Filthy, dirty burgers at Revolution, Bristol

As a teenager, when I first started venturing out in ‘Town’ as we all called it (and still do today!) there was one sure fire destination on all of our lists. Whether we were going to Propaganda at Level on a Wednesday, Stutter at Manhattan on a Thursday or Ramshackle on a Friday (shout out to everyone who used to be part of this ritual) we would always visit Vodka Revolution on St Nicholas Street before hand, because, well… it was just what we did!

Admittedly it was never the nicest place to visit back then, especially if you were brave enough to venture there on a Saturday night, but after visiting to try their new menu a couple of weeks ago I’m super chuffed to report that JESUS CHRIST REVS HAS CHANGED!

Now known simply as Revolution the chain has had something of a monster makeover in the past few years, with a big focus on quality food and cocktails, and they’re doing a pretty damn good job of it.

We visited on a Thursday night, and were greeted with glorious service before being whisked away to our table and presented with our drinks. I went for a twist on the classic Mojito, with added raspberry and mint. I agree, it doesn’t look like much but turns out basil and rum are great mates. I had two, because it would have been rude not to!

The menu centres quite heavily around guilty pleasures – think burgers, pizzas, hot dogs – basically ALL the carbs. There are some salads, but to be honest who goes out to eat and has a salad? We’d been perving at the menu for a good day or so, and funnily enough the salads hadn’t even been mentioned, so we jumped in to the burger menu feet first!

I must admit that having dissected the burger menu in minute detail and been in doubt as to whether I could finish a whole one, starters weren’t initially on the menu. But then we stumbled across these little bad boys, Goat’s Cheese Bon Bons! One of my many useless life mottos is “Never turn down deep fried cheese”, so we ordered a portion and scoffed the lot. We most certainly didn’t need them but they were bloody marvellous!

Now, onto the main event.

Will is something of a burger fiend, and for a while has been talking of setting up his own food blog. The invite to Revolution, and the promise of the beast of a burger below was enough to push him over the edge, and he finally founded Filthy Grub. Considering he was now a bona fide food blogger we both felt it was only fitting that he opted for the most obscene burger on the menu, all in the name of research.

Behold…the  Triple Overload Burger.

Needless to say anything that requires a steak knife to hold it all together is going to be pretty epic, and this ticked the box big time. Beef burger, buttermilk fried chicken, pulled pork, smoked cheddar, three brioche buns, Armageddon sauce, garlic sauce and BBQ crackling puffs. A mouthful in every sense of the word.

It was so big he went in first with a knife and fork…

Before realising only wimps eat a burger with a knife and fork, and getting stuck in the proper way.

I chose the Brooklyn Chicken – buttermilk fried chicken,  streaky bacon, smoked cheddar, chipotle sauce and fried pickles, because anything that comes with fried pickles can never be bad. The burger was a solid ‘second-best-chicken-burger-I’ve-ever-eaten” behind the Burger Theory option (but only because that one is some kind of burger wizardry) so that’s high praise indeed!

Ooooh, just look at that little cheese dribble!

All of the burgers are served with a choice of fries, including sweet potato fries, and coleslaw. It’s also worth mentioning Revolutions house sauces, which are definitely better than your average. However, it’s fair to say the burgers take centre stage here!

Incredibly we managed to polish off the lot fairly easily, so it didn’t take much coercion from our waitress for Will to order pudding. He went for the Chocolate Fluffwich – soft dough, Nutella, marshmallow fluff, sweet batter and blueberry dip. In short it’s chocolately, marshmallow filled French toast, which I don’t think you can go far wrong with. I’m not much of a pudding person, but Will woofed it down, which is always a very positive sign!

So, if you’ve ever written Revolution off as ‘just Revs’ think again, because they’re definitely competing well in Bristol’s filthy grub stakes! Give them a go!

For more information visit their site – www.revolution-bars.co.uk/bar/bristol