The Beehive — Restaurant in Bristol

Tonight was my fourth visit to the Beehive, my third in the evening.

All have been within the last 6 months, though I understand the new ownership has been in place for around a year or so,

Firstly, the service was excellent. The staff are attentive, knowledgeable and know when to leave you alone to your food. The latter is actually quite an important skill!

Much more impressive, however, is the food.

On the first occasion we just came for a quick lunch and were really surprised by the quality of the fare. Not being adventurous, I just ordered a burger. My two companions ordered a steak sandwich and a fish-based meal. All 3 were delicious, hearty helping with fantastic flavour. The burger patty was sturdy, with a beautiful texture and sweet taste that you can only get with good meat. The homemade chips were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and perfectly cooked.

Both of the other dishes were very well received. Indeed, that experience motivated us to return, which we have done on a few Fridays where a promotion runs on steaks.

Tonight, for example, you could have 2 sirloin steaks for the price of one. If memory serves the steaks were around £15.

The steak was gorgeous. Just out of this world tasty bursting with flavour and a real joy to eat. I order my steak rare, and it came exactly as I wanted. I don't normally enjoy sirloin as a cut but I can honestly say that this steak was one of the best I have ever had. Ever. I have visited a few of the notable steak houses around the Bristol area, perhaps most obviously the Cowshed. In my opinion this steak was on par with, perhaps even better, than what the Cowshed has to offer.

For starters we all had mussels which were accompanied by a wedge of homemade bread. Again, I just want to throw superlatives at this because it really was that good.

The chef obviously knows what he's doing, but is not poncy about it.It's well presented food cooked brilliantly and you really cannot go wrong with that.

Dessert was a vanilla creme brulee and was divine.

If I am honest the only surprise that evening was that it was not more busy, because I genuinely do not know of many places with such good food at this sort of price point.

We live nearby and would normally stroll over to one of the gastro pubby bar places along Gloucester Road but I feel that this place will now be our regular haunt.

I should note that I believe the weekday menus vary and are by no means just limited to the Friday "grill" selection, I can only imagine the food on those days will be...

My previous encounter with the Beehive left me less than enamoured with my experience and a consequential average review ensued (see below) I noticed yesterday that the review still pops and it's not fair such an old review is still there so here's my update for 2023. They worked hard to keep us happy and I'd say the service we got for a Bristol suburban pub was exceptional. The gent cruising the tables kept everyone topped up (like the best hotels and restaurants do) and my fellow diners commented on how good a salesman he was. The food is certainly less pretentious than it was but far more honest for it. They were busy and honest about it but this didn't slow down the service and our food came out timely and well presented. The ale is still good and they're nailing the basics better so I'm happy to dole out a star upgrade. Come on though Google - time to gradually fade those old pub reviews out so people don't get the wrong impression.

Old review:

When I had quick nose at the 194 previous reviews of this place, depending on what you want to believe when you read reviews, I was to expect a warm welcome in a gentrified cozy gastropub with an overpriced menu serving great value average food by staff who are both polite and amenable whilst being frosty and unconcerned. Now I know that pubs are a bit like schools (one bad experience and the whole place needs an Ofsted) but I'm starting to think that if you're going to review a pub then you should at the very least stick to the facts and avoid hyperbole. Google could help here too by removing any review over 4 months old on pubs since they change hands and managers so frequently that anything older might as well be a fossil discovery. Anyway - sticking to the facts... Ling is a cheap fish so a £13 portion of it on mash with capers, cabbage and crispy chorizo needed to be special to, well, earn it's place on the specials board. Sadly the fish was overcooked, the piggy bits burned and the cabbage somehow less yielding than the boots I had on. Similarly, the prawns (in my partner's linguine) had seen too much of the sun. The menu was quite exciting so it's a shame we dropped on the one food the chef probably missed that lesson on when they were at college. The beer was good as was the cheesboard (at £8 it had no excuses) which came with a delightful little richly sliced tomato pickle. Not cheap but not expensive but if they want the foodies in you've got to nail the...

Sunday lunch. The Roast beef was good but the shoulder of lamb was a disappointment, overcooked, fatty and tasteless. The description of the veg on the menu was very fancy with words like: Smoked salt, Maple ( syrup) and Rosemary but it was just very sweet and spoilt the flavour of the veg itself.

The table was an old oak thing with massive legs either side so we couldn’t get the chair under the table and my wife sat with her legs either side of this turned leg. Very uncomfortable.

Pudding menu looked good but they got the order wrong and sent crumble and custard instead of ice cream. With my choice they sent the wrong one all together and there was a wait till my lemon cheese cake eventually arrived. All very disappointing . So , if you decide to visit try to get a decent table and choose the beef rather than lamb. There were other choices like Beefburger but on a Sunday?

However the venue seemed very popular especially with older people who were sat in big groups. They also offer 15% discount with a Blue light card ( NHS) so the price was reasonable. But competition is fierce. Think they need to up...