Review & Testimonials
Bristol Evening Post Saturday - 14th July 2007
Best Italian in the City?
As a born and bred city boy, places like Emersons Green scare me. I'm sure it's a lovely place to live and all that, but anywhere with a Bristol postcode above and beyond BS9 just makes me slightly nervous.
I don't know whether it's the neat, Brookside-style rows of identikit houses and the preponderance of traffic calming measures.
It may simply be because the streets always seem so devoid of people as everybody drives everywhere in places like Emersons Green and Bradley Stoke.
Perhaps it's just me stepping outside my inner-city comfort zone, but there is just a sanitised smugness about 'new' suburbs which puts me off visiting such areas.
Needless to say, until this week, I'd had no reason to go to Emersons Green. In fact, until I hopped on the number 48 bus, I didn't really know where it was apart from somewhere near Downend.
The trouble was, neither did the driver, who was new and was clearly lost. He ended up asking the passengers for directions once he'd completed a 16-point turn in the middle of Mangotsfield.
Once I finally arrived in Emerson Way, it was exactly as I had imaged. The buildings were red brick and new, there were as many estate agents as shops and there was Lidi and a Sainsbury's.
There was also an enormous pub (The Millhouse), a large brach of the Italian restaurant chain Bottelinos and gym full of people pumping iron and sweating.
And then, squeezed between a veterinary surgery and a dental surgery, there was Say Cafe - the fourth, and newest, branch of this fast-expanding chain of Italian bistros.
With its bright and breezy logo and stylish interior, South African chef Carl Say's latest opening stands out like a sore thumb.
I first encountered Say Cafe last summer when I stumbled upon its small Stoke Bishop takeaway on the hottest day of the year. I bought a portion of lasagne - made to Carl's mother's recipe- and ate it on The Downs with a chilled bottle of wine bought in the local off license. It was one of those unforgettable food moments.
Since then, Say Cafe has expanded with bistros in Hotwells, Clifton Village, Bath and London.
The Emersons Green branch, which opened on 1st July, is the fourth in Bristol - and there will be more to come as soon as Carl and his backer, John Laycock, find the right sites.
The concept of Say Cafe was a winner from day one. Serve big portions of authentic Italian food made from really good ingredients at rock bottom prices. How could it fail?
Each restaurant has a similar look - shiny open kitchens, blonde tables and floors, lime green chairs, aubergine banquettes, dusky pink walls with huge gold mirrors, a gallery of photos from around the world, black paper napkins and a tangle of copper wires holding the ceiling spotlights. It's fresh, bright and all rather funky.
The menus are divided into soups, hotpots, breads and salads are big enough for two people to share and the pasta dishes are available in half-size portions.
I started with a half-size portion of spaghetti Bolognese (£3.50 - it would normally cost £6.20) and it was as good a version of this staple dish as I've eaten. The pasta was perfectly cooked, retaining a slight bite, and the meaty, tomatoey sauce was dark, rich and had plenty of backbone. It was really superb.
As I took a breather between courses, I watched as delicious-smelling 11 inch pizzas in prices from £6.15 for the Kalahari pizza (classic Bolognese with fresh chillies) to £8.25 for the Safari (chorizo sausage, chicken, asparagus and mushrooms) and there are 11 varieties in all. Whether Emersons Green is quite ready for the Banana Boy pizza (bacon and banana) is anyone's guess.
For the main course, I could have gone for the best-selling lamb fusilli (slow cooked lamb in a tomato and aubergine sauce, topped with goats cheese, olives and fresh herbs), but I'd had that at the Clifton branch the wekk before - it was excellent.
Insead, I went for the seafood linguine, which at £8.70 is the most expensive item on the menu. The pasta was again timed to perfection and it was smothgeerd in a creamy, orange-cloured sauce of tomates, scallops, mussels, tiny prawns, fresh dill and capers which cut through the richness. Actually, it was a seriously rich dish that required a chilled glass of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc £3.50 for 175ml or £12.95 for a bottle) to swill it down.
After another much needed breather, I tucked into a deep and very zesty lemon tart (£4.25) served with an eyebrow-raisingly good raspberry sorbet. If I was being hypercrictical, I'd say the tart's pastry was on the thick side and slightly undercooked, but it didn't take the shrine off what was yet another very satisfying Say Cafe experience.
Say Cafe may still be in its infancy, but with food this good at such affordable prices, it is already becoming the best Italian restaurant chain around. The likes of Strada and Pizza Express had better watch out as this young pretender is more than capable of stealing the crown.
And, of course, the best thing about it is that I now have an excuse to go to Emersons Green - they also do a takeaway service and the bus stop is just outside.
Return to the top of this page