Deco Lounge
Deco Lounge is the fourth in a very small, very successful chain of restaurants. I have never been to any of the other Lounges, why would I want to do that? Deco Lounge is above all a neighbourhood restaurant. It’s not a destination, you can’t make reservations, and it’s the place you go when you want a good meal, without spending too much or walking too far. Since the Lounge opened sometime last year I have been there countless times. I have been there at 10 am for a coffee, I have been there for breakfast at the weekend and I’ve been there for a bottle of wine with friends. I’ve had a sandwich lunch there and I have had many dinners there. The success of Deco Lounge is that it does all of these things equally well. It’s your local bar, café and restaurant all at once. It is something many local restaurants claim to be able to do, but few manage it, either charging too much, making those who are merely drinking unwelcome or not offering a decent lunch menu. Deco Lounge does not fail on any these criteria.
The interior is warm and friendly with dark red walls, chunky wooden tables and old sofas giving it a vaguely Central Perk atmosphere. There are mysterious black and white photographs on the wall, that I have been told are of the one of the owners family. Frankly I could live without them as they are not especially aesthetically pleasing, but they add some instant history. Strangely for restaurant that has been open less than 2 years the overall effect is slightly dated, but it is welcoming and comfortable. My one quibble is that the disabled loo is up a fairly steep flight of stairs in the main body of the restaurant. This doesn’t seem very accessible to me, but it’s hard to see where they could have put it on the ground floor.
The service is okay I suppose. The employees are mostly young and pretty and are as friendly as they need to be. However I do take issue with the speed of service – I have often waited an hour for my food although usually it’s about 30-45 minutes. This is too long I feel. There is a sign near the bar warning that service is slow ‘We serve good food slow not fast food good’ or some such nonsense. Fine. But an hour? Not good enough.
Enormous blackboards provide the menu, which offers a selection of paninis, ciabattas, salads, meze and specials. There are also standbys such as the Deco Burger and steak and chips. The most interesting section is the Specials which is large and changes frequently and is almost always very good. In the past I have had dishes ranging from razor clams with chillies and coconut broth to coq au vin with buttered linguine. Both were excellent and perfectly cooked. I would normally hesitate to order razor clams from this type of bistro menu, as it could so easily go horribly wrong. My faith was repaid however and the clams were delicious, the chilli and coconut milk adding a much needed Thai flavour. I ate the coq au vin when I had a disgusting head cold, so my palate was not working at full flavour analysis steam. But it was just what I wanted. Soft, comforting, with strong winey flavours to penetrate the thick coating of goo in my head, it was the best dish of coq au vin I’ve had in a long time.
Deco Lounge 50 Cotham Hill. Tel: (0117) 373 2688
Mains £4-12
Wine available by the glass or bottle
Disabled Access? Yes so long as you don’t want to use the loo.
Major credit cards accepted
Opening hours 9am -11pm
The interior is warm and friendly with dark red walls, chunky wooden tables and old sofas giving it a vaguely Central Perk atmosphere. There are mysterious black and white photographs on the wall, that I have been told are of the one of the owners family. Frankly I could live without them as they are not especially aesthetically pleasing, but they add some instant history. Strangely for restaurant that has been open less than 2 years the overall effect is slightly dated, but it is welcoming and comfortable. My one quibble is that the disabled loo is up a fairly steep flight of stairs in the main body of the restaurant. This doesn’t seem very accessible to me, but it’s hard to see where they could have put it on the ground floor.
The service is okay I suppose. The employees are mostly young and pretty and are as friendly as they need to be. However I do take issue with the speed of service – I have often waited an hour for my food although usually it’s about 30-45 minutes. This is too long I feel. There is a sign near the bar warning that service is slow ‘We serve good food slow not fast food good’ or some such nonsense. Fine. But an hour? Not good enough.
Enormous blackboards provide the menu, which offers a selection of paninis, ciabattas, salads, meze and specials. There are also standbys such as the Deco Burger and steak and chips. The most interesting section is the Specials which is large and changes frequently and is almost always very good. In the past I have had dishes ranging from razor clams with chillies and coconut broth to coq au vin with buttered linguine. Both were excellent and perfectly cooked. I would normally hesitate to order razor clams from this type of bistro menu, as it could so easily go horribly wrong. My faith was repaid however and the clams were delicious, the chilli and coconut milk adding a much needed Thai flavour. I ate the coq au vin when I had a disgusting head cold, so my palate was not working at full flavour analysis steam. But it was just what I wanted. Soft, comforting, with strong winey flavours to penetrate the thick coating of goo in my head, it was the best dish of coq au vin I’ve had in a long time.
Deco Lounge 50 Cotham Hill. Tel: (0117) 373 2688
Mains £4-12
Wine available by the glass or bottle
Disabled Access? Yes so long as you don’t want to use the loo.
Major credit cards accepted
Opening hours 9am -11pm
posted by Bristol Girl at 5:13 PM
5 Comments:
A new Lounge has opened in Totterdown (where I want to buy a house!). It would be great to sample each of the lounges and write about all of them! What do you think?
Well, if you must eat fish, why choose mackerel? Unfit for human consumption in my view, unless you have caught it yourself and taken it directly to the grill. However, I am pleased to report that, owing to the strength of my personality, or the vigour of my complaints, or something, my local supermarket now stocks monkfish, hitherto unknown in darkest California. I plan to cook it with an avocado sauce as a change from the conventional method with tomatoes.
Hello Ma,
I know YOU don't like it, but the Boy and I do. And I do buy it very fresh from a reputable fishmonger. Besides, it's cheap and healthy.
FYI, it is customary to for your comment to relate to the topic under discussion in each post. The comments link it at the end of each post and the relevant comment should be left there.
Helene, I think a tour of the Lounge chain is an excellent idea. Perhaps we can order a steak in each one for the purposes of comparison!
I had steak and chips with onion rings and pepper sauce at the Tinto Lounge (Horfield) a few weeks ago and it was excruciatingly bad. I asked for the steak to be rare and it was well done and tough as old shit. The onion rings, which are normally the cherry on the lovely cake at the Deco Lounge, were meanly filled and soggy, the chips were like flimsy, insipid (and cold to boot) Macdonalds chips, and the sauce was like dirty dish water. Yuk! Won't be going there again. The Deco Lounge clearly has a far more competent chef.
Oh that's too bad - as i said i've never been to any of the other Lounges because Deco Lounge is so handy. It's unfortunate that the quality has not been maintained.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home