Cheap Evenings Out For Hungry People

In this blog post I am going to try and list a selection of places where you can get a deal on your evening out. I don't know about you but I am always looking for a bargain, especially when it comes to going out. Much as I love cooking there is something extra enjoyable about a spontaneous decision to dine out.  So I have gathered a list of places where you can dine out for £10 and under.  Perfect for students looking for tasty food on a budget.

Small Bar, are beer and meat your thing? Is that a stupid question? You can order hotdogs, big meat sandwiches and sides galore, most of which are under £7 hugely filling snacking to go along side the multitude of beers they have in their drinking arsenal.  And if bread and meat are your thing then you can also fare very well at Bagel Boy. These guys, based on St Nicholas Street, offer a huge selection of bagels, I personally recommend any of the ones with salt beef in. These are all easily under £10 and it is open late into the night so you can catch up over a pint and several bagels.

salt beef bagel from Bagel Boy

Or The Clifton pub host a fixed price menu full of comforting food with 2 courses for £10 expect burger, ham egg and chips and macaroni cheese. Likewise The Social on Cheltenham Road, a firm favourite with Bristol, they take special care with vegetarian and vegan menu items so you can be assured you won't feel like a second class citizen when it comes to choosing food. On Mondays after 5pm The Social offers 25% off any item from the dinner menu and a drink. For Winter they are offering lots of comforting food items like roasted meats with seasonal greens designed to centrally heat you for the walk home in the cold.

Fancy some Japanese cuisine but don't want to break the bank? Just look to Yume and Bento Boss. Yume's ramen, katsu and teriyaki dishes all come well below the £10 mark, some cheap enough to squeeze in ordering a side as well. Likewise Bento Boss does a vast selection of ramen, fresh baos and bento boxes for £10 and under you will still be spoiled for choice.

tempura prawn ramen at Yume

sungal pelek village rojak from Bento Boss (chef's hometown specialty)

Feel like pigging out on a burger, there are a number of deals. Racks does 2-4-1 burgers on a Monday evening which work out as £5 each. Start the Bus also offers 2-4-1 burgers, but on Tuesday I recommend the chorizo and grilled halloumi burger but if you're feeling adventurous then they do offer one with pickled onion monster munch and emmental. However you don't have to restrict your visit to just Tuesday the hot dogs, burgers and fried chicken all come in under the £10 mark as it is.  The Aviator on Chandos Road offer a couple of burgers for £8.75 which includes some delicious seasoned chips.

Chomp will do you a burger and fries for £10 and it's one of the best in Bristol.  If you are looking for a quick feed after a couple of drinks then YoYo burger may surprise you, some seriously delicious burgers and a huge menu to choose from, even a wagyu burger.

Start the Bus burger and skin on fries

I am always on the look out for pizza deals, mainly because they are Rich's favourite choice for going out, so Planet Pizza's 2-4-1 on Mondays and Tuesdays between 5-7, is a firm favourite. Super thin bases and generous toppings, the mushroom, walnut, artichoke and blue cheese pizza is one of my favourites. All pizzas at Al Bacio are under £10 I personally recommend their calzone it is huge and the dough is really moreish. Or The Stable for pizza, side salad and a drink from 5pm every Tuesday. In addition Flour & Ash on Gloucester Road will do you two pizzas and two glasses of wine for £20 before 6.30 and they are my favourite pizzas in the whole of Bristol.

Flour & Ash -Chorizo and Pickled Chili

pizza from The Stable

Planet Pizza yumminess

Other bargain dining venues include Mathilda's Chili Bar in the Bear Pit with offers from £6.95 for 3 bean chili or £8.95 for Texan brisket chilli, all served with rice, jalapenos, guacamole and sour cream, perfect for any cold snaps. I also really like Thai Pepper a neat little BYO on Gloucester road with a pretty extensive menu all mains are under £10 and the corkage charge is just a couple of pounds.  

Or for an extra special treat The Ox does a deal Monday-Friday until 7pm, a 6oz rump, fries, sauce and a drink for £12.50.  I am keen to try this myself, it is meant to be the best place for steak in Bristol. So enjoy seeking out frugal dining out in Bristol, these are my personal recommendations, if you have any favourite tips pass them on and I'll add them in. Happy dining! 

Damp Lunchtime at The Stable

Last week I was due to meet up with my mum and Auntie Sue for lunch, and the venue chosen was The Stable. I've heard a lot of things about The Stable since it opened almost a year ago, some good, some bad I was well overdue a visit to make my own mind up. After almost getting blown into the fountains by the high winds I made it windswept to the venue. Thankfully it was delightfully cozy and warm inside I found my family at the only occupied table in the place, near the back.

The Stable has a healthy selection of pizzas to choose from as well as a number of pies in case pizza doesn't float your boat. The Stable offers a smaller lunchtime pizza for £6 with a salad which is what I ended up going for as I am not really one for eating big at lunchtime, it tends to make me very sleepy and seeing as I had to go back to work that was not really the best plan. There are 4 smaller pizzas to choose from, the two that particularly appealed to me, the West Country Porker, topped with Bath Pig Co. chorizo and the Harbour Herbivore which was topped with blue cheese, potatoes, Spanish onions and spinach. In the end I chose the Porker as who can really resist chorizo? Luckily mum picked my other choice so I knew I would be guaranteed a taste.

The main downside to The Stable is it took nearly half an hour for our pizzas to arrive, half an hour in a place this empty, the proof is in the photo I took above I am not sure what took so long maybe they went to Italy to make them for a true authentic taste. However once the pizzas arrived they did look very nice.

The Harbour Herbivore

West Country Porker

How do you feel about potato on a pizza?

Bath Pig Co. Chorizo upclose

Once the pizzas arrived they looked pretty tasty, albeit half covered in a forest of leaves, the bases were nice and thin which is how I liked them and cut very nicely with the giant pizza wheel.  I was impressed by how much thick chorizo that topped my pizza it was really very nice and excellent quality, which is obviously to be expected from the Bath Pig Company.  I did find the base a little over floury but that is just me being picky probably. So pretty good pizzas all round but the best was yet to come. Mum and Auntie Sue decided they needed dessert so ordered the caramelised apple and ginger cheesecake with pecan praline and also a brownie with clotted cream.

apple and ginger cheesecake

My oh my if this wasn't one of the best cheesecakes I've had in years, it pushed all my buttons. The apple and ginger stopped it from being super sickly sweet and the cinnamon, well that will always hit my sweet spot.  I would have been heartbroken if this was just a special, luckily it seems to be on their permanent menu, if you are fan of cheesecake I heartily recommend this one. We were fed pretty well at The Stable it was a good pizza I am interested in trying some of their more crazy combinations, the roast lamb pizza has had very high praise indeed from lots of people on my Twitter feed. The pudding was the star for me however, and I am not a pudding person. To see what else The Stable have to offer, visit their website.