The Lido, Oakfield Place, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2BJ
t: 0117 933 9530
w: www.lidobristol.com
twitter: @lidobristol

I’ve eaten at The Lido for Tapas several times over the years. I’ve sat there enjoying their exquisite ice cream, tucking in to the delicious over-sized olives, praying that today might be the day that Tom Daley decides to pop in for a dip, and pretending that I’ve been transported to the mediterranean for an afternoon.

But shockingly it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that I got round to trying their upstairs restaurant. It was the week before Christmas and my birthday so as my lovely boyfriend offered to treat me to lunch we decided it was the perfect occasion to try somewhere new.

For those who haven been, The Lido is an outdoor Victorian swimming pool and spa with tapas bar and restaurant. It might sound odd, its not, its lovely. It takes some finding, tucked away just off Oakfield Road, but its worth seeking out.

We chose the set menu, partly because it was such flippin’ good value and partly because everything looked delicious. The bread and oil we had to start was beautiful. Clearly homemade and loads of flavour. My boyfriend (a keen bread baker himself) marveled over the airiness of the bake. It certainly tasted great.

To start I had crab served in a rich and creamy sauce, Sam went for his favourite – scallops. They were well cooked and beautifully presented. A great start to the meal. Sam’s main course was pork with chorizo, there was a strong spanish influence of flavours and he wolfed it down. The meat was tender, the veg well cooked.

I had a venison tagine which was a beautiful dish. Served with apricots to give it a marvellous sweetness, the meat had been cooked slowly and literally fell apart. The butternut squash gave well balanced flavours and made it a fantastic meal.

Dessert caused a bit of a kerfuffle, I ordered an ice cream duo, one scoop of rum and raisin and one of chocolate, however first they brought me a chocolate pot, and then when I sent it back they came out with just two scoops of chocolate – by this point I’d lost the will to complain so cut my losses and enjoyed the chocolate on its own. It was fabulous ice cream, thick, velvety and indulgent. I’m a big ice cream fan anyway but this is definitely one of the best I’ve had.

The only downer for me was that the service was a little slow and chaotic. The chap who greeted us and showed us upstairs was helpful but there were a couple of occasions where the restaurant staff could have done with being a bit more attentive. We had to chase up our wine, and our bill, had to prompt them about ordering dessert and then handle the issues of it coming out wrong. It didn’t spoil our meal, and the staff were all very polite but not quite as on the ball as I would have liked.

All in all a wonderful meal, I’d recommend the Lido to anyone, beautiful food in a beautiful setting.