Steam — Restaurant in Bristol

We went here for the ‘bottomless brunch’ on Saturday, before heading home from a hen do. We called and booked months in advance and checked (with Frank I think he was called) that a few of us wouldn’t be drinking as we were driving home straight after... we were assured that was fine and that we could order off the menu when we arrived. So I paid the £28.50 for 10 of us and were excited to visit.

Well I couldn’t be more shocked/upset and disappointed if I tried. Denisa is the rudest person I have ever come across and she needs a LOT more training if she is your trainee manager! She told us we were liars and that the 2 of us not drinking were not allowed in the pub if we were not having the bottomless brunch and she bluntly implied that we would be drinking the alcohol just not paying for it and she couldn’t trust us... even though our cars were in the car park. When a member of my party said she was taking us the wrong way she scoffed, told us we had an attitude problem and said if we didn’t like it we could all leave and not come back 😂 bearing in mind we were near enough the only ones in there and had already paid £285 to the place!

Luckily after a rather awful half an hour with Denisa, Simon managed to smooth it over and agreed to let us join our friends at the table (by this point the hen party was ruined and we had all lost our appetites)

The food was average at best and not worth the £11 it was being sold for... pancakes were hard and the bacon was burnt. Had to ask for cutlery, sauces, salt.

Most of us were not drinking due to driving home or being too hungover, however... we were told that they work on one bottle per head so bare this in mind if you are planning to go for a true ‘bottomless brunch’

Just to reiterate to Steam- if you read this... That lady’s attitude was absolutely appalling, she made no attempt to be polite from the word go and refused to move us to a larger table. I would seriously reconsider ever leaving her in a position of power ever again, she is not fit to be left in a customer...

Beware of the roast dinners at all costs, words can not describe the disappointment in my face when this meal fell upon my gaze. I doth understand the concept of a trying out a ‘different’ and ‘dirty’ styled roast dinner but whence the chef tried it out, it is incomprehensible to me that he didn’t decide to go back to the so called drawing board. After a decently long time waiting, and one of our drinks being forgotten, we were served what could be only be described as what McDonalds would make as a roast. Whoever had the bright idea to poor melted nacho cheese sauce on the potato’s need to sit their pretty little selves down and consider a change in career. The Yorkshire pudding - the CROWN of the roast dinner, was beaten and flattened into a square form, only then to have this slop dumped upon it, making me honestly pity for the poor thing. To top it off, it was all served on a tray, and although I think this establishment thought it was ‘rustic’, they should note to self that even if the tray is an 18th century French antique, trays will always make people think of two things - prison and school canteens. Especially when sitting a mound of fried food and congealed gravy. Finally, one of my peers had to wait until everyone else had finished eating to receive her meal. When it arrived, the poor girls serving of meat (pulled pork) with no inkling of exaggeration, was worth one dollop of a table spoon. If I can be so bold - I wouldn’t eat this again for one shilling, I wouldn’t wish this meal on my worst foe. It was edible, certainly, but offensive to me, my companions, and a complete disrespect and serious misstep in the history and culture of the roast dinner.

The cider...

Nice and helpful staff. They built a beautiful patio that is not only wonderful in the summer but for social distancing.

Definitely a popular spot for students.

TLDR; this is a student pub that’s good for drinks and not food. Worried about cleanliness.

Food: eaten there twice and I’d personally only go for the chips and fried chicken going forward. But it’s still not great...

One time I was there I saw a burger catch on flames and the chef blew on it to blow out the flames. I know that germs or corona was probably killed off from the heat but that’s still pretty gross.

Beer selection is decent.

They ran out of non alcoholic beers which was hard for two friends who don’t drink alcohol and did not want a soft drink.

I preferred when I could go up and order and pay but I get this had to change because of corona. The way they do one order per table and only take one card is awful. They don’t give an itemized bill and just give you a credit card receipt so you have to figure everything out to transfer back friends.

Also the person who took the first charge never told us there was a cup deposit snd they came back to the table at the end to refund £1 to the person who made the first order. We were so confused because the busser had already taken our cups.

The worst offence was the lack of soap in the women’s loo.

They did have hand sanitizer but I think soap is a very basic thing for a restaurant loo to have. Kind of worried me that staff might use the same bathroom and not...