Prime by Pasture — Restaurant in Bristol

So this was a little hello and goodbye sort of lunch. Hello to Prime, Pasture’s buzzy burger offshoot in Bristol. Goodbye to a wonderful colleague, though I won’t dwell on that part, mainly as there was a moment — as I was leaning in to the milkshake like a man doing something dirty in a Travelodge — when I was asked, in the gentle but unmistakable tone: “Do you think you should be having both a burger and a milkshake?”

And the answer, dear reader, is: no. But I did. And I’d do it again. Because Prime is bloody excellent.

Now I’m not one for banging on about burgers. Too many places doing “the best burger ever” and it’s always a half-cooked meatloaf in a cake bun with three sauces and a whole softshell crab on top for some godforsaken reason. If you’re going to do something this basic, it needs to be either very cheap, very weird, or very, very good.

Prime, I’m pleased to say, is very, very good.

From the outside it’s all meat-sweat sleek and softly masculine — wood, steel, fire — like a really lovely butcher’s shop if the butcher was also a Michelin-starred pyromaniac. It feels serious. But the service was warm, the music was up, and the staff were that rare mix of properly informed and clearly a bit in love with the food. You don’t always get that in the burger trade.

Now, the burger. You get a choice: thick and pink, or two smashed patties. I chose thick and pink — partly because I’m a hopeless romantic and partly because if you’re doing just one patty, it had better be good. And Christ, it was.

I had the American Style House: onions, beef fat garlic cheese, mayo. All present, all correct, all blending into something that dripped down my wrist and made me feel genuinely excited to be alive. The beef was soft and perfectly seasoned, the bun was sweet and soft like a posh brioche but sturdier, like it’d hold its own in a bar fight. Nothing clever, nothing fancy, just ridiculously well done.

And the milkshake. Salted caramel. Thick enough to dislocate a jaw, but I’d take a sports injury for it. Velvety, rich, sweet-salty heaven. I’d return just for this, if only to sip it slowly while trying not to think about the mirror in the changing room at Zara.

That was it. No starters, no sides, no faff. Just two things. Burger. Shake. Both 10/10, no notes. And you know what that means? It means this place knows exactly what it’s doing. No overreach, no bells and whistles. Just craft.

So yes, I’ll go back. I’ll recommend it. I’ll probably dream about it in a feverish meat-sweat haze. Prime is a belting little hello to Bristol’s food scene — and if, as they say, all goodbyes come with a silver lining, this one came with beef fat cheese and a salted caramel shake.

I can...

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Poor Service and Communication

We visited Prime by Pasture in Bristol on Sunday 20th July at 10:30am, a group of 3 adults and a 1-year-old. Upon arrival, we were told by the waitress that the restaurant was currently busy but that if we returned in 30 minutes, we would be seated. We asked specifically whether we should wait nearby or stay put, and she advised that there was no space for us to wait, so we should return at 11am.

We made it very clear that, with a young child who hadn’t eaten yet, we would need to be seated and able to feed her at that time. The waitress reassured us, saying “Yes, no problem.” We confirmed with, “See you at 11,” and left.

When we returned promptly at 11am (after walking around for 30 minutes in the pouring rain), the same waitress greeted us with a surprised “Oh, you came back.” We reminded her of our earlier conversation, and she simply said, “Yeah, as you can see, there’s no room,” with no apology or explanation. Completely taken aback, I asked if she was joking. She said no, but could see our shock and went to get the manager.

The manager approached us and was, frankly, rude and dismissive. We explained what had happened, and she told us bluntly that “breakfast is over.” When we said we hadn’t been informed of that (and wouldn’t have returned if we’d known), she responded in a tone that made it clear she felt the fault lay with us. It was only after we pointed out again that the issue was miscommunication from the staff, not a misunderstanding on our part, that we received a half-hearted apology in an attempt for us to leave as soon as possible.

This was a genuinely shocking experience. We were made to feel as though our presence was an inconvenience, and the lack of accountability or basic courtesy from both the waitress and the manager was astonishing. As a group with a baby, this caused unnecessary stress and left us scrambling to find somewhere else for a toddler to eat in the terrible weather, all of which could’ve easily been avoided with clearer communication or even a basic level of customer service.

We had heard great things about Pasture so were taken aback by this...

Pasture is my favorite bristol resturant, i go there offten. Very excited to try the prime offering, Been twice, once for burgers once for breakfast. had an excellent meal both times but there are quite a few things to impruve on, Especially on the burger menu.

First the burger menu The burgers themselevs are excellent, first rate, one of the best in Bristol with only Danny's being better for my money. The sides were a bit hit and miss, we loved the fried pickles and and short rib spring roll but thought the blooming onion had too much coating and not enough onion and was very salty. The blue cheese slaw was just bad, probably needs a rethink. the home made Gelato we had for desert was also poorly executed and needs to go back to the testing stage. has two flavours, the breakfast cereal and PB&J one. The cerial one had great flavour but the bits of crushed up cerial in the gelato were not crunchy which was a shame, better to seive them out and crush some fresh cereal on top for service. the PB&J was realy claggy and just unpleasent, no jelly flavour either just tasted like penut butter. Cocktail were excellent and the service as always with anything pasture was first rate.

The breakfast menu

This was generally realy nice, we had the fritters and the french toast with crumpets on the side because we realy wanted the crumpets.

The fritters were excellent, well balanced crispy, yum. The crumpets also were absolutly wonderful and i would go back and eat those any day. the french toast was a little disapointing, claggy and not much like french toast.

coffees were a bit slow in coming out but were very well made.

overall i would go back and prime represents a great venue in an area slightly devoid of...