Writers, friends, influencers and a handful of Bristol celebs herded into the former Lloyds bank turned Lounge bar - now BANK - to sample its new menu in its entirety. The sharing plates restaurant has made a name for itself as a destination in Totterdown since 2021, an area of South Bristol scarcely populated by restaurants.
BANK’s team, led by head chef Jack Briggs-Horan (formerly The Ox, Seven Lucky Gods and Four Wise Monkeys), has spent several months curating a new menu after the installation of a bespoke new fire kitchen. They've scrapped brunch, but will still be serving their incredible coffee from Odd Kin, as a good coffee is close to Dan O’Regan's heart, founder of BANK and two-time UK Barista Championships finalist.
Speaking on the new menu, Dan said: "In the last few months we’ve been working on shifting our efforts to serve one menu throughout the day and evening that focuses on incredible, seasonal dishes, designed for sharing. We’ve got an amazing new fire kitchen, and our new menu will be focussed around the art of cooking over live fire."
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BANK's fire-cooked dishes, available for lunch and dinner sittings, include the usual suspects obligatory at most modern restaurants - 'nduja arancini (£3.20), oozy burrata with a nutty topping (£8.70) and focaccia (£4.20 per portion) smothered in either kimchi, black garlic or crab butter.
Most surprising of all was the buttered kimchi served with blue cheese and fried polenta (£7.90), ingredients so haphazard it seemed like the dish was generated by Chat GPT. Turns out it's simple yet ingenious, and dangerously delicious.
Likewise, the fire-cooked ratte potatoes (£5.50) were a sensation topped with cheddar whipped with Marmite and furikake, exuding umami flavour. The enormous Atlantic prawns (£12.30) were plump and pink, the chicken Yakitori (£8.40) was exemplary of the fire cookery.
The starters set the bar high for the large plates, which are new additions at BANK. The pork belly topped with octopus was aesthetically a work of art (£16.70) and cooked as you'd hope - the pork skin crispy and the octopus melted in your mouth. The oxtail rendang was slightly overwhelming and everyone waited to avoid being the first one to take the plunge in scrapping the meat off of the bone marrow (£15.30) - a touch too rich.
BANK's new menu leans heavily on peanuts. The smoky cauliflower with a sharp peanut sauce was a small triumph and the salty, satay tabbouleh was addictive. For dessert, the whipped peanut butter brûlée teetered too far into breakfast territory for me, but I couldn’t fault the invention, like a banana split with a caramelised, crisp top that cracked slightly with the tap of a spoon.
Likewise, the cheese course resembled my morning yoghurt and granola, instead served with a dollop of whipped goats curd with a sticky sweet raisin sauce and a crunchy oat topping. The best sweet, and one of several highlights, was the juicy pineapple of the tarte tatin, the previously crisp, buttery pastry melted in your mouth, eventually sodden from the brilliantly boozy Mezcal ice cream.
If you drink, cocktails should be mandatory when dining at BANK. The Cachaca 22 is a must (£9) with notes of jalapeno, apple and rhubarb as well as the Eternally Grapefruit (£9.50), mixed with a wonderfully earthy Mezcal. There is also a beautiful selection of wines including a Hungarian Dry Furmint (£29) and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Ukraine.
There were a couple of very tiny hiccups - the bream didn’t make it out due to chef’s concerns about quality and a fourth dessert didn’t materialise but two fewer dishes were welcomed by the end. You, of course, don’t have the go the whole hog, but for those who can’t decide, BANK offers a deal on all of the small plates for £49.
While Totterdown isn't yet as much of a food destination as Southville, BANK could help catalyse this in the future. I'd classify the restaurant as a real hidden gem but it won't be so secret for long - the new fire-cooked menu is guaranteed to draw the foodies of Bristol like a moth to a flame.
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