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Submitted on Sunday, 13^th October 2013
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The Stable, Bristol

Pub added by Blackthorn _

The Waterfront, Canons Road
Bristol
BS1 5UH

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Served areas

Bristol Central, Harbourside

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The Stable We're in!⠀⠀⠀⠀ We're pleased to say we'll be taking part in the governments eat out to help out scheme from Monday!⠀… https://t.co/8Yi1awYYQL 11:31 AM Jul 30th 2020 from Buffer

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Reviews of The Stable (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about The Stable

Part of a small chain of bars specialising in cider, pizza and pies, this place opened in the summer of 2013 in one of the prime Harbourside units, making it an inevitably popular weekend destination. The place operates more as a restaurant, so is best avoided by drinkers at peak dining times, but the range of ciders make it an interesting prospect if you can time your visit well. You enter to the right side of the unit, passing a large cart wheel to emerge into a large room with an open kitchen to the right and the servery along the rear wall. Long canteen style benches are arranged in formal rows through the main body of the room, creating a somewhat chaotic and messy environment as staff tried to get to vacated spots to clear the tables. The décor is pretty dull, with a tiled floor and lots of exposed pipes running around the ceiling - nothing you haven't seen hundreds of times before. Over to the left there is a raised seating area with slightly comfier looking seating and the room extends a little to the rear here, where it might be possible to bag a relatively peaceful spot. The large windows at the front allow you to enjoy watching the crowds pass by, but there is plenty of people watching to be done inside, with large groups stuffing their faces with pizza and pie, creating a raucous environment on our Saturday evening visit. A few picnic benches are available outside, should the weather permit al-fresco drinking.
The raison d'etre here is the cider, which comes in plentiful supply. The bar back has a series of cubby holes into which numerous boxes of cider are stored, with plenty more available on handpull or keg tap. A board behind the bar listed 20 different cider options in all, but with the keg and bottle options I suspect that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A few bottled beers were available alongside on real ale - a house beer from St Austell called Stable Drop Pale Ale. I sampled this but found it in pretty terrible shape, presumably the result of low turnover. We tried some cider as well and thankfully it was much better.
This is an interesting concept for a chain and may have just caught the current wave of enthusiasm for 'real' cider at just the right time, although I guess it's always been pretty popular in these parts. The location is a mixed blessing and means it's best avoided at the weekend but I imagine the place will do very well and it makes an interesting 'alternative' to consider.

On 13^th December 2014 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Blackthorn _ left this review about The Stable

A new addition to Bristol’s waterfront in a building that at one time housed the Chicago Rock cafe, this is now a Pizza/Pies/Cider venue according to it’s strapline, although going on the choice of cider offered I think Cider/Pizza/Pies would be more appropriate.

It’s a large, open bar with bi-folding glass doors all along the front giving good views across the water, and there are also a few benches out on the quay side. Seating is mostly chunky wood canteen style tables with church candles on and in addition to this there were a couple of red leather benches on a raised area to the left and a few old beer barrels dotted around that you could rest your pint on. The open kitchen is on the right where you can see the chefs hard at work. At the back is an exposed brick wall giving a somewhat rustic feels to the place whilst the flooring is small orange tiles.

The food offering as previously mentioned consists mostly of pizzas and pies and there were menus on all the tables as well as options chalked up on numerous large blackboards. Most of the pizzas looked to be around the £10 mark with many of the choices being somewhat more unusual than the ubiquitous Meat Feasts and such like and had local names such as Avonmouth Angler and Portishead Piggy. We enjoyed what we had and would happily return, although whether I would want to go as far as a pizza for pudding (hazelnut, chocolate and mascarpone) I’m not entirely sure.

Ciders are the real star of the show here though, and the menu proudly proclaims that there are 60+ available. Over half of these are on draught or bag in box which means that they have a far better selection than established cider house such as The Apple and The Orchard. It will be interesting to see if this range is maintained. Ciders on draught were Symonds Founders Reserve, Dorset Draft and Dorset Dabinett from the Purbeck Cider Company, Thatcher’s Copper Press, Weston’s Old Rosie, Sandford’s Devon Red, Lilley’s Fire Dancer and Bee Sting Pear cider. In addition to this there were 26 (yes, twenty six!) boxes racked up behind the bar and numerous bottles as well. If cider’s not your thing, there was also St. Austell’s Proper Job for the beer drinkers.

All in all this seems to be a welcome and interesting addition to Bristol’s bar scene and well worth a visit.

On 24^th July 2013 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2060 recommendations about 1962 pubs]

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