For my birthday, I was lucky enough to be taken by Louise and Nathan to ZeroDegrees, a microbrewery located on Park Row in Bristol.
I hadn’t been to ZeroDegrees before, although had sampled their beers at various Bristol festivals and had passed the building many times. Despite this, I was still a little surprised to see that the building does contain the whole brewery! (Why was I surprised, I knew this!) The atmosphere of the restaurant was noisy, unsurprisingly as it seemed to be very popular with large groups. Despite this, the food was brought to us quickly.
The starters were large enough to be main courses, which might be a problem for some people, but since I hadn’t eaten properly since Thursday, it was fine! I had calamari with sweet chilli sauce, which I love but not many restaurants seem to serve!
The main course menu is quite heavily pizza based, with some quite unusual toppings. They say that they “shared a vision of redefining the traditional concept of pizza by translating UK’s favourite flavours and tastes on to a great pizza.” I had a Mango Tandoori Chicken pizza, which was so good, very fruity and not too spicy.
Desert was quite basic, a New York style baked cheesecake with strawberry coulis and ice cream. Yum!
The prices of the food isn’t too bad, about £9 for the pizzas – as with many places, you order the main and thats just what you get – in my case, a large pizza on a plate (that although was really nice, and not burnt or anything, was really difficult to cut with the cutlery provided!) We had debated on getting side orders, but when the mains came out, it was a good thing we didn’t!
The main reason people go to ZeroDegrees is because of the beers they serve. I had a pint of a random French blonde beer that they were currently brewing – when the waiter was telling us the different beers available, he turned his nose up slightly when he said about the French beer. It was a good blonde beer, not too heavy but still quite yummy. Nathan had the IPA, which was a good ale as well. I’ve previously tried the Mango beer that they are serving at the moment which reminded me of Hoegaarden more than the French blonde beer did. ZeroDegrees has certain beers that they serve all year, and then specialty beers that are done for a few months. They have a marvelous animation on the website which fascinated me about how the beer is made (you can see it here)
Overall, the food was good, but its not really the sort of place you would go if you’re looking for an intimate evening. They are able to deal with large parties quite well from what we saw, so book a place if you’re looking for somewhere to go as a large group!
Website: www.zerodegrees.co.uk
Address: 53 Colston Street, Bristol, BS1 5BA
Phone: 0117 925 2706
Opening Hours: Mon–Sat : 12–12, Sun: 12–11
I really liked the ZeroDegrees in Bristol, so I was looking forward to it when they opened one in Cardiff – but I’ve found the Cardiff one to be a bit rubbish – really bad service and snobby door staff! Just a warning!
I go to the Cardiff one quite a bit – especially post work for their brilliant Happy Hour prices (5-7pm I *think*!) and despite strolling in wearing my biking gear (bike clips around the ankles and a fluorescent vest) I’ve never been met with a snobby attitude. In fact, the staff have always been really friendly.
I found the Bristol one to be a bit dingy compared to the glass fronted Cardiff location and the one guy serving was really dismissive about the Mango beer saying it was the most popular one .. implying that the fact compromised its integrity! …
I suppose, as it does everywhere, that it depends on who’s working! I felt like I was really interrupting their conversation by trying to get a table, and being looked over dismissively along with a “Who let them in?” comment on the way out didn’t really help. Pizza was good though!
I find ZeroDegrees too noisy for my taste and the pizzas, while alright, aren’t a patch on the ones from A Cappella on Wells Road. Jus’ saying :)