Condesa — Restaurant in Bristol

I’ve visited Condesa four times now. My first visit was pleasant, as I sat outside and enjoyed the ambiance. On my second visit, I decided to sit at the bar for a different experience. That time, I had a slightly strange interaction which I don’t remember the details of but I remember how it felt and it was weird, but since my third visit—where I sat outside again—was great, I wasn’t opposed to sitting at the bar again on my fourth visit to see if my earlier feelings were valid.

From the start, I attempted to engage with the bartender, thinking it natural since I was seated at the bar. While she initially served me a cocktail without issue, when I asked for her recommendation on my next drink, she said she would call a waiter instead. This was surprising because I saw her actively interacting with other guests at the bar. It felt odd and left me slightly confused, but I went along with it.

As I was discussing my order with the waiter, a man seated beside me interjected into our conversation, and the waiter immediately shifted her attention to him, completely disregarding me. I found this inappropriate and pointed it out, suggesting she should have finished with me first before responding to him. To her credit, she apologised immediately.

Additionally, while waiting for my food, I noticed a man in the kitchen frequently coming into view multiple times to look at me before retreating. It was unclear if this was related to my order or something else. The constant staring was unsettling, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was professional curiosity or something more personal.

Once my food arrived, I overheard two women seated behind me talking about me. Their conversation was intrusive and uncomfortable, focusing on my presence, who I might be, and how I could afford to dine there. They even speculated that I might be a socialite. I found their comments stereotypical and rooted in microaggressions. However, I chose to ignore them, as I wasn’t in the mood to engage in a confrontation that might have been misconstrued.

Towards the end of my meal, I asked the waitress if they accepted cash, and she said no. This seemed inconsistent, as she later accepted cash when I offered it as a tip. The inconsistency made me wonder if their reluctance stemmed from assumptions about me rather than policy.

Despite these uncomfortable moments, I enjoyed the food and the overall concept of the restaurant. I’m considering returning to either confirm if this experience was an anomaly or to stick with seating outside, which has always...

I'd been really looking forward to visiting Condesa for some time due to its great reputation.

We booked for a large group of 8, which I appreciate is challenging to manage. I called and spoke to a lady, who was very helpful and made the booking, whilst kindly emailing over a set menu, which was Condesa's preferred option for large bookings. Upon review, I emailed back to ask if we could order a la carte instead, but got no response. I called back and a man retrieved our booking and stated that it was fine to order a la carte on the day.

One of our party couldn't attend due to his wife going into suspected early labour, but the waiter didn't register this and proceeded to continue charging for 8 people. Sadly, we found that they had already started preparing the set menus, which we had confirmed that we didn't want on a call and by email. Had we known that the set menu was a necessity, we would have cancelled.

To make it more confusing, the waiter gave us food menus and ran through the specials....even though they were preparing the set menu. There were issues with incorrect and forgotten drinks from the waiter.

We awkwardly accepted the set menu, given that the food was already being prepared. The waitress (lady I spoke to originally on the phone) did her best to sort things out, but I feel the waiter caused a lot of confusion.

The atmosphere is nice and cosy and the first part of the menu was really great with the pork tacos, prawn crudo and chicken wing being highlights. Sadly, the lamb rib (£28 if ordered outside of the set menu) was really excessively fatty and the cabbage was ok.

Feedback would be that communication should improve and I feel that the lamb rib dish should be reviewed in terms of quality of meat.

For context, to spend time with each other, we run a monthly dinner club where we rate each restaurant at the end. Condesa came 5th out of 7 in this round.

There were some great moments, but overall a bit disappointing for a larger group. It sounds like it is more successful for...

What a fantastic little find this place is, popped in last week just for a drink, and decided to head back for some of the lovely smelling food this week. An absolute treat, Mexican inspires tapas dishes were sublime, started with a little snack of Bristol Cheddar quesadillas, which were so good and a sign of things to come, next followed my favorite dish, although this was hard to call, but the octopus ceviche with homemade tostadas was just so good, not your typical ceviche by a long shot. Pork tacos followed this which were amazing, great flavour and also texture from the odd bit of crunchy outer, enjoying it so much I decided to also try the chicken wings in a chill oil with soured cream again amazingly cooked not too spicy with the chilli oil, and such crispy skin, my final choice was the Hereford Pichanha steak with the mango habanero sauce, such tender steak with an absolutely amazing sauce, which wasn't too hot and had a lovely acidic vinegar background. Had to finish with a sweet and had a the dark chocolate truffles which were rich, rightly so, with slight dusting of salt. During this time the staff couldn't be more helpful whether giving insights into each dish, personal faves etc and then drinks as well, couldn't fault the food, the service or the atmosphere of this little place, trust me, get it booked and just go with the flow, you won't be...