{"id":293510,"date":"2025-07-26T14:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T14:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293510\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T14:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T14:37:20","slug":"i-tried-bristols-best-restaurant-and-was-blown-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293510\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I tried Bristol’s best restaurant and was blown away’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I certainly had one of the best meals I have had this year so far\"Estel<\/p>\n

Estel is a Content Editor for Bristol Live. She joined Bristol Live in December 2019 after working at WalesOnline. She was a finalist at the 2019’s Regional Press Awards as well as the 2019’s and 2020’s Wales Media Awards. Born in Barcelona, Estel loves the countryside, yoga and a good bath.<\/p>\n

(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

I am extremely lucky that, as part of my job, I get to try Bristol’s restaurants. And, sometimes, you feel even luckier than other times – that was certainly the case last week when I visited an Italian restaurant in the inner-city.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Bianchis, along York Road, in Montpelier<\/a>, was crowned Bristol’s best restaurant by readers <\/a>at BristolLive. The Italian restaurant took the top spot after receiving a total of 1,185 votes – so I was very excited to be invited to try this restaurant, which has been on my to-visit list for some time.<\/p>\n

Booking the table for 7pm on a Friday, pretty much straight away I knew we would be having a memorable meal; we were greeted by Gaia, the restaurant’s manager, with a glass of fizz. We were lucky enough to have her as our waitress for the meal, as she certainly knows the food offering well and isn’t afraid to give recommendations.<\/p>\n

Bianchis is a restaurant on the smaller side, having an intimate atmosphere, and it would certainly be an ideal place for a date.<\/p>\n

We started our meal with Bianchis focaccia, served with oil and balsamic vinegar (\u00a35). I thoroughly enjoyed dipping the very fresh focaccia on an excessive amount of the delicious oil and vinegar.<\/p>\n

\"Hand-divedHand-dived Devon scallop, garlic butter and pangrattato(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

This was followed by the hand-dived Devon scallops, served with garlic butter and pangrattato (\u00a38 each). These were sensational, with the scallops having a characteristic meaty textured and the accompanying sauce being deliciously herby, garlicky and rich. What a start to the meal, I couldn’t help thinking, as I used the last bits of foccacia to mop up every bit of the sauce.<\/p>\n

A big fan of artichokes, I was very excited to try the carciofo alla giudia, served in smoked ricotta, hazelnuts, chilli honey and mint (\u00a310). While artichokes are a food I grew up with in Catalunya, it is not common to see them in this country – but at Bianchis they certainly know how to perfectly prepare them.<\/p>\n

\"CarciofoCarciofo alla giudia, smoked ricotta, hazelnuts, chilli honey and mint(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

The dish had an unexpected spiciness to it, which turned out to be from the ricotta – which Gaia told us they smoke in house – and the chilli honey. An outstanding combination of flavours.<\/p>\n

We also enjoyed the grana moravia and taleggio arancino (\u00a36.50), which had a more delicate and subtle flavour to everything else we had had before. However the allioli had a strong garlic flavour and it reminded me of one I may get back in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\" Pappardelle, salt marsh lamb ragu, parmigiano regiano and parsley(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

Moving over to the mains, it was time to open a bottle of wine and we were recommended the delicious Nuovo Quadro Gavi 2022 Piemonte, Italy (\u00a345). It turns out this was the original wine when Bianchis opened its first restaurant, the now shut Pasta Loco on Cotham Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was probably the dish that was to come next the one that would surprise me the most, though. Unsure on what pasta dish to order, we followed Gaia’s recommendation and went for the pappardelle with salt marsh lamb ragu (\u00a320). While I am a big fan of lamb, I have to admit I was a bit hesitant about having it in pasta; trust the expert, I told myself.<\/p>\n

\"GrilledGrilled chicken thighs with Calabrian ‘ndjua glaze, radicchio salad and peperonata(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

This dish was so full of flavour, and much lighter than I expected. The pasta was cooked to perfection – having that bit of a bite, the lamb was simply delicious and the dish as a whole was very well-balanced with the herbs. It totally exceeded my expectations.<\/p>\n

We finished our meal with the grilled chicken thighs with Calabrian ‘nduja glaze, radicchio salad and peperonata (\u00a336). This dish looked – and tasted – like summer in a plate. The chicken was so tender, with the skin perfectly crispy, and we also enjoyed the roasted vegetables it was served on.<\/p>\n

Pannacotta with baked apricots, alkermes syrup and amaretti crumb(Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n

To finish off, we had a stunning pannacotta with baked apricots, alkermes syrup and amaretti crumb (\u00a38), accompanied by some limoncello and some dessert wine.<\/p>\n

From start to finish, our meal at Bianchis exceeded my expectations and I am certainly not surprised our readers voted it the city’s best restaurant. I certainly had one of the best meals I have had this year so far.<\/p>\n

Bianchis can be found on 1-3 York Road, Montpelier. 0117 329 4100<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I certainly had one of the best meals I have had this year so far Estel is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,9418,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-293510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eating-out-in-bristol","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114920046359510620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}