The Urban Wood, Bristol

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Blackthorn _ left this review about Wild Wood

This is in many ways more of a café/bar type establishment than your traditional pub, but that said they serve pints on draft so it's well worth a review. I first went in here a couple of years back, a few days after it opened. It was quiet then as business was yet to build up, and we spent some time chatting to the owner. He had been working at various other bars around Bristol making money for other people, and had decided he wanted to do something on his own. He seemed a nice guy, and had his girlfriend working there as well. Good luck to him I thought, it's great to see people trying to make a go of something themselves rather than have all your profits draining away to some faceless corporation.

A couple of years down the line and the place seems well established. Mrs. Blackthorn was out nearby on Friday evening and tells me the place was packed, and whilst it was fairly quiet when we got there at about 6:00pm on Saturday, it soon started filling up. Bar staff were helpful and friendly, although it was not they guy we had seen when it opened. Maybe he's got a manager in there now.

The bar area itself it quite small with a bench seat in front the windows, a few chunky wooden tables and a couple of sofa's. There's also another room at the rear, although that looks as though it may be more geared up for eating. In fact when we were there pretty much everyone was eating, but you wouldn't be unwelcome just popping in for a pint. There was a decent looking menu including a breakfast/brunch range, so presumably they're open quite early. That looked enticing, I'll have to give it a try on another occasion. The rest of the menu had a reasonable selection although it wasn't really your traditional pub grub (this is a trendy café/bar remember!), and there was a small specials board above the bar. The food itself was a bit of a mixed bag – I had the burger which was a decent, chunky home made affair with both bacon and a fried egg included, along with salad and fries. Good value at £9, I thought. The chorizo and potato salad on the other hand was less impressive. Still perfectly good, but the portion size was more suited to a starter than a main course.

Only one beer on tap, which was a Belgian offering called De Koninck. I didn't try it, but it certainly had the appearance of a bitter rather than a lager as you might expect. There was a specials board above the bar that listed the guest beers, although these were all bottled and consisted mostly of fruit beers, “lager” beers and wheat beers. The only more conventional offerings were a couple from Bath Ales. They had Stowford Press cider on tap though, so I was happy.

On 2^nd August 2010 - rating: 6
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