Gas & Co… distinctly average

Gas & Co took over the premises of what was Sarsaparilla and Henry Africa’s (twice over) on Whiteladies Road almost a year ago promising an authentic American smokehouse experience. From feedback on Tripadvisor and their own Facebook page, it would seem that many of their customers disagreed and the reports of terrible service and bad food put me off going but today I was invited out to lunch so thought I’d give it a try.

My first impression was that it was so empty. Working on Whiteladies Road, I often frequent the various restaurants and cafes scattered along the strip from Clifton Downs Shopping Centre to the BBC and from Las Iguanas to Brew Cafe, they are usually bustling with activity so I was quite surprised that my dining companion, Ben and I were the only ones in there. And then I discovered why.

There is no lunchtime deal. Other restaurants such as Brace and Browns have their set menu or 3 tapas for £10, the Townhouse has 3 courses for £10, the Burger joint has a lunchtime deal for under a tenner… Can you see where I’m going with this?

The offer they were running was 2 for 1 burgers, but if like me, you don’t want a burger then you have to pay a la carte prices which start at £8 for a hot dog or plain burger but if you want anything more extravagant or something from the smoker – you’re looking at an average of £14 which is expensive considering the great deals to be had everywhere else.

They were also out of veggie burgers, porterhouse steak, short beef ribs and curiously, peanut butter milkshakes. This would suggest to me that the veggie burgers are not made in-house and that they don’t source their beef locally considering that Ruby & White is just up the road from them. And assuming that their basis for all milkshakes is vanilla milkshake and milk, I’m puzzled as to why they couldn’t stretch to the addition of peanut butter.

As it is supposed to be a smokehouse, I thought I’d order something from the smoker and went for a half rack of ribs served with sides of chips, slaw and beans. Ben ordered a Double Pork burger that came with bacon and pulled pork (the 2 for 1 offer still stood even though only one of us was having one so he ordered a cheese and smoked bacon to take away with him afterwards). His burger came with chips and slaw. This presented me with my first issue. Surely you would want French fries with your burger, not chunky chips more suited to a steak or a hunk of battered fish?

The food was nicely presented and Ben’s burger did looked great, it had a huge stack of pulled pork and the bun sounded the right side of crisp as he sliced through it although it wasn’t robust enough to take the amount of pork and although he did an admirable job of eating it neatly, I’m sure I would have needed a knife, fork and copious amounts of napkins.

My dish was ok – a decent portion of ribs covered in a sticky sauce with the promised chips, slaw and beans. Again, I wish I had French fries but the chips were very nicely cooked. I wasn’t too enamoured with the ‘slaw’ – it tasted pretty strongly of onion and had obviously sat in the mayo dressing as it was quite watery and limp but weirdly there were grains of mustard seed through it which didn’t add much to the overall flavour. It reminded me of coleslaw you get in places like KFC – mass produced and bought in. And with it being the season of cabbages, brassicas and carrots, there’s just no excuse for a bad coleslaw.

The smoked beans were quite unusual but not altogether unpleasant. I’m not a great aficionado of beans – I hardly ever touch the baked variety but with chunks of celery and carrot running through and with a slight smokiness about them, they were fine but too big a portion for me to finish.

On to the ribs. I wanted to like them. I truly did. I adore ribs and will happily gnaw my way through an entire rack of them until I’m covered with sauce and have bits of meat between my teeth but I just wasn’t into these ones. I had expected the meat to be falling off the bone but they were overcooked and tough with no hint of a smoky flavour. The sauce was an average barbecue sauce that tasted like a lot of bottled sauces I’d bought over the years. If you’re eating ribs, you want that sauce to be heavily vinegared, spicy and moreish. This just wasn’t.

Considering I thought that the meal was going to be terrible, it was better than I expected but I wouldn’t rank it more than OK and it was very expensive for what you got. And although unconfirmed, I have my suspicions that many of their products are bought in rather than made in-house. If they are made on the premises than the chef really needs to learn how to season and taste his food. While I wouldn’t run back there tomorrow, I hope that they work on improving the food. American inspired restaurants are popping up all over Bristol – Grillstock, Spitfire and the Urban Standard to name but a few and all of them are focusing on using the best meat they can get their hands on as well as amazing sauces and sides to give their menu that added je ne sais quoi.

I can only advise Gas & Co to get with the programme, check out the competition and to stop aspiring to just be average.

A letdown of a lunch at the Cowshed

It’s quite rare I write a bad review – a mediocre one maybe, but rarely a bad one. In fact, it’s quite rare that a restaurant makes me feel angry but one managed to today. The culprit? The Cowshed on Whiteladies Road.

