The Star and Dove — Restaurant in Bristol

My partner brought us here for our anniversary. Sadly the food was a real pretentious mishmash (a lot of purée in every meal including a really unattractive grey sludge in the main), we were freezing cold in the restaurant, and the service was absolutely awful.

Wildly overpriced; we’ve spent the same amount of money at Michelin-starred restaurants in London. And the level of quality/overall experience here in no way felt aligned with, or deserving of the steep prices.

Firstly, we went on a cool night in early October and the restaurant was freezing. People were eating in their coats…at this point it should be fairly obvious to light a fire or turn on the heating, but it seemed management couldn’t read the room there.

The service was incredibly sloppy and careless…spending so much, you’d expect more of a well-rounded experience, which could be as minor as making a small note as to who’s eating what on a small table of two people. I had to ask for cutlery twice when I already had a plate of food in front of me, and at every stage of the meal, “right, who’s having the XYZ??” just seemed so out of place and charmless when you’re digging deep into your pockets. The waiter got one of our drinks order confused, and then later on, after saying he’d remove it from our bill we discovered we’d still been charged. We didn’t really feel like they gave a hoot about us to be completely honest.

My partner’s wine glass had also been unhygenically cleaned and imparted the wine with a stench of fish. It was quite shocking. Thankfully on that occasion they were apologetic but wow, that really should not be something happening to customers.

The menu was really confusing, and when the waitress tried to explain, only led to further confusion. Firstly, small plates really aren’t tapassy small plates as they’re served in huge domed bowls. just call them “starters”. “Snacks” as a header for the menu too feels like it belongs somewhere much more casual. The experience overall was unnecessarily pretentious and lacking any real substance. I’d really urge you to strip things back to wholesome pub fayre and get solid on the basics first before aiming for the stars, as this was all very shaky.

I’d go as far as to warn friends to steer clear of the restaurant at this pub,...

If you are a fan of highprices and prententiously small portions this is the place for you! £28 for the pork ribeye - the entire dish was the size of a cocktail sausage roll (I'm not joking!) and actually smaller than the somewhat parsimonious Quail starter which tasted at the end like burnt chips. The little finger size piece of pork in the main was gristley and having been sou vied? tasted rubbery. I am non dairy which we told them on booking. Their solution... remove the very tiny potato that was served with the dish so it was even tinier and less satisfying. About one mouthful. A main course really? The vegetarian dish was a shaved courgette and an egg. It was only the pudding which added the calories that took it up from starvation level! Non of it apart from the sweet even tasted that special . Take away the jus and it was all pretty bland. The tiny bit of octopus on toast served as freebie was the best tasting and as it was chewy it did take more than 5 seconds to eat. £150 for three people and afterwards we went down the chippy as we were still starving. I have given it 2 stars because the service and presntation was ok and the bread roll was decent, the dressing though (separated oil and balsamic) was clealy not thought out as the bread absorbs the oil but not the vinegar at the bottom. The food although well presented was an expensive joke and fell far short of expectation. I would have complained were it not for the fact that we were being treated by a family member and didn't want to embarass them. The best bit about the experience was that we all had a laugh after leaving the chip shop, our hunger assuaged and making jokes for the rest of the weekend about the food. They think they are producing fine dining. I have eaten in many fine dining restaurants in France and this wasn't that both in...

We booked a table 1 month and a half in advance. Arrived 45 min early, ordered a beer on Bar area, said hi to staff they said our table was not ready yet on Restaurant area. After a while they gave us menus so we thought yeahh lets have a look before we seat in our table, then same waitress came back and asked us to order. We were sat in a bar table, dog smell as the table in our side had 2 huge dogs (thats why we booked a month an a half in advance, to be seated in restaurant area, my wife is allergic to dog/cat hair, you don't want to be coughing in COVID times) we asked for our Restaurant table and kind of stiff, waitress said they decided now that was our table, we looked around and the entire team was trying to don't look at us and even the management looked uncomfortable. That was out of nowhere. We decided, even being 15.20 and 1h waiting to go somewhere else, after even saying we didnt mind to wait until a table was available in the restaurant, still they said our table would be in the bar. Manager said on our way out: hopefully we'll see you soon... instead of making us feel wanting to come back.. ALL THIS OUT OF NONE AND NO EXPLANATION we normally have well priced bills as we order a bottle of good wine and starters so I wouldn't be happy if I was the owner. I used to recommend this place to my colleagues and friends. Takes a long time to build a reputation and just a second to destroy it. BRISTOL IS NOT LONDON POSH RESTAURANT CHAIN FOOD SERVICE LOVER. WE LOVE BRISTOL FOOD, DRINK AND MUSIC VIBE. SPECIALLY IF YOU ARE LOCATED IN BRISTOLIAN TOTTERDOWN... After 10 min I received an email from OPENTABLE saying Restaurant cancelled our booking.. took them only 10 min to cancel my booking... what a disaster!!! Look at the photo and tell me if you'd be comfortable...