Brace & Browns, Clifton, Bristol

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Blackthorn _ left this review about Brace & Browns

Formerly Deason’s Restaurant, this has now been given a new lease of life as Brace & Browns. There’s a good sized decking area out the front with plenty of patio umbrella and heaters, and this was full to capacity on a recent, sunny Tuesday evening. Inside it feels a little dark in comparison, but is nonetheless pleasant enough in a contemporary sort of way.

The flooring is polished wood boards and the colour scheme cream and an unusual peachy colour. One wall is covered in wallpaper depicting Victorian packaging labels. There’s a single leather sofa and armchair near the front, but other than that it’s all chunky wood tables and chairs. There are a few interesting caricature drawings of well known food stuffs on the wall (e.g.; Lyle’s Black Treacle, HP Sauce, Heinz Beans) where the edges of the product dissolve in to a splatter of paint droplets.

The menu offered a few pub classics such as ham, egg & chips, fish & chips and a selection of omelettes and burgers, but concentrated mainly on a good selection of tapas dishes. These were priced at £3 each, 3 for £8, 4 for £10 all the whole menu for £60 if you’re feeling really hungry! To start off with we were very impressed with these, thoroughly enjoying our Tempura Prawns with chilli sauce, Miniature Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding and Anchovy Fritters with Beetroot Dip among other things. We soon realised though that most of the dishes contained either batter in some form or toasted bread – a little more variety would have been good, although that may just be our fault for what we ordered.

The two guys behind the bar were switched on and friendly, but they could clearly have done with some more staff there. A packed patio as well as a number of other punters inside led to a long wait both for bar service and food to arrive. The harsh acoustics were rather noisy, not helped by a group of cackling females at a nearby table.

The solitary beer on tap was Butcombe. There was a second pump although this was not in use. The only cider was Thatcher’s Gold.

On 15^th June 2011 - rating: 7
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