Bulrush — Restaurant in Bristol

I heard mixed opinions about Bulrush, so I struggled for a long time to decide if I should try it. Well… a disappointing experience. Food ingredients are on the highest level and that's the only positive thing that I can write about my dinner. All courses are easily forgettable. A lot of them are trying to hit you with very strong flavour however they are not a pleasant combination of ingredients and I didn't feel they are very well combined together. The taste wasn't smooth at all in all courses. At the same time, I was constantly feeling "I tasted it somewhere else but I don't know where" during the whole dinner and I didn't feel it was a unique experience. Not only there was no "WOW" effect, but I even didn't enjoy eating some of those courses because they were untasty. Same opinion had my partner. Each of the new course was coming with the new disappointment.

However, the worst was salt. Too much salt in every single course. From the first course to the last one. I mentioned it to the staff on the second course which was extremely salty and I couldn't finish it with my partner. The next courses were also very salty. The worst was the main course. I left half a plate because it was full of salt. I asked the staff if the last 3 courses are salty as well because we are tired of the constant overwhelming hit of salt in each course. Staff said those last 3 courses are desserts and they will be sweet. The first dessert? Something with salt caramel. Second dessert? Something with salty chocolate. Third dessert? Sorbet with salt. I repeated the problem to the staff with the second dessert and asked if someone could speak to the chef directly. On the third (and last course) dessert, I tried a tiny bit of sorbet and I laughed at the same time with my partner because it was once again salty. I asked the staff if they could give it back to the chef, so they could try it and see if this was what supposed to taste. We were very frustrated at that point. Staff came back with a response that this was the proper seasoning. It was the second time in my whole life to have an evening full of too salty courses and I was shocked to have this experience in the Michelin star restaurant. During the whole dinner, we drank 4 full bottles of water and 3 alcohol-free drinks. At home, I needed to drink an additional 1.5 litre of water and I felt sick for the whole night. My partner had the same experience.

We have heard that "they are sorry we didn't like it" but the main problem was that is not that we didn't like it but it was constantly overwhelmingly salty and no one done anything to improve it during the whole evening! You had over 2 hours to improve that, we were giving a couple of times the same feedback and still courses were too salty. Why you are even asking how was our course if you will do nothing with the feedback?

At the end, we have been waiting for the bill a long time and they still put on the service charge. I asked to remove it because I thought it was a joke after how they treat us. When we were going out, no one from the staff said anything, no one helped to open the door or help us with taking our clothes.

This is the experience which you can get for £90 tasting menu. If you would like to visit a really good and tasty restaurant, please try other Michelin star restaurant in Bristol or highly recommended places like Wilson, Adeline Yard, Box E, little french or Little...

Came here for mum’s 70th birthday. After arriving we were told they were 2 chefs down and to expect longer waits between courses. We arrived at 6:35pm and didn’t leave until 10:45pm!

The longer wait times would have been ok if the dishes were a bit more substantial but as with all fine dining experiences, all the dishes were bite sized and very small. So we felt we never satisfied our hunger. The men on our table were still very hungry even after the final course. I think they should have at least offered some more bread / nibbles while we waited.

The sample menu they had on their website listed 9 courses on. However when we arrived they said the actual menu was a bit different. It was actually identical except that it omitted 2 of the main courses listed on the sample menu so we ended up with only 7 courses. We were all quite disappointed as the courses which were omitted were the scallops and monkfish.

The actual food was tasty but none of it was hot. The main dish (quail) was lukewarm and you could probably finish all the meat on the plate in 2 mouthfuls! So it didn’t really fill any of us up.

Unfortunately no one really enjoyed it and if you are new to fine dining, this experience might put you off forever! We have been to many fine dining and Michelin star restaurants but have never left feeling hungry! We actually came to Bulrush before in 2017 but had a far better experience back then and did not remember the portions being so small.

The restaurant were good enough to give us 10% off the set menu price so that took it to £81 instead of £90. But overall it was still reasonably expensive (£700 for 7 of us) and we hardly had any drinks either (mostly water and a couple of non alcoholic drinks). There wasn’t even any tea or coffee included. The service was good though as it wasn’t any of their fault that they only had one chef on. However I had wished they had called me earlier in the day to explain the situation and given me the option to cancel our booking without charge.

They are also quite unresponsive when you try and contact them. After booking the table, I emailed to ask if they could arrange a cake for my mum. I didn’t get any reply. I tried calling them a few times and the phone was always engaged (off the hook). So we ended up with no cake at all as I didn’t know how to organise and have it delivered to the restaurant when I had no way to...

Overall this restaurant falls well short of the standard you’d expect for a Michelin starred restaurant with a £250 bill.

Positives The off-menu sweetcorn consommé to begin with was a real delight. Very tasty and a perfect little surprise to start the evening with. And the starter itself - a trio of snacks - was delightful. The carrot XO doughnut was truly divine. This really whet my appetite and I was really excited for the evening ahead. The rhubarb pudding was also really excellent and very well balanced - I didn’t know soba honey was a thing, and I’m now a big fan!

Areas for growth The starters arrived before we were even asked if we wanted anything to drink. This felt a bit rushed and sad to not have been able to have a glass of fizz to kick things off.

After the initial rush of the first course, service was really slow. We were often left waiting for a really long time between courses without even having had the plates taken away when we were clearly finished.

The standard of the service itself was not what I would have expected from a Michelin starred restaurant. The waiter at one point missed my cup when pouring a broth and it poured over the table instead. The soupy liquid just remained on the table for most of the rest of the meal and no one came to wipe away the mess, or clear any of the spillages.

Areas that just need rethinking altogether

Salt. The meal was just 7 courses of salt. We couldn’t begin to finish the main course as it was just so deeply salty. My partner at one point winced for how much salt there was on her palate from a mouthful. We were so happy to be done with the main course and offer our mouths some reprieve from the salt with pudding to come. However - the puddings were also…salty! At one point we just laughed at each other. We went home with our tongues feeling a bit like sandpaper.

In sum, there were some nice elements. But largely this was a bit of a let down for a restaurant that’s won so many awards and where you expect the standard to be flawless. If it were another restaurant without the accolades and if it was a quarter of the price I think (other than the saltiness) the rest of my points could be forgiven. But I had expected more. And the saltiness has made me a bit salty at...