Photograph © riverstation.

Today we had Sunday lunch at riverstation in Bristol with Dave’s friend John and his blushing bride-to-be, Rosie. Having been there before and thoroughly enjoyed both food and atmosphere, we were looking forward to a fabulous lunch.

Alas, it didn’t quite go to plan.

I’d reserved a table downstairs in the bar+kitchen for us as it was supposed to be wheelchair accessible–there is no lift at riverstation, so the restaurant menu will be served downstairs in these situations–and I’m really not sure how two-steps down constitutes wheelchair accessible, but there you go. It was a good thing that Rosie was having a good day and could manage without her chair. Still, we had a nice table overlooking the river which kept Lucas happily occupied by boat-spotting for most of the meal.

The restaurant was busy with families having brunch as well as the proper Sunday lunch crowd, so I could put up with a modicum of slow service due to that. It took about 15 minutes for our food and drink orders to be taken, which is verging upon excessively slow.

Our starters arrived about an hour later which was appalling. A senior waiter did come downstairs to explain to us that due to printer problems our check didn’t go up in the kitchen, but I would have expected the staff to have noticed long before then that we hadn’t had our starters, even though we were being awkward and ordering from the restaurant menu while sitting in the bar+kitchen. By this point, I’m ashamed to say, we’d resorted to stealing sharing the snacks that Lucas had brought in his backpack.

My risotto of broad beans and mascarpone with sauteed girolle mushrooms was disappointing. It was under-seasoned and was so dry that it might as well have been a pilaf. I suspect that the chef was very rushed and forgot (a) the seasoning and (b) the mascarpone that should have been added. The broad beans were surprisingly good though, despite their incredible size. In all honesty, I should have sent it back, but I was so grateful to see food that I would have eaten anything.

Dave’s warm salad of baby chorizo, potato, spinach and a soft poached egg was executed very well on the other hand. The tiny chorizo sausages were packed with flavour and as the potatoes had been bathing in all the lovely oily juices they were equally flavoursome. The poached egg was apparently perfect, too. No wonder Lucas turned up his nose as my starter in favour of Daddy’s…

The main courses arrived much more swiftly than the starters to our relief. Dave and John both had the rare roast topside of beef, roast potatoes, beetroot and red wine jus while Rosie and I both opted for the roast lamb leg ‘noisette’ with marinated arroccina beans with red chard and salsa verde. My lamb was perfectly cooked. So succulent and beautifully pink in the middle. The marinated arroccina beans turned out to be posh baked beans–we think that arroccina is probably haricot beans but mistranslated into Italian–which were a huge hit with Lucas. He feasted upon my beans and Dave’s beef, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. My red chard–the main reason I chose the dish–was interesting and tasty. The leaf part was very similar to spinach but the stalk was more bitter. I quite liked it, especially as it was dressed with plenty of garlic, and I’m tempted to plant some chard next year if I ever get my proper veg patch going.

Due to the earlier problems with the starters, our waiter informed us that puddings were on the house which was a nice way of making things up to us. Three of us opted for the chocolate St Emilion, creme fraiche and red fruit coulis and Dave had the baked American cheesecake with passion fruit sauce. Alas, the waiter came back a few minutes later, full of apologies, and said that the St Emilion was sold out. Much woe. Instead he offered us a chocolate terrine which was similar in texture. Having never had a St Emilion, I have no idea if this was an accurate description, however the terrine was darkly delicious. Its texture was very dense and perhaps a little bit more solid than the clotted cream that I asked for my slice to be served with. A lot of very good chocolate was used to make this terrine and Lucas and I were very happy with it. Oh yes, our junior foodie was all over the terrine. Daddy’s cheesecake was all very nice, but his eyes were firmly fixed on all three slices of terrine. All grumbling and fidgeting stopped–it was a very long lunch for such a little boy–as he shared my terrine and by the time we were done he was wearing a big, chocolatey grin. Bye-bye chocolate, he said as I scraped my plate clean.

Due to the service problems our lunch took over three hours. The last time I spent so long over lunch was at Gordon Ramsay’s and that was the tasting menu. I even caught Dave pointing out to John and Rosie that it took me less time to give birth to Lucas (and he was huge)!

All in all, the majority of the food was excellent… when it eventually arrived. And comping us dessert was a good step in the direction of making things right, but I find myself feeling really let down by riverstation. I even caught myself apologising for the restaurant mid-way through the meal, which I think goes some way to show how much I liked it on our previous visit. Now I just have to decide whether to give them another chance…

riverstation
The Grove
Bristol
BS1 4RB

Reservations : 0117 9144434