The Bridge — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

Wonderful restaurant right on the bank of the Avon river. Small and cosy with super reliable food time and time again. Great for Sunday lunch, a mix of traditional and other modern dishes for startes and mains. Some great wines as well. Wonderful roast duck typically on the Sunday menu, and whilst a little pricey as a supplement, it is to die for. Great selection of specials make this great value restaurant ever interesting!

UPDATE on new years day after a fab lunch on Christmas eve......pictures from New Years eve.

Whatba perfect way to start the final festivities; a casylual country ramble to The Bridge Inn with my son for Christmas Eve lunch! Second in, we mused over the original yet familiar menu, side by side with an innovative Christmas special menu with a cheeky Peroni. I went for the seared scallops with crispy bacon served on a perfect complimenting crushed pea base... the scallops were perfectly cooked with a thin crispy Crust but succulent body and roe. My son had the perfect poached egg on a festive and rich black pudding potato cake. For mains, my son chose the satisfying steak burger, whilst I went for an old favourite, veal Holstein. The saltiness of the anchovies perfectly enhancing the egg and bed of freshly wilted spinach. I finished off with the traditional Christmas pudding, whilst my son opted for the ample assiette de fromage, with which we finished the velvety Cotés du Rhone. It's such a delight to visit the Bridge and I am looking forward to New Years day lunch for exactly the above reasons. Living in the surrounding areas to Bidford, we should be so appreciative of such a jewel in the culinary crown, without the need to hike of to Birmingham or Cheltenham along with the taxi fares and or drinks restrictions that that might incur. The Wetherspoons, Fullers and McDonald's of this world will always be there as long as punters have cash to spend, but like Purnells in Birmingham which has vapourised taking £38k of future customers money with them, we should all savor the delights of local excellent cooking such as this for as long as possible, and hopefully beyond the Bridges 20 year anniversary in 2025..... or risk being restricted to a baron culinary landscape in the future! Super, time after time and...

We visited the week before Christmas and to be honest I was expecting it be the usual slow service you would expect in most restaurants this time of year but it was quite the opposite! We were a large table and the service was impeccable. We were greeted by the kitchen staff as we entered the restaurant (bit of a strange setup as the kitchen also acts as reception), the staff were friendly and welcoming.

Drinks came quickly and there was a good selection of wines and ale on offer. We had the Sunday lunch menu and I had 3 courses. The food menu was perfect, plenty of selection but not too many to choose from. We choose the salmon mouse for starter, turkey for main and cheesecake for pudding. The food was lovely and portion size just perfect for me.

Plenty of space in the restaurant to move around and beautiful views over the Avon (unfortunately no photo due to it raining). The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because there was only 1 ladies loo and it needed a little bit of a makeover, by the end of the meal there was a bit of a queue for the loo. Also parking is slightly limited, in comparison to the generous car park at ‘The Frog’ next door which was basically empty!! But Bidford-on-Avon is a lovely place to wander round so you can park over the bridge and walk across.

Would recommend...

Service is good but the food was way overpriced for what it was. We had smalls and some daily special starters. I was surprised that the wild mushrooms were served on shop sliced bread not even a properly backer one. The meatballs were cold and dry. Tempura prawns were nice, but scallops were undercooked. Scallops should either be raw for sushi or cooked to perfection or they taste fishy. The garnish with them was rubbish. Few leaves of iceberg lettuce (unforgiving) and some orange. No proper saws or relish. I can't state for main courses as we didn't go for it. The bill did not reflect the quality of food. I'm disappointed to say the least, especially that it was my son's birthday and i took him out for a meal. I think we both would have enjoyed Fish and Chips more. Maybe the menu would have worked with an individual who doesn't know good...