{"id":297439,"date":"2025-07-28T02:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T02:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297439\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T02:50:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T02:50:19","slug":"we-ate-at-the-massive-lounge-branch-in-a-prime-waterfront-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297439\/","title":{"rendered":"We ate at the massive Lounge branch in a prime waterfront spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

We returned a year after its opening and noticed a few differences<\/p>\n

Ellie has worked as a Digital Reporter for Bristol Live, since January 2022, but has lived in Bristol all her life. She writes about anything and everything that matters to the people of her hometown – from stories about local businesses and property, to interviews with musicians both near and far, event coverage and long-reads about the people and places that make up Bristol’s communities. Prior to her role in Bristol, she worked as a Digital Reporter for Bath and Somerset’s Live titles and as an SEO Writer for Devon, Cornwall and Plymouth Live. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ritorno Lounge Bristol(Image: Paul Gillis\/Reach Plc)<\/p>\n

Just over a year ago, one of the biggest Lounge venues in the huge Loungers portfolio opened its doors on Bristol’s Harbourside<\/a>, welcoming diners inside the revamped former home of Pitcher and Piano. It was the Bristol-founded cafe bar group’s 228th Lounge nationally, with space for 260 covers and all-day food and drink.<\/p>\n

Back in 2024, we visited Ritorno Lounge on a busy Saturday night<\/a> and were left rather impressed by the standards – aside from some slightly over-zealous cocktail-making and very salted caramel-heavy dessert options.<\/p>\n

So it was as if the universe was setting me a challenge when I unintentionally found myself back there almost a year to the day of my first visit – this time on an equally busy Wednesday evening in the sunshine. And I was desperate to know if it would still be as good as I remembered, and if this time I’d find a dessert free of salted caramel.<\/p>\n

We arrived after 7pm to a bustling Lounge, but managed to find an ideal table for two nestled next to the stairs. The decor still looks fresh and quintessentially Loungers-esque, with eclectic art on the walls, colourful lampshades and upholstery, and beautifully painted patterned wooden tables.<\/p>\n

Within seconds, wait staff were bringing us cutlery and napkins and asking if we were dining (a vast improvement from my visit a year ago). We ordered at the bar, though you could order via QR code from your table – one of the perks of the pandemic I hope sticks around for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Bang Bang Chicken at Ritorno Lounge, Bristol(Image: Ellie Kendall\/BristolLive)<\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed while browsing the menu was the lack of the dish I had so thoroughly enjoyed a year ago – the Thai Coconut Prawn Noodles. This had been one of the brand new mains introduced at the time, alongside a coconutty Caribbean-inspired curry and a vegan buddha bowl. Only the latter remains on the menu.<\/p>\n

Despite my disappointment, I know that Lounge venues will often chop and change their menus. This can be a positive if you’re always keen to try new things, or a negative if you fall in love with a dish and hope to enjoy it regularly.<\/p>\n

In the end I landed on the ‘bang bang chicken’, priced at \u00a315.95 making it one of the more expensive mains on the menu. It’s described as buttermilk fried chicken with noodles, pak choi, tenderstem broccoli, carrot and sugar snap peas, topped with bang bang coconut sauce, sesame seeds and chilli.<\/p>\n

I paired this with the same cocktail I had a year prior – the elderflower spritz cocktail (which has gone up in price from \u00a38.90 to \u00a39.25 in the past year). The drinks menu on our table was slightly ajar when I sat down and it was the first thing I saw. I couldn’t resist. However, looking back at the photo I took last year, the cocktails now don’t seem to be as decadently created as they used to be.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Elderflower Spritz cocktail at Ritorno Lounge has gone up in price since it opened a year ago(Image: Ellie Kendall\/BristolLive)\"RitornoRitorno Lounge’s Elderflower Spritz cocktail in 2024(Image: Ellie Kendall\/BristolLive)<\/p>\n

However some of the newer drinks sounded amazing – I tried a sip of ‘key lime pie’ cocktail (also priced at \u00a39.25 and consisting of vodka, Montzi, coconut cream, fresh lime and vanilla), and instantly wished I had ordered that instead. According to the menu, this drink was created by a staff member at a Lounge venue in Northamptonshire, would you believe, and appeared to be the only such cocktail on the menu.<\/p>\n

Both my drink and my main were light and refreshing, which was a welcome treat on such a warm day. The chicken in my dish was piping hot and beautifully tender with a crispy batter.<\/p>\n

The noodles were extremely soft and coated in a creamy sauce, while the vegetables were crunchy and rich in fresh flavours – the chilli peppers gave a bit of a bite, but weren’t overpowering at all. While the bang bang sauce itself was what made it truly a dish worth going back again for (if it’s still on the menu in a year’s time).<\/p>\n

Not quite full and in need of a little sweetness after my main, we decided to order a warm chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Mouth-wateringly good, we received a generously sized brownie which was gooey and warm enough to comfort any stresses of the day right out of you – and plenty of chocolate sauce and ice cream made us feel very satisfied.<\/p>\n

\"ChocolateDon’t let the massive dish fool you – this brownie was chunky and plentiful (Image: Ellie Kendall\/BristolLive)<\/p>\n

There was no salted caramel anywhere to be seen. Hooray!<\/p>\n

All in all, nothing majorly disappointed us about the food and drinks we ordered, and the Lounge still looked as fresh as opening day. In a time where some foodie spots seem to be closing within months<\/a> of opening due to the current climate, it was good to see such a staple venue so popular in the middle of the week.<\/p>\n

And changing up the menu every so often only seems to be keeping customers coming back for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We returned a year after its opening and noticed a few differences Ellie has worked as a Digital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,9418,393,786,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-297439","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-food-and-drink","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114928590812372089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297439","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=297439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}