River Cottage Canteen Bristol

Oh, dear... another expensive celebrity confirmed to tear. Visit for lunch in mid-December for my birthday. The restaurant and ambience were nice and friendly, although our waitress was very nervous due to the expectation of complaints. The star of show food) was mediocre to say the least. I mean, the salmon starter had no taste, how can fresh salmon be tasteless? And the basics of warm food on cold plates??? Had better meals on the harvester. Anyway, you can't waste time discussing the River Cottage Canteen Bristol, as life is too short.

In short, the restaurant seemed critically underoccupied, expensive and a bad reason for the price of meal. While the staff was polite, I felt largely ignored by them in the waiting period between order and delivery, which was an unbearable hour and half. In order to add salt to the wounds, they have relied on bread that I had asked for my main course during waiting. What gave my preventive presumption, I expected to be offered if not released. That's why I'd rather go to the Kebab shop over the street than to step forward in this restaurant.

After we had a fabulous meal at the Winchester River House, we really looked forward to the Bristol Restaurant. The building and the staff were nice, but the menu and the food were overwhelming.

Lovely layout, staff were friendly and food was delicious. However a full priced main meal comes with NO sides! Sides are FAR TOO OVERPRICED! £3-4 for the tiniest portion of potato wedges, or a fork-full of beans, etc. Staff were slow and needed hurrying up frequently. I arranged a surprise cake and did a run through with staff, later to have desert menus dished out instead. Staff were friendly though. The River Cottage Canteen has some superb tasting food and great ambiance but the overpriced underwhelming sides were a huge disappoint. Double the portions or include some in the price of the mains and I'll come back.

River Cottage has become a regular eating venue for us, from an occasional lunch to a group dinner in the private dining room. The combination of ingredients is always interesting without being fussy and pretentious, and beautifully prepared. Today I was taking to lunch someone I had never met before but who happened to have done me an amazingly generous anonymous service. Our meal was the perfect accompaniment to a long and interesting conversation.