Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

With the organic produce all around it is little wonder that this enterprising venture is universally popular. One of the charges not infrequently levelled at organic produce is its rather rough and ready appearance before it hits the pots, but here even that minor shortcoming seems to have been ironed out of the process, encouraging more and more people to visit the shop before they leave.

If it's been a heavy night and you are making a morning visit, think in terms of a bacon butty, or for the more indulgent a full-house English breakfast with some of Phil's dark marmalade, jam or honey. Or perhaps an early lunch, and it would be a brave man who enquired if the rabbit casserole owed anything to a former recent resident of the walled garden. A recent visitor described in glowing terms the accompanying roughly chopped carrots, onions, wild mushrooms and a dark seductive sauce. Never having knowingly been seduced by a sauce I found the prospect deeply appealing. The spinach and mushroom tart is also popular. For pudding there is local bread and cheese, washed down with apple juice, or try the homemade apple and pear crumble, a sort of bucolic Eton mess.

But food, location and quality on one side, the most striking feature of the whole place is almost certainly the pricing. On average it is probably fair to say that for the standard of dishes served you would pay roughly three times as much anywhere else. A splendid lunch for two without wine will cost you around £24.

Juniper's striking deep blue frontage with large windows certainly makes it stand out along the Cotham Road as a smart and inviting little eatery. A quick look at the menu soon assures passing trade that this place is worthy of trying. Starters include such temptations as fresh devilled crab and sautéed woodland mushroom tartlet, or creamy Welsh rarebit with chopped sage and roasted onion. Choices that stand out from the crowd on the main course list range from fillet of wild sea bass on a bed of pesto rice flavoured with red onion, Dolcelatte, fresh basil and toasted pine nut, or fillets of local milk fed veal, thyme roasted root vegetables, fresh yellow Mirabelle plums and a delicious rosemary scented gravy. Mains are all around the £15 mark, whilst desserts are £4.50 for the likes of strawberry and honeycomb fool, or Baileys and banana bread and butter pudding. Sunday lunch sees a slightly different but equally tempting menu, priced at £9.95 for one course, to £14.95 for three and wine from £12 per bottle.

Reviewed by Linda Buttle

If you're looking to catch a glimpse of Latin life and cuisine this side of the Atlantic, hop right in to any Las Iguanas outlet across the UK. Each eatery is designed differently and brings out diverse flavours and colours - from the stillness of the Argentinean Pampas to the energy of Rio at Carnival time - some outlets are bathed in colour while others are more sober. Don't be surprised if you come across a few life-sized Latinos too.

All the action is centred on the food, a fusion of native Latin American, Indian, Spanish, Portuguese and African influences. Their signature dish called xinxim, Brazilian lime chicken in a creamy crayfish and peanut sauce with rice, fine beans and sweet plantain happens to be football legend Pele's favourite.

The tapas menu served throughout the day offers braised chorizo in Rioja wine with country bread; peri-peri, crisp cassava coated chicken with Brazilian style hot garlic; crayfish marinated with fresh mango, and quesadilla, a chargrilled tortilla filled with portobello mushroom, melted brie dressed with homemade tomato, garlic and coriander salsa.

Argentinean steaks are simply seasoned, flame grilled and served with potato, salad or cassava fries. Traditional fajitas - hot sizzling platters with onions and bell peppers, served with homemade salsa, pickled jalapeños, sour cream, guacamole and warm tortillas can be enjoyed with chicken fillet strips, steak, mushrooms or artichoke and squash.

Latin rhythm in the background and an extensive choice of wine, cocktails, champagne, beer and caipirinha, made from their very own cachaca, Brazil's national drink produced in their own sugarcane plantations  complete the picture.

Desserts such as Ipanema mess, made of creamy mascarpone, natural yoghurt, raspberries, guava preserve and crushed meringue lend the meal a befitting end.

If you are looking for a café that is different, this is the place for you. Arguably the best cuppa in town, you may have to fall over the odd recuperating student to find a seat, but for good choice, well-brewed and in reasonably quiet surroundings Boston Tea Party takes some beating. Nor is it just the drinks, the food is tasty and imaginative, along the lines of chick pea stew, butter bean stew, sarnies and panini.

A heated terrace garden makes for pleasant overflow surroundings.

With some twenty five years in business, Curry House in Bristol has perfected the personable and unceremonious approach that delights visitors to this informal yet stylish Indian restaurant.

The food is mostly Indian, whilst occasional Bangladeshi influences are noticed in the assured and simple cooking at Curry House. An excellent buffet menu may by chosen over a no less attractive à la carte that includes the likes of minced lamb mixed with fresh herbs and barbecued in a clay oven and king prawns, slightly crisped, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. Amongst the specialty dishes cubes of chicken or lamb tikka cooked in cream, butter beans and almonds, in the chefs own unique recipe, never fails to receive compliments from patrons.

Curry House is located right opposite the ITV television studios, so don't be surprised if you bump into a few celebrities as you step out after a hearty Indian meal.

In a city not overburdened with restaurants dedicated to the fruits of the sea, Fishers is a welcome port of call. The commitment is pretty total too, from the porthole on the kitchen door to the rather lonely non-fish dishes on the menu. Starters could include grilled sardines with plum tomatoes, well stuffed with feta, pine-nuts and basil oil, or a smoked salmon and avocado salad with brandy dill dressing. One is immediately conscious of the quality of the food and presentation, as well as the generosity of the portions, a constant factor throughout the meal.

Some say that Harry Ramsden was responsible for the notion of fish cooked with a beer batter overcoat, though it seems more likely he jumped on a good idea and gave it a wider audience. Either way, it is practised at Fishers with great skill, making an everyday dish into something special. A whole lemon sole is always a treat, particularly if it has been spared some of the over-fussiness that this wonderfully flavoured fish sometimes suffers at the hands of those who really should know better, and at Fishers they do the job just right.

Every so often it seems that seafood restaurants tend to run out of steam by the time the pudding is reached, but at Fishers the treats don't end with the fish. Delicious banana fritters and a quality sticky toffee pudding leave no doubt that there is a restaurant that is reliable and has good standards.

A lively ambience with terracotta walls, glass-top tables and Indian music videos playing on the big screen set the stage for a vibrant evening at Kashmir in High Street, Eaton. Enjoy chef owner Abdul Shakoor's curry specialities especially those of Kashmiri provenance.

From the foothills of the Himalayas, sample such dishes as Ayer fish, kofta bhuna, balls of minced lamb in a spicy thick sauce, king prawn bahar in the chef's special sauce, tandoori trout, chicken or lamb tikka with mint sauce and Kashmiri biryani made with meat and an array of spices, nuts and vegetables. Other options include chicken tikka pakora, lamb chops, prawn puri, seekh kebab, okra balti style, butter chicken, lamb rezala, chicken passanda, king prawn dhansak, tandoori chicken and vegetable korma. Fish fingers and chips, chicken nuggets, scampi and chips, fried chicken and mushroom omelette add more variety to the menu.