The Ivy Clifton Brasserie – restaurant review

There were a few glances left and right from people enjoying their breakfast at The Ivy Clifton Brasserie on Tuesday morning.

Bristol’s most anticipated new restaurant opening of the year has been serving food for a fortnight to friends, family, local residents and assorted local celebs off the telly at last week’s launch party – but it’s now officially open for paying customers.

And it has already become a place to see and be seen. At breakfast, tables of well-dressed Clifton ladies sit next to family groups as staff in pristine black, white and racing green uniforms bustle about efficiently.

Offered a choice of newspapers, I chose The Telegraph – it seemed the most apt broadsheet – and promptly ignored a front page story about how swapping processed meats with beans or nuts can reduce the risk of early death by a third, by ordering a full English (£13.50).

There was smoked streaky bacon, Cumberland herbed sausages, fried eggs, black pudding, roast plum tomatoes, grilled flat mushrooms and baked beans in a miniature saucepan.

It was very good indeed – other than the tomatoes having spent just a little too long under the heat – and a plate of exactly what the Torygraph warned against.

But to counter this artery blocker, I also had a selection of pastries (£4.75), still warm, served on a two-tiered stand, with butter, strawberry jam and apricot jam on the top layer – a tantalising glimpse of afternoon tea served from 3pm to 5pm daily which can set you back £25.95 for the champagne version.

It was washed down by a ‘vanilla shakerato’ (£4) which was an espresso shaken with ice served in a martini glass with three coffee beans nestling on top of the foam, just the kind of decadence one might expect from The Ivy.

Except this isn’t a Bristol outpost of The Ivy, the Soho restaurant that has become a byword for celebrity glamour.

Oh no, this is The Ivy Clifton Brasserie as not one but two PR people told me in the run-up to its opening. That means it’s not replicating The Ivy but is a distinct new Brasserie brand, the second after The Ivy Kensington Brasserie.

It’s large enough for visitors to be offered a tour. As well as the main dining room, with a double-height ceiling and a huge central column that could have come from the Parthenon, there are two private dining rooms, the Eastern and the Western.

What guests will not see is behind one set of double doors near the entrance which contains a cash machine still in operation – a reminder that this building used to be a NatWest bank. (A further reminder is the huge bank vault doors in the basement that you walk through on the way to the toilets.)

As a couple of the building team sat on a corner table next to me talk about the last few remaining snags – toilet seat hinges and door stops – a glance up reveals artwork across the walls including a huge reproduction of an early design for the Clifton Suspension Bridge featuring lions on top of columns on either side of the Avon Gorge.

Underneath this is the entrance to the orangery, which at lunchtime was filling up with diners, the luckiest on leather sofas and seats overlooking a small garden.

There is no dress code here, but a suit or at least a jacket seems to be the order of the day for gentlemen, with ladies’ dresses as colourful as the paintings on the walls of planes, trains, automobiles and hot air balloons.

Off the set menu (£16.50 for two courses, £21 for three courses), a minute steak was beautifully chargrilled, slathered in garlic butter and accompanied by thick cut chips.

Other options included crab salad or honey baked ham for starters, while a seasonal risotto and roasted fillet of salmon were the pick of the main courses.

From the a la carte menu, Clifton’s high rollers can enjoy a grilled whole lobster for £34 or a 12oz rib-eye steak for £26.50, perhaps accompanied by a bottle of the Corton-Charlemagne 2013 white or Chateau La Lagune red, yours for £200 each. There are also three bottles of champagne even more expensive than that.

Back to the set menu, and a crème brûlée was a stone cold classic of the genre. Served in a larger and flatter saucepan than the baked beans for breakfast, it required just the lightest of touches of the spoon for the caramel to crack, revealing a delectably creamy custard interior.

The Ivy Clifton Brasserie has landed in Bristol with a bang as if from another planet. It really could only have appeared here in Clifton Village – The Ivy Bedminster Brasserie just doesn’t have the same ring to it – and will no doubt take some trade away from nearby restaurants like Côte.

The attentive service is of the standard you would expect in a top hotel, with food of the highest order at high prices, and fixtures and fittings to match.

Cliftonites seem to have already adopted this restaurant as their own and there is no doubt it will become a destination within the South West. The Ivy name certainly has pulling power.

But its other-worldliness will also be off-putting for some, and only time will tell if this luxurious new arrival will be able to pack in the punters to justify The Ivy owners’ decision to choose Bristol as their first UK outpost outside the capital.

Look left and look right, smile politely at somebody you know, and give thanks that your wallet can afford to eat out at Bristol’s glitziest new restaurant. You might even see someone you recognise off the telly.

The Ivy Clifton Brasserie, 42-44 Caledonia Place, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4DN
0117 203 4555

www.theivycliftonbrasserie.com

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