Este Kitchen — Restaurant in Bristol

its now an Asian cafe [changed hands] the front of house staff seem pretty clueless about most things and not at all friendly, they even try to do the cooking sometimes when chef is off. new owner seems reluctant to spend any money on anything, we get the overwhelming impression the place just his personal cash cow

They've introduced a samosa and coffee special, the samosa presumable to replace the cakes, which now seem to be either absent or a few days old. there's even a couple of Asian trinkets around and the place has started taking on an Indian restaurant flavor

The place seems to be a shambles, too bad as we both normally like Indian food so much. the atmosphere used to be so warm and friendly and the food was really good ....now !? update: popped in for a coffee the other day coming back from work [the cafe used to be so good for this when it was friendly and well run] ...nothing seems to have changed since my last very disappointing visit, service is still terrible and most of the staff have zero personality, bordering on unfriendly.

The old chef was a definite asset and made everyone feel at home:) but he didn't seem to be on duty today. Opinion is that he'll only be kept on till they've learnt from him how to run a cafe and cook a Colombian dish or two ...or its more likely that he will leave of his own accord

The owner responded to this review accusing me of being the "R word" and saying he was reporting me to the police ...its seems that goggle has picked up on the "R word" and deleted the response, as it seems to have disappeared LOL update: we had to visit again to meet a colleague [cringe] they've been running the place for a while now [running into the ground:]. exactly the same problems, same clueless staff, were convinced the samosas are from Asda's cheap range, they are truly disgusting when you eventually get one, and the coffee has been cheapened.

one of us had eggs which appearing to have been abused and somehow put back together, albeit unpleasantly hard. like everything else it took forever to arrive by which time our meeting was well over and i was apologizing to my guest about the food

we still know one person who goes there but only because they are partly disabled so we keep in touch with the cafe's rapid decline. Even the homeless guy who use to get a free coffee there every day is gone ..hasn't been spotted for ages

Other people commenting here are quite correct in saying the place is grubby, in fact my partners eagle eye detected what she called disgusting filth ...but hey, if these guys are so busy that food takes forty mins to arrive how are are they going find time to clean the place. The plastic tables cloths they put down were a good idea though, they completely covered the horribly sticky tables which were due to be replaced.

hardly any people there on Sundays now, not even the dogs :) although animals are never allowed in Indian restaurants. But pop down to No.12 [cafe] for a damn good Sunday lunch but its very busy [in a good way]

and we discovered the original chef has was told to move on after showing the clueless front of house staff how to cook ...lol

It's been noticed that a couple of online reviews rate Este very highly ....these are years old [and still...

This is no longer a Colombian cafe, its morphing into an Indian restaurant, the experienced, professional staff all gone, and replaced with complete amateurs.

we went in again last week and our stuff actually slid of the round table top because it tipped right over, to the delight of our youngest ....these new people been there a little while now and still cant be bothered to fix anything or seemingly spend any money, lots of broken/worn out stuff

if you are a tea drinker there are apparently only 2 teapots, one has the spout broken and is consequently dirty with sharp edges, but still in use. you must wait ages for your tea if they are being used. we saw a staff forcing a rather unhappy looking customer to give up his teapot...ha-ha

the owner stays away it seems and just rolls in every now and again presumably to see how much money has been taken, on the bright side though every regular we've spoken agrees that in 6 months it'll be up for sale again

we had unfriendly staff each time we came in, and saw the results counter staff trying to cook food LOL. The food was coming out 15-20 mins apart even to the same tables. If it this wasn't a sad truth it would almost be a comedy

this cafe used to be an important little place in the community, even our children got excited to go there because there were sometimes dogs, and alwayz things to play with/read. Now its a grubby, poorly run place, and still with the plaster falling of the wall ...but the kids love to pick at it making the hole even bigger

the samosas are replacing the Colombian food already and little Indian statues have appeared on the shelves. Dogs will be banned in the near future.

there are at least 2 fab Indian food place nearby which are run by some most capable and professional Indian people although of coarse dogs in restaurants are definitely not part of Indian culture

the 2 awards given the cafe, on their web site, are from when it was run by the previous owner

Right now its only the remaining [and very helpful] chef who keeps the place afloat, and probably accounts for a few customers reportedly enjoying their visits. Be sure to check who is doing the cooking before to order. Unfortunately, when he leaves they wont be able to reproduce the Colombian street food that the cafe was known for.

We drove past the other Sunday at lunch time when the cafe is always packed, it looked pretty empty inside ...word gets around!

update 19/10/25

they've finally folded! ....now hopefully locals will get...

Disappointing decline - won't be returning.

I've visited Este Kitchen in Eastville several times in the past, but I really should have checked recent reviews before coming back in March 2025. Unfortunately, this place has gone downhill. The first red flag was when we ordered drinks and were told the only cold option was supermarket juice from a cardboard carton-hardly what we expected from our past experience in any Bristol brunch spot. We both ordered the full breakfast, and honestly, it was the worst meal we've ever had eating out. Everything was cold. The egg was overcooked, while the chorizo sausages were somehow undercooked. The beans were not just cold but completely bland, the bacon was rock hard and bone dry, and the tomato... well, it was the saddest excuse for a cooked tomato I've seen-halved, barely cooked, and covered in what seemed like stale, dusty mixed herbs.

Really disappointing, especially given how good this place used to be. Won't be...