Restaurants / Reviews
Quay Street Diner – restaurant review
Eating at Quay Street Diner can present a curious scenario for the customer sat behind its large windows. Time it right and there will appear a gaggle of tourists led by a man wielding an old fashioned megaphone.
They won’t be looking inside this new restaurant but above it: at a mural painted by New York-based graffiti artists Tats Crew at the See No Evil street art festival in 2011.
In a sign of the times, the ground floor of the building back then was Cafe Central, a greasy spoon that later transformed into community cafe and bike workshop Roll for the Soul that sadly closed at the end of last year.
is needed now More than ever
While its most previous incarnation was somewhat rough and ready but still had bags of character, plenty of money looks like it has been splashed on Quay Street Diner to make it look very of the moment.
Propping up the bar at Quay Street Diner
There are white tiles behind the bar, the small kitchen separated from the dining room by frosted windows, and long red leather banquettes.
Plenty of pot plants are dotted around, with a splash of colour coming from a collection of vintage surfing posters that have replaced the cycling paraphernalia.
Brunch here includes the likes of baked Mexican eggs with tomato salsa, feta and sourdough (£7); and smoked salmon, dill and hollandaise sauce on rye bread (£9); while baked beans on toast for £6.50 would cause the custodians of the former Cafe Central to raise an eyebrow.
The all-day menu is divided into tacos, mains and small plates. On Saturday, we enjoyed a variety of the small plates including padron peppers with smoked salt (£4), grilled courgettes with salsa verde (£3.50) and thick-cut smokey bacon (£3).
The team here specialise in cooking over a charcoal grill, and the small plates all have a pleasingly smoky flavour.
The stand-out steak
But the star of the show was a rib-eye steak for £19, served with fries, grilled tomatoes still on the vine and a peppercorn sauce.
Ambitiously priced (but like all the food here on opening weekend 50 per cent off), it was nevertheless cooked perfectly medium rare as requested and was as good as you could get in many of Bristol’s top steak restaurants.
One misfire, however, was a cheeseburger taco. Yes, a cheeseburger taco. With avocado, pico de gallo and what looked like a smashed-up beef patty, it wasn’t bad but still a disservice to what could otherwise have been a good cheeseburger or a good taco.
With prompt, friendly and attentive service, Quay Street Diner is an impressive new opening; another chapter in the changing fortunes of a corner of Bristol now on the tourist trail.
Quay Street Diner, 2 Quay Street, Bristol, BS1 2JL
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