Western Daily Press (Saturday)
A hint of buzzy Barcelona on the streets of Bradford on Avon
IN my experience, it’s usually a mistake to settle for second best when it comes to eating out but I’m rather glad my plans went awry on this occasion as I wouldn’t have otherwise ended up at Pablo’s Bistro.
In a moment of Christmas chaos, I had forgotten to book the restaurant I intended to review on Saturday night and arrived in Bradford on Avon to find it fully booked with, quite literally, ‘no room at the inn, Sir’.
Cold, tired and hungry, and with a limited number of trains home, I had to find somewhere to eat pretty sharpish.
Like most market towns during the festive season, there isn’t a huge amount of choice when it comes to dining out in Bradford on Avon on a weekend unless you have booked well in advance.
But then I spotted a waitress unbolting the door of Pablo’s Bistro and opening for the evening. Like everywhere else in town, it had ‘reserved’ signs on every table, but there was space for me if they could have the table back by 7.15pm, which seemed a reasonable enough deadline.
Despite visiting Bradford on Avon frequently, I hadn’t noticed Pablo’s Bistro before, but it opened in 2015 and owners Alun and Trish Pugsley appear to have made this small, family-run tapas bar and restaurant a popular local hang-out.
As their names might suggest, the Pugsleys aren’t Spanish themselves, but they are passionate about the country and its food, and all the cured meats, cheeses and olives on the menu are imported directly from Spain.
Head chef Andrew Lee may have holidayed in Spain but he appeared to be as British as the owners. My waitress was also quick to tell me that she was Hungarian, so I was starting to wonder how authentic this tapas joint was despite the walls being covered with vintage Spanish film posters and bunches of chillies dangling in the window.
Any concerns were soon allayed when I saw the menu, which caters for vegetarians as generously as it does for fish and meat eaters.
In normal circumstances, such a lengthy pleases-all menu sets off alarm bells, especially when the kitchen is so small, but Pablo’s Bistro is clearly busy enough to keep things moving and everything is cooked to order.
Boring as it might sound, patatas bravas (£4.25) is always a good test of any kitchen majoring on Spanish tapas classics and these fried potatoes were crisp, crunchy and smothered in a properly spicy bravas sauce and a dribble of garlicky aioli. An impressive start to a meal that just got better with each course.
A sizzling earthenware dish of gambas (£6.75) was packed with firm, meaty king prawns, fried slices of chorizo, salty Serrano ham, red onion, yellow pepper and enough garlic to keep any vampires at bay on the dark walk back to the railway station.
Best of the bunch was the slowcooked rabbit (£7.95) with its sizeable chunks of tender bunny languishing in a sweet and sour sauce punctuated by piquant bursts of flavour from the capers and olives.
From a dessert menu that had all the right sweet notes for tapas bar favourites, from the crema Catalana to the vanilla ice cream drenched in Pedro Ximenez sherry, I went for the churros (£5.95) – a trio of swirly doughnuts encrusted with so much sugar that I half expected it to be served with a fast-acting insulin epipen rather than a glossy chocolate dipping sauce, ice cream and strawberries.
With the candlelit restaurant now filling up and crackling with conversation and vintage James Brown on the sound system, Pablo’s Bistro was already feeling like a buzzy tapas bar in the warm back streets of Barcelona rather than Bradford on Avon on a damp Saturday night.
As I left, I spotted a specials board advertising suckling pig with crispy potatoes – surely reason enough to make Pablo’s Bistro my first choice booking when next in town, rather than the last-minute, unbooked punt it was on this occasion.
RATING
4/5