Harbour House, The Grove, Bristol BS1 4RB. (0117 925 1212). Snacks and starters £4-£9, mains £11-£22, desserts £4-£7.50, wines from £21
For years it was the Bristol restaurant I only ever passed on the way to somewhere else. I was always responding instead to the beguiling call of the city’s seemingly endless stream of new and diverting eating options; to the promise of handmade pastas, or ripe stews drawing on French country cooking traditions, as if summoning the ghost of Bristol’s most beloved culinary son, Keith Floyd. I liked the look of the place, hunkered down there on the edge of Bristol’s Floating Harbour, but nothing made me think I should bother to stop.
