Sorry no pictures with this one, it was a work dinner.
Zero Degrees is a small microbrewery chain that also has a restaurant. They claim to use locally sourced ingredients and the beer is made on the premises.
The Bristol branch of the chain is located on Colston Street and occupies an expansive space redeveloped out of an older site alongside Christmas Steps. The interior is like a modern warehouse, open plan and industrial with exposed steel beams. Steel pipework and vats enhance the feel. A mezzanine floor provides more restaurant seating and there are several outdoor areas on both levels. The elevated position and large windows offer excellent views over Bristol.
As you enter you will see the large beer vats in rooms with glass walls. In the centre is a long bar with some seating including a selection of rather worse for wear mock leather and steel sofas (not the slouching type). The far end of the space is occupied by the restaurant area which includes an open plan kitchen, the pizza oven taking pride of place in the centre. The open plan nature of the location makes it very noisy, even on a week night and it is made far worse by the “background” music which was being played at an intrusively high volume.
We arrived separately and TB had arranged for drinks to be billed to our table. The biggest problem being that the staff would not confess the table number so when I and later TB colleague arrived we had to go though a somewhat frustrating renegotiation to with staff to get them to add the new drinks to the existing bill. They would insist on us giving a table number and we would have to point out they had not given us one (and continued not to). Kind of guess the table number.
Talking to TB it turns out that although we made a reservation and confirmed it they could not find it. Making him wait they decided to search their system for it and finally found it on a completely different day the following week. Some negotiation led to it being move to the correct day and time.
Being a microbrewery you would expect the beer to be good, and in this regard Zero Degrees does not disappoint. The beers are flavourful, hand crafted drinks that are attractively priced at £2.90 a pint. Normally they have a core four beers on offer, Black Lager, Pale Ale, Pilsner and Wheat Ale. They also periodically do seasonal or special beers. We sampled both the Pale Ale and the Wheat Ale and enjoyed them both, though the Wheat Ale was rather cloudier than expected. You can also take the beers home in 5 and 50 litre kegs at relatively moderate prices.
When Zero Degrees first opened I ate there relatively frequently due to its convenient proximity to work, but it had been some years since I had been and was interested to see what had changed. Sadly, it did not appear to have improved in a good way.
The menu is expansive, probably a little too much so, leaving me wondering how they could do such a range well. The core of the menu is the pizza with more than 20 to choose from. These range from the standard (pepperoni, seafood, American) to the exotic (Peking Duck, Teriyaki Chicken, Caramelised Pear & Gorgonzola and Thai Green Chicken. Other items on the menu include a range of 9 pasta dishes, 5 flavours of mussel pot, salads and a weekly sausage selection. Around 10 appetizers are also listed. The cooking style is eclectic, although based in Italian style the flavours and concepts hop wildly around the world.
To start we ordered Dough Balls (served with garlic butter and chilli oil), Crispy Fried Calamari (with chilli oil) and Gamberi Prawns (king prawns in garlic, tomato and chilli served with garlic bread). The 8 or so dough balls were small almost to the point of meaness, hard and slightly charred. The small amount of overly soft garlic butter and chilli oil were served in tiny paper cups of the type you get in fast food restaurants to fill with ketchup. I have more of an expectation of pillowy, soft dough balls.
The calamari was very flavourful and well cooked, though not in any way crispy. A slightly sparse portion made to look bigger by being put in a bowl atop a selection of chopped leaves. The Gamberi Prawns were reasonably cooked, but what could have been a great dish was let down by far too much chilli that killed the flavour of the prawns. It was even too hot for TB who is reasonably tolerant of these things.
TB had asked for a glass of water before the starters arrived which only arrived after the main course. This was thematic of the service, the staff were pleasant but not at all attentive and service in general was on the slow side.
For main courses TB and I had the Peking Duck pizza and TB colleague has the Porcini Mushroom Pizza. On the positive the pizzas are large and the bases are crispy and well cooked. Toppings are rather more mixed story. On the Peking Duck pizza the Hoi Sin sauce was spread reasonably to the edge of the pizza, the rest of the toppings were clustered in the middle stopping a good inch from the edge of the sauce all around. The crispy tortillas were piled in the middle and were crisp and Tasty. The duck was very overcooked and dry. The Porcini Mushroom pizza was similar, with the mushrooms in clumps over the pizza which TB colleague rearranged for a more even spread.
There was then a substantial pause while we waited for the table to be cleared, dessert menus to arrive, then to order dessert and finally to have it arrive. TB also ordered hot chocolate and TB colleague a coffee. The desert menu is not particularly creative or inspiring, rather a come down from the dessert menu I remember from previous visits. When the desserts arrived our expectations were not high, but we were pleasantly surprised. The baked cheesecake was very light and fluffy, but definitely baked (not gelatine set) which gave good depth of flavour. Served with chopped strawberries, vanilla ice cream and a berry coulis it was the highlight of the evening. The Caramelised Apple Tart Tatin (I always thought Tart Tatin was normally made with caramelised apples, so why specify?), was also very nice. The apples were flavourful and caramelly without being mushy and the pasty was still reasonably crisp. The vanilla ice cream contrasted well with the warm tart. A good effort.
We asked for the bill and some 20 minutes later it arrived. At this point the hot chocolate and coffee had still not arrived and we were no longer prepared to wait, so paid and left. We were offered the coffee and hot chocolate for free as we went to leave, but it was rather ate by then and we all had work the next day. We arrived at 7pm, sat down to eat at 7:30 and didn’t manage to leave until 10:40. Slow! We thought the food was a little pricey for what we got, but a discount voucher brought the price down to what was a reasonable price for the meal.
The other thing they do, which is a pet peeve of mine is to automatically add a 10% service charge on every bill. It is easily overlooked which means I am sure a number of people end up tipping twice.
I would probably go back for a beer, but given the selection of other great dining locations in Bristol I am unlikely to eat there again any time soon.
ZERODEGREES Bristol
53 Colston Street
Bristol
BS1 5BA
T: 0117 925 2706
E: bristol@zerodegrees.co.uk
Food: 5
Décor: 7
Service: 4
Cost: £25 per head (3 courses and a beer) / £20 per head with discount
Date: 7 July 2011
Naked Lunch 