We fell in love (ironically) with Steak of the Art on Valentines day this year when we came in for our first visit where we had an amazing meal and amazing service, so much so on exiting the restaurant I called the manager over to tell them how amazing our server was and how good the food was. We loved it so much that it was a no-brainer where we would go on my fiancee's birthday with our extended family. 2 of whom are massive fans of pasture which we also visited with them in March and spent the whole night telling them how much better SOA was. Although childish this started a bit of a weird family rivalry where we sung SOA praises while they defended pasture so I was expecting big things for the birthday visit....

Sadly, our visit last night was really not good at all. The restaurant was very quiet (which is not a massive problem) but after our visit I understand why.... There was a real lack of atmosphere from the start which was only exasperated by the music randomly turning off and the restaurant being in silence with about 12 covers! Despite being nowhere near what I would call busy our service was really poor..... The 2x soft drinks which were ordered (2 cokes I believe) were warm/room temperature seemingly poured straight from a bottle that hadn't been chilled. What made the poor service even more challenging was the staff seemingly had no dress code, so who worked there and who was a guest was a lottery, we even accidentally asked another patron if they worked there as a result!

We were left unattended for long periods at a time and sat with dirty plates after our starters finished which weren't collected until our mains came... which took some time! (The honey beer bread which I raved about before this time was basically cold toast!)

Myself and my fiancee ordered a tomahawk with Mac n Cheese and truffle fries..... the fries tasted like oven chips with a bit or parmesan thrown on top.... These remained virtually untouched. My biggest gripe, however, was the steak itself. Every steak ordered was massively over cooked. Our "medium" steak was very well done, as was the "medium well" and the well done fillet was incinerated! This made the steak chewy and dry so much so as it cooled down it was inedible! The cheese sauce barely tasted of cheese at all and my brother in law (the pasture fan) mocked me the whole way home, his jibes I sadly had to accept and agree with this time!

There was also a £30 service charge added which we asked to be removed as the service was about a 3/10!

I just feel that this is such a shame as this was for a special birthday occasion and we had such a positive first experience, so much so we were even planning on visiting the Cardiff branch when we are in the area for a concert in a few weeks time which we will now change our plans for.

While our Valentines day visit was amazing I sadly don't think we will return and book either Pasture in advance or Mugshot next time we want a steak in Bristol.