The Kings Head — Restaurant in Bristol

My friend and I have just had a lovely Caribbean meal here rather than the usually typical English Sunday lunch. She had a mixed vegetable curry with rice and peas, garnished with salad and coleslaw and enjoyed her meal followed by a hot chocolate fudge cake that she said was delicious. I had the same rice and salad dish though opted for a particular favourite of mine that I had not eaten in 10 years, which is curried goat. I was reminded of how much I love this cuisine just by the aroma of it when the food arrived and it also tasted gorgeous.... Succulent chunks of well prepared, nicely flavoured goat in a thick, flavoursome sauce melted in my mouth and there was not a single bone in sight on the plate either so no gnawing required as I recall doing lots of in the past when having this dish. Well done chef for a most tasty meal that was, in popular Bristol fashion Gert Lush! I was somehow able (out of curiosity, perhaps) to follow this good sized portion of food with a sticky toffee pudding submerged in custard that took me back to my English 'Old Skool' days and in the words of that kid (now an adult) "IT WAS YUMMY!" Both courses of food and accompanying drinks were served promptly by efficient, friendly staff who were good at their jobs and maintained a tidy cleanliness to the place in between serving or clearing food and drink. In walking or driving by outside this unassuming pub one might think that they are merely passing a working man's local.... Don't let this affect your decision to have a meal here as your hungry belly will be missing a treat... Go there and find out what I'm talking about...

Disgusting overpriced food ! Another pub cashing in on the hype about Caribbean food lol

It’s a shame as I’ve only heard great reviews about this place and for so long it was on my list of places to try but they’ve really let me down here’s why

The jerk chicken and jerk pork was disgusting !! The meat was tender but the gravy lacked any flavour whatsoever and neither did the pork … it was like eating bland meat with the smallest of jerk flavour which I can’t even call It that … it tasted like standard bisto gravy from Asda served over barely seasoned jerk meat .

Maybe you’ve watered down the gravy to serve to bulk customers as you get busy or something? It didn’t taste like jerk at all and t then only slight taste of pimento was from the cooked chicken skin not the chicken or gravy !

Curry goat was nice … perfect texture of sauce and nice portion with flavour .

Rice and peas spot on ! I don’t normally like rice and pea’s especially as most places add too much coconut milk but this tasted very savoury and peppery and herby which I loved .. it’s a shame I have to say the rice and peas were my favourite out if everything I spent here

Think you might need to look at how the chef is running...

Went for the Sunday roasts. The non vegetarian Caribbean and English roast were both so tasty (the chicken was so succulent and delicious) HOWEVER a friend had the veggie option and they served it with meat gravy ‘on the side incase she didn’t want it as it has meat in it’.. Of course she’s not going to want gravy with meat in it if she’s a vegetarian?!.. anyway, we established that they didn’t do vegetarian gravy which we thought was absolutely ridiculous, so she just had to eat her’s without gravy bless her which she struggled with as it was dry without. I have to say that the atmosphere wasn’t the best either - it didn’t feel like you were in a ‘pub’ at all as the walls in the back room are all dark grey -it felt like a canteen. I was really surprised that there was no music as well- I feel like this may have helped to drown out the sounds of the screechy young children, which really goes through you when you’ve had a few the night before 🤣. Most likely won’t be returning based on the atmosphere however the (non veggie) roasts were lovely. I’d recommend this pub for young families but not for a group of slightly hungover...