A Birthday Night Out

What feels like a billion years ago, but is actually just a couple of months, Scott and I went out to celebrate his birthday. Why it's taken this long to say anything about it, I'm not sure, but as it was one of the best evenings ever we wanted to share it, even if this is now ridiculously overdue.

Thanks to the wonderful world of twitter and some very hearty recommendations, we finally arrived at our choice of resturant, and a tip for a place to have a pre-dinner drink.

So, we started the evening at the excitingly secretive Whitelock & Grace, a fantastic new addition to Bristol's drinking establishments located next to Clifton Down railway station. They do serve other drinks, but our priority was trying out their exciting cocktail menu, which is both reasonably priced and tasty delicious. A double whammy of greatness. To top it off, they're really friendly and chilled out. We were sad to leave after a fairly short stay, but also very excited to move on to the eating section of the evening, especially as we had booked a table at Flinty Red, a hop, skip and jump over Whiteladies Road to Cotham Hill.

An evening of delicious food and wine ensued - we decided to push the boat out and enjoy several courses. In fact, one of the best things about Flinty Red is that there is a range of sizes of course and you can have some dishes in different sizes. The other best thing about it (apart from the delicious food) is that Flinty Red is co-run by the wine merchants of the always excellent Corks of Cotham (just up the road) - going to a restuarant where you are happy to ask for wine recommendations, nay, seek them out, was a new and extremely pleasing experience. And let's just say, they knocked it out of the park everytime.

Amazing goat curd, quince, celery leaf and walnut salad - great combination of textures and flavours

We enjoyed many foodie delights. To start we shared Anchovy toast (fishy and buttery deliciousness) and grilled monkfish liver (delicately cooked and served with spring onion which nicely balanced the richness of the fish), which was accompanied by a glass of Lambrusco (a discovery we made before Christmas at Corks) for Scott and a glass of Weisser Burgander for me. We then moved on to Innes Goat Curd w. quince, celery leaves & walnuts for me (which I think was actually my favourite, such a perfect combination) and gnocchi with rabbit for Scott. The carafe of Massaya went very well with both. After our middle course we had another, consisting of veal onglet (Scott) and chesnut & squash ravioli (me) for a main course (annoyingly I cannot remember the name of what we drank, but it was excellent - a red, but not too dark or rich). Then came the cheese, a rich and creamy Bleu des Causses with quince jelly and a good strength and piquancy of blueness, washed down with a glass of Negromara. Seeing as we'd come this far, we said yes to pudding and ended the meal with Affogato with PX (the ice cream was maple & walnut)....not to mention a nightcap (or two) at our new friends, Whitelock & Grace. The hangover the next day was definitely worth it.