Smoked Duck Breast
The River Grille

The River Grille

Prince Street Narrow Key Bristol, BS1 4QF, BS1 4PS, United Kingdom

Beer • Wine • Seafood • British


"It was ok over all. The starters were superb, really good. The main courses were amazingly ordinary and disappointing. My steak was a medium rare fillet. It was accurately medium rare but strangely dry , almost as if it had been sitting under a heat lamp and it had very little flavour. I had a lemon meringue pie where meringue was wet and sloppy and the pastry was as if ready cooked from a supermarket. My companion had a slow cooked lamb shank which is usually an easy winner but again it was dry with a sauce which had been poured over it and then congealed. . A slow cooked lamb shank usually has the wonderful juices in which it has slowly come to fruition. The food came with minimal vegetables . Side dishes were ostentatiously expensive. As is the whole menu. We paid £180 for three people including the tip. Enough for a bargain weekend away somewhere. As a family we have dined in some amazing restaurants and understand the costs involved at times and pay willingly when the experience is special. But the whole way through this meal it was short of great. The waiters were friendly and attentive but far too eager to top up your wine glass. It became a nuisance and a pressure. Half a glass does not need topping up to the brim. To top things off for me I went to the ladies at 10.35 at the end of our meal . There is only one toilet for the whole restaurant. There was a cleaning person in the loo. spraying the most toxic and pungent fumes. Having entered this airless cubicle, two lungs full of Izal or what ever chemical obliterated all memory of the meal and the wine. At 10.35? The inference also being that I was not required on the premises any longer. The Maitr d' was charming and as friendly and helpful as he could be. 5 stars for him! The situation was lovely and we had a table by the window. However the experience did not in any measure add up to the lush advertisement online and was very very expensive at the price."

The Willy Wicket

The Willy Wicket

Badminton Road, Downend Bristol, BS36 1DP, BS16 6RW, United Kingdom

Pubs • Steak • Pizza • Seafood


"We 've had really good visits to the Willy Wicket in the past but the most recent visit was a major disappointment. Arrived at noon for lunch on a weekday but staff were not ready to receive guests and we had to ask to be seated. When I asked about the lunchtime menu which was advertised online, staff were unable to locate or produce a paper menu for us to look at. Food for 3 people took over 40min to arrive and only after we enquired about it. We were the first table to order that lunchtime but another table was served before us. When I queried this, the supervisor was very abrupt in her response and said this was because we had ordered a steak (I didn 't think it took that long to cook a steak, even a well-done one! . She seemed to imply that the delay was our own fault for ordering the steak in the first place but none of the staff had made it clear that the steak would take that long to cook. We had intended to stay for dessert but after being given dessert menus, nobody came back to take our orders so we ended up leaving after paying at the bar (again because there was nobody around to ask for the bill . The supervisor studiously avoided us for the rest of our visit and did not check back in with us at any point afterwards. I submitted a complaint after the visit but there was no apology forthcoming or reassurance that the issues I highlighted would be addressed, only a voucher for £10 which felt a bit like a 'payoff ' to keep me quiet. £10 barely covers the price of one main meal! I don 't think we 'll be back again in the future given our recent experience which is a shame because previous visits have been lovely especially when Charlotte and her team were waiting tables."