really tasty. All comfort food piled up on a plate. No super fancy presentation, the way most roasts seem to be going, just home cooking that completely hit the spot. Very much recommended, one of the best roasts I've had out in ages. Booking is definitely required but get yourself down there, I wasn't able to eat for the rest of the day which is what I want from my roast.

The secret is already out as Chris & Jo's roasts are already proving pretty popular, I can't wait for my next visit it is the perfect thing to warm you up in the sub zero temperatures we are currently experiencing. To keep up to date with all things Chris & Jo, check out their Twitter feed. 

Christmas at the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer

Happy New Year all, I still have an ounce of Christmas cheer left and I decided to spend it on writing about the Christmas meal we had at the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer. I was tasked, as the resident food fanatic, with organising the Christmas meal and it was a job I took very seriously.  With a very short amount of notice and a short list of favoured restaurants the tastiest option and one I fancied most was the menu for the Navy Volunteer, after a recent renovation this place has become hugely popular. Three courses for £27.50 with amuse bouche and mince pies tacked on the front and back end, plus I'd never eaten here before and had heard a great deal of praise for the food.

The menu had some mouthwatering options such as Salt Marsh lamb with a lavender crust and chocolate tart with an oreo base and peanut butter ice cream. I decided to opt for the goats cheese bon bons on a beetroot risotto, pheasant breast with sausage and sage stuffing and all the trimmings and to top it off an apple, brandy and cinnamon cheese cake for dessert. 

goats cheese bon bons on beetroot risotto

We began with some little canapés a creamy parmesan crisp which melted in the mouth and a fresh anchovy and cavier on a crunchy mini bruschetta. The risotto was beautifully smooth with that little bite you look for in a risotto. The sharpness of the goats cheese was pitched just right, a great starter. It only gave me the appetite for more, which is a good thing.

roasted pheasant with all the trimmings

Served with a shot of red wine jelly I had a feeling that this pheasant dish was going to be something rather special. Pheasant is not something I eat a lot of but I wanted to go for something a bit different from roast beef or lamb and this hit the spot. The sausage and cranberry stuffing was exactly how I like my festive stuffing, meaty and lots of flavour, stuffing should not be just an after thought. The portion of meat was huge and the roasties fluffy and crispy. I could go on about the parsnip pureé and smooth gravy also but I think you get the general idea.  Basically if their Sunday roasts are as good as this was get down to the Navy Volunteer immediately, a genuinely good roast, and I never go out for roasts as I am often very disappointed. 

Apple, Brandy and Cinnamon Cheesecake

In what looked a bit like a sea of beige and olive green the pudding arrived. A whipped apple, cinnamon and brandy cheesecake. This was again very good, quite rich, as all good puddings are. I couldn't taste the brandy much but I didn't mind this was an excellent dessert and a perfect ending to a wonderful meal. 

I don't want to pat myself on the back for booking such a successful work Christmas lunch but I think I do deserve it a little. I cannot wait to take Rich for a roast or dinner here, this pub offers some superb food and the service we experienced was friendly, intuitive and made the meal even more special. If you haven't already been to the Royal Navy Volunteer, what are you waiting for?  To find out what else they have to offer, check out their website.

Sunday Roast at The Townhouse

This year The Townhouse won best Sunday Roast at the Bristol Good Food Awards. I am notoriously picky about my roasts, preferring to make my own or go to my mum for hers. I've only ever had one worth going out for and that was from Bill Butt at The Grapes in Clifton, before the current owners. His 24 hour roast pork with all the trimmings was a proper Sunday treat indeed. I am happy to report that I can add a second venue to my 'worth leaving the house for on a Sunday' list.

Super organised Wuthering Bites had set up our September food blogger meet up at The Townhouse for a Sunday Roast last weekend and we had the whole mezzanine level to ourselves, perfect light for photographing the food, a blogger's primary concern, obviously.

First to arrive, got my priorities...

What is great about the roast at The Townhouse is that you can choose from 4 meats, usually most places only offer two choices, so with all bases covered, and with something for the veggies, everyone is likely to be happy. As far as I know the menu changes every so often, so what's on the website is just a sample and likewise the photo of my menu, will get you drooling but don't get too attached.

We were a group of 12 of hungry food bloggers and food enthusiasts I did feel a slight pang of guilt for the pressure we must have added to the staff at the Townhouse but having heard such great things from a few of our group, I had every faith we would be rewarded greatly. After seeing truffled mushrooms on brioche I decided to go for a starter as well as a main. Regular readers will be familiar with me waxing lyrical about mushroom dishes that have sent me to heaven (see here and here for more details) so my starter choice will be of no real surprise.

Rich went for the Lyme Bay scallops with applewood smoked bacon, black and white pudding, English peas and beans with a cider butter sauce. Not everyone in the group went for starters, with hindsight I almost wished I hadn't because the roast was so massive.

Truffled Mushrooms on Toasted Brioche

Truffled Mushrooms, a closer look

Lyme Bay Scallops with Applewood Smoked Bacon

Scallops with a Cider Butter Sauce

My starter was a delight, the buttery brioche melted in the mouth with the cream, sage and mushrooms giving off growing flavours with each chew. Personally not quite as good as the breakfast truffled mushrooms on toast at Rosemarino but pretty much there, very delicious indeed, I urge you to order this starter if it's on the menu when you go. Rich's scallops were cooked to perfection and the cider butter cut through the richness of the black and white puddings. We had never had white pudding and it was very tasty indeed, complete revelation to me so will be looking out for it on menus eagerly next time I am out and about.

Roast wise I plumped for the roast belly of Devon rose pork which came with Stornaway black pudding and a rhubarb and ginger sauce. Rich was swayed by the truffled bread sauce and white pudding that accompanied the roast chicken. He adores bread sauce, something which I cannot understand at all, and proclaimed this one to be the best he's ever tasted and was only a bit sad that there wasn't more of it.

Roast Pork in Full

Juicy Flavoursome Rolled Pork Belly

Roast Chicken with all the Trimmings

How hungry are you now?

As you can see from the photos they are generous with the portions and I haven't even covered the vegetables yet. Wonderful meat and more importantly for me, being a roast potato nut, these were some of the best I've had. Properly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Check the close up photo below for proof of roast potato nirvana. We got a wonderfully creamy ramekin of cauliflower cheese and some mixed vegetables to share but for a lot of people roasts are all about the Yorkshire pudding. Both Rich and my mum are massive Yorkshire pudding enthusiasts, mum will make a tray of 12 for lunch but her and Rich will have about 5 each leaving one a piece for dad and I, there is no sharing on their watch.

Luckily The Townhouse have solved this conundrum by supplying their roasts with a Yorkshire loaf to share between 4. It is enormous, even Rich could not finish it so I will be interested in how my mum does when we visit there with her. Also very impressed with the service, nothing was too much trouble, even when the table asked for a few extra roasties a couple of small dishes plus crispy bits were brought to us to crunch over, delicious.

A Crunchy Potato Dream

Vegetable Sides

Yorkshire Pudding of Doom

So there you have it, Bristol's best Sunday roast. One course will cost you £12.50 or you can get two for £16 and 3 for £20, which is a great deal considering the high quality of food on offer. There are some non roast items available on the menu, but after seeing what we were given, are you really going to choose anything else? To have a browse at the menu check out their website, they are also pretty active on Twitter so give them a follow @TownHouseBris.

Coming up on the blog, American diner style food from London, dinner at Noa and a trip to Marshfield Ice Cream farm.