I tried the Spanish pasta restaurant on the worst night to review it

It was, in hindsight, probably the worst night to sit at Pastan, a bright and much-talked-about pasta restaurant in the heart of Bristol city centre, with the intention of writing a review.

Because before we arrived it seemed like most things that could go wrong did go wrong for the friendly staff and to review it under such circumstances is unfair. But thankfully there were enough positives to recommend the place and enough hits among some misses to make us want to come back again.

The restaurant was full, but there was only one member of staff at the front of the house. He was nice, friendly and apologetic – a problem with the caterers meant they ran out of wine AND beer apart from non-alcoholic beer – oh and also the tone, which I doubted would be missed someone. His manager was enjoying a two-week holiday – people do need holidays, to be fair – but that left him alone serving all the meals, and it was far too much even for this unsung hero.

Read on:

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As someone who has worked in cafes and restaurants before, I’d like to think I’m more tolerant than most, and in any case, I didn’t come for super efficient service. No, we came for the food, and Pastan certainly has a growing reputation for that.

It opened on the corner of Prince Street and Royal Oak Avenue (the road connecting Pero Bridge and Queen’s Square) in early 2023. The first Pastan opened in 2020, and now the one in Bristol is one of only five in Europe – at the Barbican in London , in Barcelona, ​​​​Fuengirola in Malaga and in Brighton. Niche company Bristol is there…

It’s a Spanish pasta restaurant with a nice, bright, modern, airy, casual atmosphere, so let’s get stuck in.

I don’t normally have an appetizer – when people I go out with say those immortal words “are we having appetizers or puddings?” they’re puddings all the way to me – but this time we thought it was fair. I had the fried gnocchi, which come with a variety of sauces – I chose cheese – while Mrs C went for something called ‘Countryside’ – mini ravioli stuffed with mushrooms, simply dressed with truffle oil and topped with chopped chestnuts . We did that annoying thing of sharing a little with each other and I can honestly say we got a better deal.

The gnocchi were the best I’ve ever had. The sauce was incredible, the gnocchi cooked perfectly. I would have had this again as a main if I could. I would eat it every day for a week and never get tired of it.

The ravioli, however, was a bit meh – probably because Mrs C asked for it without truffle oil, to be fair. But without the truffle oil it was pretty bland.

For mains, they do a wide range of pastas and five different pizzas. I chose the paella, which has orzo pasta instead of rice, while Mrs. C went for the “meat feast” pizza – bacon, chicken, sweet corn, barbecue sauce. It was immediately clear who had the hit and who had the miss here. The pizza was just great, very tasty, not too filling and it was perfect.

Paella, however, was essentially a children’s meal. It looked and tasted like the kind of thing I would hastily cook for my kids when they were five and three. Picture the scene – my kitchen, hungry kids, grill, pan on the stove, and I’m popping one of those frozen bags of rice and veggies (peas, peppercorns, you know that sort of thing) into the pan. and tossing on top some chicken nuggets and a chorizo ​​cut into thirds from the grill.

I’m not saying these were the actual ingredients, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out they are. That’s what it looked like and didn’t seem to have any real flavor.

I know what you’re thinking. What was he thinking going to a famous pasta restaurant and ordering paella? Well, I love paella and it’s actually a Spanish pasta restaurant, so I thought it would be interesting. That was definitely it. So I greedily went to the pizza in front of me.

Then on to dessert. It wasn’t a great choice – a cheese board, three flavors of ice cream, those flavors of ice cream again but with different liqueur added, or mini biscoff donuts – six for £8.90 or nine for £12.50 . I had the £6.50 double scoop ice cream and it was quite nice, but the mini donuts beckoning to me from across the table were absolutely incredible.

Hot, filled with soul-enhancing biscoff sauce, topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, they were worth the admission fee alone. Or at least £8.90.

So lots of hits and a few misses, which were harder misses given the range of costs at Pastan, quickly approaching £100 for a three course meal for two, and next time I’ll try the pasta – the dishes being eaten either by foreigners. the part of me looked wonderful.

And there’s one more thing I didn’t mention – everything, every single thing, on the menu was plant-based: the delicious cheese sauce on the gnocchi, the pasta itself, the cheese and meat toppings on the pizza, the ice cream, and even and the chicken nuggets and solitary prawn nuggets on the paella. You’d struggle to tell if you didn’t know beforehand, so far plant-based ingredients and cuisine has arrived.

We left with full bellies and no animals injured in the process, saying goodbye to our overwhelmed waiter, wishing him a raise or – more importantly – a colleague to help us out.