We were out this evening for a friend's birthday at a local restaurant that we haven't tried before, the Clifton Kitchen. It's actually the site of Keith Floyd's first restaurant in Clifton. It's a tiny little place, rather tucked away and although it's gone under a couple of different incarnations since we've been in Bristol, we've never got round to going there. As a big group, we had more-or-less the whole of the little basement room to ourselves, which was nice and the food started off well. I had a nicely-presented boiled duck egg with tenderstem broccoli soldiers; fun and tasty too.
Sadly, my roast lamb came in a particularly peppery sauce. I struggled through most of it, but ended up leaving the last bit as the peppery taste built and built. It's one of those things I've sort of got used to being a pepper-hater. I try to remember to ask for no pepper on things that I know often have it sprinkled over the top (like eggy brunch dishes) or if I spot it liberally added to other diner's plates. But you just can't predict when it's going to be in a sauce. I wouldn't have let it put me off the restaurant (it's not their fault I don't like pepper!), but Tris's sole was rather uninspiring too - a bit plain with just a few capers for flavouring and no veg to speak of. Would we go back? With so many good restaurants about, we probably wouldn't make a special effort to revisit.