A Favourite

Rating - Overall: 4  Food: 4  Service: 4  Ambience: 4

mynameishenry
Rookie Reviewer
Member since Sep 11
Rating: 0

28 Sep 2011

If the key to success for a national (or global) chain is consistency, then the key to delivering above the base expectation has to be the staff.

Ask’s Bristol branch has nestled comfortably in the constantly shifting eatery- landscape of Park Street for years and we’ve been visiting for most of those.

Over this time, they’ve managed to keep hold of some front-of-house staff for usefully long periods and it’s to the restaurant’s great credit as this has helped theme achieve an independent restaurant feel on a corporate template.

There’s been the odd anomaly but, on the whole, the staff have been friendly, efficient and interested. The never-seen back-house team have delivered well on the consistency side, with few of the wild variations that you can experience elsewhere.

Ask Bristol

As with quite a few of their sites, the estates team have picked a great old building and translated their interior design basics to suit the original features of the place – in this case, they’ve enjoyed good fortune in having the legacy of a former Bristol great, cafe-restaurant ’51 Park Street’ to work with. Glass, brass, staircase, wood and ironwork compliment the seasoned old bar that welcomes you to the front bit (bright, airy, intimate) or the back bit (a bit claustrophobic for some reason and feels a bit like a wooden spoon offering). It’s getting a bit past ‘characterful’ now and heading into ‘tired’ but there are regular tilts and freshening – plants and such.

Either way, you’ll be attended in the right order, looked after well and won’t have to wait too long for food or incidentals. Busy times mean you can spend a while craning for mid-meal attention but this is in favour of them getting the main dishes out, so it doesn’t feel like neglect. Not that often anyways…

Ask Brisol Interior

The menu is broad, changes to it infrequent and boosted by daily, pasta-biased specials. Although there are no departures into uncharted topping territory, the quality is good and the application is OK – they suffer from being light-handed with the cheese and meats on occasion, which feels like the chef is penalising you through a stock-balancing act to compensate for their more generous sprinklings on an earlier shift.

Never let it be said however, that they skimp when offering a grating of Parmesan at table – if you don’t say stop, they keep on going.

They keep the toppings on the light side across the board in truth, the only compensation being that they buy good quality ingredients and, if you like quite a few different toppings, you won’t end up with a soggy, undercooked middle.

Dough: Good but not the best, nice slightly chewy texture.

Cheese: A weak point if you prefer a stronger blend.

Sauce: Rich, not overly sweet and not always applied in decent quantity but a plus point nonetheless.

The bruschettas are good, flavoursome and substantial but then they should be for a fiver or more. Salads are small and not always as fresh as they could be.

Kids get good attention with a limited yet good menu, things to colour in and a banging milkshake if you want it.

Pasta, I’m told, is always good and well composed and the specials allow the chef to get a little more expressive.

It’s expensive. At least its just slightly the wrong side of the middle ground. They make up for this for regular 2-4-1 vouchers and the like so go armed, but in reality these will only shave about £7 off your bill. A small Peroni is the best part of £4 and a large glass of good-ish house red – avoid the Merlot – is, at it’s cheapest over a fiver and at it’s most expensive an eye-watering £7.05. It’s just not as good as they say it is and not worth the money.

Pizzas are inevitably going to set you back under a tenner if you choose from the set options; well over if you add any extras. These come in at £1.30 for meat and fish and a quite punishing 85 pence for veg. It seems that 85p for half a chopped chili seems like profiteering. Which is, of course, the aim of the PLC.

Overall bill? 2 grown-up nains, 2 kids meals, a couple of drinks, a side or two and a dessert (the kids one’s are included) will easily be over £50. It’s pricey for a quick lunch.

In short, you’ll enjoy yourself. You can’t avoid feeling like you are buying the corporate formula but they do it as well as anyone.

What’s with the candle-holder/mini fishbowl wineglasses though?

www.pizzagalactica.com

Visited: September 13, 2011
What I ate: A fier meat freakdown of my own design + lots of other things

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