There can’t be too many restaurants that share space with a car wash. Hungry customers arriving on the forecourt of La Famiglia, on the road between Keynsham and Saltford, are greeted with signs advertising ‘mini valet’ and ‘super wash and polish’.
The car wash is a separate daytime business - the building is owned by the same landlord - but the restaurant occupies a former petrol station and car showroom. The family behind this Italian restaurant renovated it and turned it into the smart dining room it is today.
Of course, the car wash closes before the restaurant opens for dinner. Customers can then use the forecourt as a free car park.
READ MORE: Trendy Clifton cafe famous for its cakes to open new branch
A low-slung building with a beamed ceiling and exposed brick walls, it has the unpretentious look and feel of those modest roadside restaurants you stumble across on holiday in Italy. There’s plastic foliage and bunches of grapes, a wall of mirrors and another covered with pale pink flowers.
One wall has a huge knife, fork and spoon and the background music is a mix of 1980s Europop and the Italian opera song O Sole Mio - that’s the old Just One Cornetto TV advert song to most of us - which came around twice during our meal.
Of course, the staff missed a trick given the restaurant’s unique location. Where was that disco classic Car Wash by Rose Royce?
READ MORE: New restaurant and bar opens on King Street
On the evening we visited, La Famiglia was packed and had we not booked, we probably wouldn’t have got a table. This is clearly a popular meeting place for locals and many of the young staff seemed to know a lot of the customers.
The menu is extensive and takes in the full range of Italian favourites including good value pasta dishes, handmade pizzas, risottos, steaks and fish main courses and chef’s specials. There’s a separate kids’ menu including penne pasta with San Marzano tomato, garlic and fresh basil for £5.50 and spaghetti Bolognese for £6.50.
Wine prices are kind on the pocket, too. The house red is just £15.95 a bottle and there are plenty of other options under £20 - an increasing rarity in restaurants due to escalating costs all round.
I started with gamberoni diavola (£7.95) - king prawns with mushrooms in a spicy tomato sauce. OK, it wasn’t a looker, but what it lacked in finesse it made up for in terms of deep, rustic flavours.
The king prawns were nicely cooked and the sliced mushrooms fleshy. There was plenty of chilli, too, enough to make the tongue tingle.
For mains, I went for pepper verde steak, which certainly wasn’t cheap at £28.95 but it was only £5 more than the standard 10oz ribeye. The bistecca pepper verde was an 8oz fillet steak cooked to pink medium-rare perfection and covered with a blanket of creamy brandy and green peppercorn sauce that made for good dipping with the decent fries.
To add some colour, I ordered the sautéed spinach (£4.90) which was excellent. The wilted leaves were heady with chopped garlic and a healthy splash of Worcestershire sauce.
A thick slab of tiramisu (£4.95) had the uniform look of one that may have been bought-in rather than made on the premises from scratch. It was cloyingly sweet and not boozy enough.
Not that it took the shine off what had been an enjoyable meal in a well-run, friendly local restaurant. In fact, you could say it was an evening that was as polished as one of the valeted cars on the forecourt.
La Famiglia, 231-233 Bath Road, Keynsham, BS31 1TN. Tel: 0117 3292290.
READ MORE: Stokes Croft restaurant wins praise from Sunday Times critic
READ MORE: Bristol's Chilli Daddy restaurant crowned as best in the South West in Uber Eats award
READ MORE: I tried the veggie breakfast from Crafty Egg's new Fishponds Café and it's the best in Bristol
READ MORE: Meet the mother-and-son team bringing Balkan food to Bristol with five-course supper club
READ MORE: Review: I visited Bristol's oldest bakery with stellar food and shocking prices
