Mangosteen Cotham Hill (Thai Tapas & Bar) — Restaurant in Bristol

I wanted to follow up from my original review to thank Loki for the way in which you responded to my review and with such good grace. It's a rarity these days to deal with a business that truly does value customer service/experience, but this shines through from Mangosteen team. It's clear we got unlucky on the night we visited and we very kindly invited back to experience the restaurant again. Our 2nd visit was a very different one, for all good reasons. Thank you team.

Ah team, I really want to leave a glowing review (the main reason we chose here was because of the brilliant reviews.) Maybe our expectations were too high, maybe things were a little off/rushed for the team for our visit, but it didn’t hit the mark for us sorry.

You seem like a team open to feedback, so want this to come across as constructive, rather than a moan!

The food was generally great, we absolutely love Thai food so it’s great to have somewhere new in Bristol that knows what they’re doing flavour wise.

Reason it missed the mark for us, we were left with the sense that this place is all about getting people in and out as quickly as possible and squeezing in as many covers in a night as they can. Totally appreciate times are tough for the hospitality industry, but I don’t think it should feel quite so obvious to the customer.

This was a rare child free night for us and so we wanted some semblance of an evening. We ordered and our food came out within 5 mins of us ordering. Whilst you don’t want to be waiting ages for food, there is such a thing as it coming out too quickly! If we wanted fast food, we’d have gone somewhere else for that. Think it was also the fact everything came out at the same time. We didn’t realise the side plates and curries would come out at the same time. Probably our fault, after all they're called sides and not starters (!) But maybe the wait staff could clarify that this is how it works when you order. I even asked when we ordered, if we could have the cocktails first and the wine with the curries. So, it felt in hindsight that was probably the cue to explain it would all come at once. So, 2 cocktails, a bottle of wine, 3 sides, 2 curries & rice all arrived at the same time. The bottle of wine even had to be put on the bar as there wasn’t any room on the tiny table. We then felt rushed eating, as it would just sit here getting cold and we therefore couldn’t fully appreciate each individual dish.

Although after a few mins someone did ask us how our food was, apart from promptly clearing our table of empty plates, we had no further interaction with anyone until we were told we had 15 mins left on our booking and therefore needed to be ready to leave. Again, I get it, it’s a busy Saturday night and it’s made clear when booking how long your reservation is, but this also just added to the we want you in and out as quickly as possible feeling. All in all, we felt we spent a lot of money for not much time or an atmospheric evening.

For large group bookings where your meal is only a small part of the night, I can totally see the appeal of Mangosteen. However, we wouldn’t choose to return and in hindsight I'm sorry to say we wished we’d gone somewhere else. The food was good though, so would add to the...

Right, so Mangosteen on Cotham Hill. A Thai tapas place. Which is not a thing. I mean, I’m not sure they have tapas in Thailand. I imagine the word would cause the Spanish to storm out into the streets, slapping their thighs in horror and waving jamón ibérico in protest. Because “tapas” are their thing. Tapas is Spain’s intellectual property. Pinched, filched, repurposed by the rest of us until it means “small plates of whatever we can think of.” Which, if you think about it, is essentially the English pub buffet too. Mini sausage rolls, fish fingers hacked in half, prawn vol-au-vents from the freezer aisle. Tapas, English-style.

But never mind. Because “Thai tapas” has a ring to it, doesn’t it? It promises a sort of street-market bacchanal of lemongrass and chilli, where you get to gorge on fifteen dishes instead of three. And if you’re going out with eight mates and half a dozen pints in you, that’s really all you want. The good news is Mangosteen delivers.

It’s one of those menus where you could happily order everything. And so, inevitably, you do. The danger of tapas—of any tapas—is that you oscillate wildly between two extremes: 1) over-ordering to the point of coronary episode, or 2) under-ordering and then resentfully watching the prawn tempura vanish before you’ve had a sniff of it. We, being British and drunk, naturally opted for the former. And, frankly, it worked out beautifully.

The food itself? Surprisingly good. In fact, better than I had braced for given the concept. A lot of zingy, punchy flavours, all of it looking rather chic in that Instagram-ready way—lime leaves scattered just-so, dipping sauces in little ceramic pots. The bill, when it arrived, didn’t make me want to throw my wallet at the wall either, which is always handy when feeding a ravenous mob.

Service: bang on. Genuinely friendly, not that fake “Hi guys, are we having a fun night?” guff you get in chain joints. They seemed to know when to appear and when to vanish, which is all you really want from waiters.

The room itself is modern, stylish, a bit buzzy but not deafening. The sort of place where you can actually hear the person opposite without having to mime “pad Thai” across the table. Nice crowd too: students with overdrafts, couples on dates, gangs of friends pretending they’re only going for “a couple of bits to share.”

So yes, I’d go back. Absolutely. I’d just try to keep my ordering in check, lest I roll out of there having eaten every last satay skewer in Bristol. But then again, isn’t that the...

The service was really great and definitely a nice and much appreciated response from the manager after we told him we did not enjoy the food. Unfortunately though, the food and vibe of the place are bad enough to warrant a review. We ordered two curries which arrived within 5 minutes (already concerning as no way they were prepared fresh) lukewarm and looking very anaemic especially for Thai food. My duck curry was supposed to have Thai basil in it which was nowhere to be seen or tasted but both curries had blackened and wilted basil leaves in the middle of the dish along with a sad piece of parsley on the rice…not sure what the concept there was. In terms of the taste, both curries tasted like supermarket ready meals - very bland and sweet, I could taste the granular spice mixes used. My duck was grey looking and very fatty - no crispiness just as if raw meat had been dumped into the sauce and my partner’s chicken was very unevenly cut with thin well-cooked pieces mixed with big chunks. Very bizzare! The rest of the menu also didn’t look very authentic and the strange red leather/neon style of the restaurant was quite off-putting from the go. I understand the difficulties of a small space but tables should not be packed that close together especially with one situated right by the door - I would not be happy to be seated there. The whole operation unfortunately felt very inauthentic, rushed, poor quality food cooked by someone with little to no knowledge of Thai cuisine. I’ve eaten in many Thai places and was excited for Mangosteen especially due to the many positive reviews, but unfortunately I’m left feeling unpleasantly...