Your winner has been crowned – and it also serves up ‘Bristol’s best roast’Staff celebrate at The Rose and Crown Pub in Kingswood after winning Bristol Live’s Pub of the Year. (L2R) Rory Burbedge, Grzegorz Nowocien, Christopher Williams, Ben Dossett, Ellie long and Dan Appleby-Walker(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)

Months of nominating and voting has led to the winner of Bristol Live’s Pub of the Year being crowned, beating every other pub in the city – including the 49 others who made it to the final shortlist. Back in June, BristolLive announced it was on the hunt for what Bristolians considered to be the best pub in Bristol.

We wanted to celebrate the finest pubs in our hometown, show our appreciation for our trusted locals and shine a light on some that maybe you may have heard of but never visited – especially in the current climate, with rising costs and other obstacles threatening to wipe out the good ol’ boozer altogether.

By August, after hundreds of nominations, 50 pubs made it to the final shortlist. The list included historic watering holes, quirky venues, country pubs and more.

But with a massive 691 votes, it was the Rose and Crown on Two Mile Hill in Kingswood that fittingly took the, well, crown. The silver medal went to Gloucester Old Spot just off Gloucester Road with 503 votes, while the pub in third place was the Packhorse on Lawrence Hill, with a respectable 156 votes. The Sidney and Eden, also on Gloucester Road, missed out on the bronze medal by just one vote.

On its win, Christopher Williams, one of the owners of the Rose and Crown told BristolLive: “It’s been so lovely to have so much support this year. The pub’s manager, Dan Walker, has been following the voting and has been putting up all these little QR codes to try and drum up voting for us. It’s created a lovely little buzz in the pub. I have an amazing team who all work really hard, so it’s great to see people recognising that.

“It’s really nice for us and also I think for the local people as well, because a lot of coverage of pubs and things that are going on in Bristol is usually all based in the city centre. But there’s still a lot of places in Bristol that are past the M32.

“We’re sort of floating in between Kingswood High Street and St George High Street. There’s no parking around us really, so the pub is definitely more of a pilgrimage spot. You do have to plan your journey, come on foot usually, or be nice and local really.

“We’ve become somewhat of a meeting place for lots of people meeting people halfway between places. We have lots of groups getting together because of that, people hanging out and celebrating birthdays and other things.”

It’s not the first time this Kingswood pub has received such a commendation from BristolLive readers. In October, it was voted as serving up the city’s best Sunday roast too.

The Rose and Crown Pub in Kingswood, Bristol(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)

Christopher is one of two owners of the pub, which has been serving up customers in its current restored state for some three years at time of writing. Christopher, who has spent time working for the Lounges and The White Horse in Hambrook, tells BristolLive that this is the first pub he’s owned. He and his business partner bought the building from Stonegate Brewery after the pandemic.

“It was falling apart,” he says. “There was flooding all under the floors and everything was rotten and it needed a new roof. We were the only people to come and view it that thought this would make a great pub. The rest were people like developers who were thinking more along the lines of turning it into houses and flats.”

After what Christopher calls “a very expensive” refurb, they “rescued the place” and the feedback has continued to be positive with people still discovering the pub to this day. He adds: “We are bringing a little bit of a city centre vibe to the suburbs.

“We’ve decorated the place in quite a modern way, we host drag nights, comedy shows, wine tasting events, fine dining evenings and things like that. We’re trying to bring as much as we can to the locals – we don’t necessarily even make extra money from these events, we simply want to bring something to the community.

The Rose and Crown pub on Two Mile Hill, Bristol(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)

“And I think that winning the best roast dinner title and the Pub of the Year shows all the hard work hopefully paying off and that we are a positive contribution to this community. I’d like to see people fall in love with pubs again and would love for more people to realise that many local pubs are open during the day now, so they don’t need to necessarily go for an expensive coffee in some posh cafe. Pubs aren’t just here in the evenings for us anymore.

“I really hope that in the future we shift towards remembering that we can still visit pubs no matter what time of day or occasion, because they are still here for us and we’d have a sadder community without them.”

The Rose & Crown is described as a ‘stylish, modern pub with a traditional bar and lovely sunny garden’ where children and dogs are welcome, and a restaurant that serves up local food and beers. It boasts a 4.6 star rating on Google, with one previous visitor writing: “All 100% – I absolutely adore this pub. Really nice and you can takes dogs. Best pub by far for miles.”

A second review reads: “Fantastic traditional pub, with beautiful floral baskets and planters outside; who had really friendly staff wearing a smile, a wide selection of both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, and a really great selection of food on the menu, with a real twist on standard pub food… The garden is fantastic, a real little haven and as a bonus, is dog friendly.

“You can even buy really good quality dog treats at the bar, so your dog can enjoy the trip to the pub as well. I highly recommend this lovely pub, and will definitely come back again.”

The restaurant is open seven days a week and, according to the website, there are three menus to peruse – a ‘pub classics’ menu, an ‘a la carte’ menu, and, of course, the drinks selection.

You can find the 2025 BristolLive Pub of the Year at 111 Two Mile Hill Road, BS15 1BH.