Restaurants / Reviews
Box E – restaurant review
Every chef dreams about creating their perfect kitchen and restaurant from scratch. For Elliott Lidstone, that dream is now a reality within two former shipping containers on the site long ago of a former prison.
Box-E is the first proper restaurant to open within the Cargo development in Wapping Wharf, taking up a corner location with room for just 14 seats inside as well as four stools overlooking the open kitchen.
While Elliott is ensconced behind pots and pans, his wife Tess is front of house. And that’s it for now, the pair having relocated from London – where Elliott has previously been head chef in a Michelin starred restaurant – to Tess’ home town of Bristol, putting their life savings into this new business.
is needed now More than ever
Tess’ fellow Backwell School alumna, potter Carmel Eskell, has been commissioned to make the plates and bowls, with other local touches including gin from Psychopomp in Kingsdown, beer from Moor in St Phillip’s and coffee made from Nespresso machine compatible pods from Colonna of Bath.
Every millimetre counted when Elliott and Tess designed Box-E. Remarkably, it doesn’t feel cramped inside at all, with different shaped lights hanging from the ceiling, wooden walls, and three shelves one above the other displaying a choice selection of wine with green, yellow, orange and black joining the usual red, white and sparkling options – with wines by the glass being rotated so they can suit the daily changing seasonal menu.
On Wednesday lunchtime, there were just three starters and three main courses, with more promised soon.
It’s early days here, as it is for Cargo and Wapping Wharf, with a view from Box-E’s windows on Wednesday of their surprisingly spacious terrace still being finished by workmen in blue overalls as down below more cycle stands were being installed.
Arriving as a warm welcome was bread cooked on the premises, already good and going to get even better as the sourdough starter develops. Still hot from the oven, homemade butter flecked with specks of seaweed salt oozed into the loaf.
From the starters, the stand-out choice was the smoked bacon and snails (£6.50). Served in a parsnip soup in one of Eskell’s beautiful bowls, eating it was like a lucky dip at a school summer fair, one spoonful eliciting the smoky bacon, the next the earthy snails.
The other starters were cured salmon, charred cucumber, ras el hanout and yoghurt (£7.50), and heritage beetroot, sesame and goat’s curd (£7).
As a member of staff from Shambarber in a container downstairs popped in to book a table, the main course of hake, braised leeks and autumn truffle (£16) arrived; Elliott previously declaring the truffle from Italy to be among the most beautiful he had ever seen.
Woody truffle flavours were delightfully subtle, with the fish delicately cooked and delightfully seasoned; Elliott then showing his superior skills as an all-round chef with a wonderfully wobbly vanilla and fig leaf panna cotta with caramelised figs and hazelnuts (£6), the only pudding option but one you would pick out again from a choice of a dozen.
The other main courses were onglet (£16.50) and crispy polenta (£14) dishes, with a cheese course of cheddar from Keen’s of Somerset served with marrow and thyme chutney and crackers (£7.)
The dream has now become a reality for Elliott and Tess, with the dishes at Box-E possessing a dreamlike quality. It’s the sort of food remembered long after the final bite in a restaurant that proves once and for all that size doesn’t matter.
Box-E, Unit 10, Cargo, Wapping Wharf, Bristol, BS1 6WP
Read more: Lovett Pies – takeaway/restaurant review
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