Primrose Café – After Dark!

Primrose Cafe is tucked away at the end of a small cul de sac in Clifton Village. I’m sure that most people in Bristol are very familiar with it, however for those of you who aren’t, I can assure you it’s well worth making a trip up to the village to pop in. By day it is a hustley bustley café, often filled will Clifton mummies and students pouring out onto the pavement . However, at night it seams to transform into a very intimate setting with darken lights and candles making the mood somewhat romantic.

Now I’m going to start by saying that this isn’t going to be your traditional food blog. This is partly because I only decided to write the blog post after we had all tucked into desert and partly because I wouldn’t consider myself a foodie person. This aside, I’ve still been inspired to tell you why Primrose Café is just nice after dark and is well worth a visit.

It was last Friday and my Mum was visiting Bristol. She’s a lover of the quirky side of Bristol and all it’s independents, so our dinner choices resulted in either Clifton Sausage or Primrose Café. After a quick check online at both menus, Primrose was our chosen destination and was booked for 3; my Mum, my boyfriend and myself. After arriving in a taxi in the pouring rain (ye,s in bloody July!) we were welcomed in by an extremely jolly hostess. I was really glad we booked, as the place was very busy.

After been shown to our rustic seating we were given the day’s menu and shown the specials board; all the usual restaurant stuff! We were all immediately impressed with the menus, as the food sounded exquisite and was more than what we were expecting from just a café.  Now I am going to do my best to remember what we all ordered, however it’s worth mentioning that although the menu is regularly changed, they serve a great selection for all.

We ordered our meals then to our surprise were greeted with an amuse bouche soup, served in a tiny tea cup. It was curried sweet potato, simply divine and full of flavour. It was severed with beautiful homemade fresh bread and room temperature butter; it always annoys me when you can’t spread it!

The starters we chose were ham hock with tiny vegetables (a special), tempura courgette flowers (a special) and seared squid, chorizo and rocket salad. We did a bit of mixing and matching, as the starters were large enough for us all to have a little taste. I have to say they were all fantastic. I’m not a big fan of ham hock, because if you’ve seen it before it looks a lot like canned dog food, but to my delight, this was done really well and garnished superbly with the little pickled vegetables.

For mains we went with the veal with mash (a special), trout with samphire and new potatoes, an amazing Turbit with scallops and seafood risotto and a side of fat chips to share! All of this came out looking beautiful and tasted even better. Primrose prides themselves on using fresh ingredients and this really shows when eating the food. I would really recommend trying one fish dish when you visit, as you certainly won’t be disappointed. It’s also worth mentioning that the fat chips are brilliant-I believe every table should share some!

As pudding came round we really were all unbuttoning our jeans, and weren’t sure we could squeeze anything else in – however that was until we spotted the bakewell tart with cherry ripple ice cream, kirsch and cherry coulis. This was served with 3 spoons and disappeared from the plate very quickly indeed.

It was around this time I wished that I had taken some Instrgram pictures to show you all of the wonderful food we had eaten. As you can see this was not the case, but my recommendation to you is this; give the Primrose Café after dark a go. We were all pleasantly surprised by the fantastic warming atmosphere, the wonderful staff, and beautiful prepared food. Also make sure you take a peak in their kitchen, it’s tiny! The transformation from day to night is quite something, so I urge you to book in today! For more details please check there site – www.primrosecafe.co.uk

One final tasty treat to leave you all with –  when the bill came it was served with 3 very lovely, cold truffles. I managed to devour all three as the other two were at bursting point!

Enjoy, Cx

(All pictures are from the Primrose Cafe site – I will be better next time, I promise!)