Restaurants / Reviews
No.5 Grill Bar – restaurant review
Restaurants come and go on Denmark Street. The lane alongside the Hippodrome is so reminiscent of London’s Soho you expect to find 24-hour noodles and illicit beer served out of teapots rather than the disappointing parade of average eateries.
No. 5 Grill Bar is the latest opening to try and buck the trend, product of a Gloucestershire-based Lithuanian couple looking to make their mark on Bristol’s competitive foodie scene. The doors have only been open a month and so the tables are empty on a Thursday evening for dinner, as a neon sign flashes in the window and pop remixes play out over the speakers.
The buttered calamari (£4.95) to start from the specials board were in fact battered and served with a green side salad. The portion was generous but the squid rings themselves doughy in texture rather than the light, slightly rubbery texture you’d expect from fresh.
is needed now More than ever
Mains left much more to write home about. The venison steak (£13.50) – which comes direct from a butcher near their Gloucestershire home – was cooked well, even if the generous lashings of sauce might have been better served separately. The mixed grill of lamb and chicken skewers and Greek sheftalia sausages (£11.95), made authentically from pig intestine with a correspondingly gamey flavour, was stand out; morsels of meat still moist inside and perfectly charred out. However the sides of slightly undercooked chips, vinegary mayonnaise and the same salad that comes on every plate left us wondering if it was really worth the price tag.
I really want to like this new venture but it feels at the moment like it’s occupying a lonely no-mans-land between kebab shop and bistro. Hopefully with a little bit of menu tweaking and refocus on the fresh ingredients the chef clearly knows how to handle, No. 5 can show some staying power.
No. 5 Grill Bar
5 Denmark Street, Bristol, BS1 5DQ