Fifty

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Fifty

Tony Benjamin is impressed by his blind-tasting date at this smart Clifton Village newcomer where seasonality is writ large

There have always been nice places to eat around Clifton’s ‘village’ but it’s noticeable that Bristol’s finest dining destinations are elsewhere these days. With Michelin stars twinkling over Westbury on Trym and Chew Magna, Clifton Village’s claim to foodie awards rests on the shoulders of two hotel restaurants: the Rodney’s No 4 and the Avon Gorge’s Bridge, each with an AA rosette.

It’s a situation that might change, however, with this summer’s arrival of Fifty at the former Blue Rhubarb site in Princess Victoria Street. After working together in the Channel Islands, Scott Chance and Dany Lancaster bring CVs packed with experience at the fancier end of contemporary cuisine and an admirable ambition to make a big impact. Sharing a commitment to seasonal food – with foraged wild ingredients always welcome – their not unfashionable aim is to create surprising dishes from well-sourced ingredients.

The smart decor is a great start, with the previously intense purple now muted creams and browns that give the room a light spaciousness, and the cool purr of a jazz soundtrack adds a relaxing tone. The menu offers a short ALC selection of conversation-starting dishes or a tempting seven-course taster menu at £55 a head. While tasters often let you really discover how a chef’s skills pan out, the intriguing thing is that Fifty don’t actually tell you what the meal will be – that depends on the chef and the day’s ‘catch’ of fresh stuff. With The Lovely She’s ready agreement, we bid in, only to face the challenge of picking a wine to match an unknown meal. Even the sommelier can’t tell us what’s coming, so we pick a light and fruity brouilly beaujolais (£24) and hope for the best.

And the best is what we get - in a cavalcade of richly flavoured small-plate dishes that catch the eye and please the tongue. There’s an amuse-bouche of richly (home-)smoked aubergine baba ganoush served with homemade potato crisps and perfectly browned balls of melting pork, quickly followed by jugs of silky carrot soup poured at the table over aromatic heaps of toasted seeds, fried capers and garlic so the flavours merge before the seeds can soften. That’s followed by a house speciality – an upturned glass full of smoke concealing a seared scallop on a pillow of finely chopped crab, apple and celery. It’s a theatrical nod Heston-wards, of course, but, more importantly, gives a light breath of smokiness that suits the luxuriously tasty ingredients perfectly.

Course three was a slender ingot of sweet pressed pork with a kimchi-style pickle of thin-sliced vegetables rolled into a plait. The pickle lacks a peppery Korean punch but makes a gentler combination with the meat as a result. It’s followed by a hot fishy stack - clams, prawns and mussels topped with a crustily fried steak of sea bass with a briny foam of Noilly Pratt suggesting a beachy tide. The dish is an amusing cocktail of flavours, with richly buttery samphire adding to a happy seaside diversion before the decidedly inland fifth course. Pinkly roasted wild rabbit is served with roast baby carrots, gravy and tapenade. The latter’s crumbs of black pudding make a fabulous combination with the succulent meat, though me and She disagree about pale spots of coriander paste on the plate – refreshing (me) or gloopy (She)?

Happily the ultra-rich dessert of volcanic chocolate fondant – at once crisp and liquid – and brandy-braised cherries dispels all disagreement and prepares us for the locally sourced three-cheese selection that follows and introduces me to White Lake – a sophisticated and creamy goat’s cheese from Shepton Mallet that’s somehow never come my way before. Intense espresso with petits-fours rounds off an impressive meal to perfection, and while we may have differed about taste, we both agree that this was immaculately prepared food with nary a duff note across the board. With many of these courses featuring on the ALC menu, there’s every reason to believe that Fifty will become a byword for Cliftonian fine dining that will bring in foodies from way beyond the village.

CONTACT

FIFTY 50 PRINCESS VICTORIA ST, CLIFTON VILLAGE, BRISTOL. FFI: 0117 973 3711, http://www.restaurantfifty.co.uk/

THE VERDICT A reliable investment in top-class contemporary dining