It started off as a lovely proposition – a dog walk and then Sunday lunch but as I rang round some old favourites to make a reservation, it was obvious that lots of other people had the same idea and everywhere was fully booked. I eventually called the Cowshed and they did have space so I promptly booked in – I hadn’t been there for Sunday lunch for a long time but we often partake in the weekday lunchtime deal so thought it would be great.

We were seated and drinks were ordered and quickly brought to our table. My dining companion, Caleb and I both wanted the roasted pork belly but when we went to order it, we were told that they had run out so I went for the roasted sirloin and Caleb ordered the lamb which came two ways.

We waited over half an hour for our meal and the table of two next to us who were sat after us and had ordered after us were served first. The restaurant was busy-ish but certainly wasn’t full (we were seated in the newer extended part) and there was no apology for the food coming late. When I had ordered the beef, the waiter asked if I was all right with it rare. ‘Yes!’ I enthused. What came was most certainly not rare. It was pretty close to well done and dry around the edges. In fact it looked like meat that had sat under the hot lamps for too long. Pretty disappointing. The sides weren’t very impressive – certainly not something worth waiting such a long time for. The Savoy cabbage was shredded and boiled but served with no butter or seasoning and was rather plain. The carrot and swede mash was watery and overly purified (“I do have teeth,” was the verdict from Caleb) but the cauliflower cheese looked good and the roast potatoes were golden and crispy.

I really wasn’t happy with the beef at all so I asked a waitress if I could have some prerequisite rare slices to which she agreed to. Caleb’s saddle of lamb was very fatty and the thin slice of rolled breast still had its string round it which wasn’t very appetising.

My beef didn’t come. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Caleb was feeling quite ill (no reflection on the food or the restaurant, I might add) so we called yet another waiter over to explain the beef situation and that it still hadn’t come and we wanted to go. The waitress who had dealt with me before came over and said that the beef was coming and that the kitchen had to carve more. Not very satisfactory considering how long we had to wait in the first place and made even worse that while we were waiting for my replacement beef, we had clocked other dishes of roast beef coming out of the kitchen. And how long does it really take to carve a couple of slices?

As the side dishes were now cold, we decided to cut our losses and go. The waiter packaged up the remaining food and they were good enough to knock one of the meals and the drinks off the bill but we were still very disappointed with our lunch. £15.50 for one course is one of the more expensive roast lunches in Bristol and it hardly seems good value for money considering the competition on Whiteladies Road with the Townhouse and Brace & Browns

It’s such a shame that the quality of customer service and execution in the kitchen lets them down considering that the restaurant occupies such a lovely space and has a local source of fantastic meat from Ruby & White’s next door. The Cowshed’s ethos of ‘simple things, done well’ was not evident at lunch today and with many other establishments in the local area, I won’t be returning in a hurry.

Brace & Brown’s Sunday Lunch

I’m a big fan of Brace & Brown’s on Whiteladies Road. I tend to go there for after work drinks or weekday lunches as it is a stone’s throw from my office. I love their English take on tapas with dishes ranging from mini casseroles heaving with honey roasted root veg to burger buns loaded with pulled pork and caramelised onion chutney but it’s quite rare that I go there for a Sunday lunch. I’ve always enjoyed it on the occasions I’ve been but as they have just recently won Best Sunday Lunch at the Bristol Good Food Awards I thought I’d better give it another try to see if they had changed anything. I went with my husband and our friend from the Big Smoke and we were mightily impressed.

We were asked to choose from a selection that included roasted Sirloin, leg of lamb and pork belly (nut roast for the vegetarians) and were astounded by what came out of the kitchen.

They say a picture paints a thousand words so feast your eyes on this little beauty and let it all sink in….

Sunday Lunch board

We were presented with the most fabulously rare roast beef and the most tender, melt in the mouth belly of pork. Under this cacophony of meat sat crisp (yes, people – crisp!) roast potatoes, parsnips and hunks of sticky, caramelised sweet potato. We had ramekins of mange tout; baby corn; French beans; cabbage and garlic; broccoli with smoked cheese and a gigantic Yorkshire pudding each. There was a bag filled with home-made parsnip crisps which were so delicate and moreish. We also had enough gravy to flood a small village but most importantly, it was served in its own enamel jug. I dislike restaurants who swamp their dishes in gravy – it makes me think that they’ve either got something to hide by way of quality or taste of the meat or they use it to keep their food warm. But honestly, who likes a roast potato that’s completely soggy from having sat in a puddle of gravy? And, let’s face it, some people just don’t like gravy (I don’t know who these people are but I’m assured they exist).

We couldn’t finish our meal, even though it was crazily delicious but there’s a reason they won Best Sunday Lunch and as far as I’m concerned it was more than justified. We’re returning in a couple of weekends time (with the knowledge to starve ourselves beforehand!)  and I’m looking forward to it already…