Volunteer Tavern — Restaurant in Bristol

A wonderful community pub with a nice selection of beers, and excellent Sunday roast. Would happily make this my local if I lived nearby.

Staying within 10 minutes walk to this venue and knowing of their listing in the Camra Beer Guide, I made a beeline for this cosy community pub, literally within 5 minutes walk of Cabot Circus, and was not disappointed.

The beer on cask was excellent and included choices from Plain Ales, Arbor, Bristol Beer Factory and Purity - largely on the lighter side (pale ales and IPA). There are also 3/4 keg lines in addition to the standard choices of lager and a beer fridge. The cask beers I tasted were all in excellent condition and at a good temperature.

The atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon was relaxed, with a few regulars at the bar; although the bar staff were busy as there was a birthday party in the outside area out the back. Food on Saturdays consists of Sliders n Sides, and looked good from what I saw, but I was hankering after one of their talked about Sunday roasts and so I booked a table (recommended for Sunday lunch as it got quite busy around 2pm) and came back.

The small looking kitchen is effectively taken over by other businesses- Sunday roasts were provided by All The Trimmings. I had slow cooked pork belly with a side of Cauliflower Cheese and apple sauce: it was one of the very best roasts I’ve had. Everything was well cooked, the pork belly was soft and tender and flavoursome as was the crackling. Lovely Yorkshire, a good portion of greens and superbly cooked roasties. The cauliflower cheese side is for 2 people but it was too good to waste! Desserts are on offer as well.

I thought it was very reasonably priced as well, with my order including a pint coming to £23 roughly.

I read in the toilet a poster that said the manager, Amy, is moving on to pastures new and they are on the look out for someone to replace her. What was interesting was that both volunteer and hospitality sector experience was being sought, which illustrates the community focus of this establishment.

Anyway, by the looks of things whoever replaces them will have their work cut out, because this is one of the best examples of a community pub doing everything right. Long may it continue.

If you get a chance to visit this pub,...

The quality of food here has gone dramatically downhill since they changed menus. The Volunteer tavern to be one of my favourite places for a Sunday roast dinner, however on just eating here, there were a number of issues they need to address; -The portions were very small- one carrot and one parsnip, three small roast potatoes and half a wellington. A skirting dust of mash potato for decoration and some cabbage. I was still hungry after finishing the roast dinner! We all felt the same way -General cooking quality was poor- the carrot and parsnip was boiled rather than roasted. Roast potatoes small and nothing to write home about -The food for all of our table was tepid and luke warm, unenjoyable to eat

They used to do a banging nut roast with huge potions and roast vegetables, with large tasty roast potatoes. Please bring this back

Edit to reply since there is no option to reply to the owner below: No it wasn't a kids roast, we specially asked for the vegetarian roasts when ordering at the bar. We were a table of adults, ordering at the bar as adults and there were no mention of kids, this is entirely incorrect and insincere to suggest we accidently ordered a kids roast. One long carrot and one long parsnip. The food was also luke warm/tepid. I raised this as feedback hoping it would be taken on board to improve people's future experience but it looks like that was not taken on, to suggest we accidently ordered...

So I've been to the volunteer tavern in the past and had no criticisms but sadly today is not one of those days. We waited just under an hour for our food, which working in hospitality myself, I know that without any acknowledgement from the staff is not ok. The vegan food was lovely, but both people who ordered the beef said it was very grisly, which to be fair may have been just down to a bad cut of meat but still something worth pointing out. I witnessed one member of staff actually be quite rude and sarcastic to a customer for something quite minor. During our visit I also noticed the staff give a lot more energy and enthusiasm to what I can only assume were "regulars" , however we did not get the same energy and to be honest felt a little looked over. When our food finally arrived my cousin asked the server for ketchup to which he replied and I quote " I dunno I'll have to see" he then disappeared into the kitchen, never to be seen again. When the barmaid was collecting empty glasses from the table, she didn't ask if everything was ok, or could she get us anything etc. All these moments led to us walking away feeling a bit deflated and based on my experience today, I really don't think...