A couple of Saturdays ago was the Bristol Harbour Festival. An annual celebration of all things nautical in this great city. As you wander through the city and down to the docks the history of Bristol comes alive to you. The magnificent architecture of the corn exchange buildings, the plush grandeur of the hippodrome and the industrial might of the docks themselves. You can imagine ships from far and wide bringing their goods into the city aboard massive cargo vessels containing some of the most exciting and exotic substances from around the globe. The Harbour Festival celebrates this and as with all great celebrations there has to be food.
Thankfully the days of sail driven cargo ships are long behind us and I didn’t have to go and find my dinner at the bottom of a scorpion infested crate in order to eat. What I did have to do though was to fight my way through the crowds down to the Wapping Wharf to find somewhere to wet my whistle and have a nibble. I always find it interesting when walking to get something to eat. I know it’s a little prejudicial of me but I can always tell what type of food to expect by the type of people milling around the restaurants. I usually give a wide birth to anything that has an army of tracksuit clad, tattoo ladened youngsters hanging about as it is in my experience you tend to find cheap and nasty. I was looking for something a little more up market and trendy. With Bristol being a social melting pot of multiculturalism it never disappoints on that score. Enter stage left ‘Gambas’ Spanish inspired tapas restaurant.
Located in one of the old shipping containers on the upper levels it looks out across the street at the M-Shed. Now I will be honest it wasn’t my first choice. It was my intention to go to the Greek place just along from Gambas but that was closed. And considering it was 12.30 in the afternoon and hungry hoards where gathering I thought it would have been open and ready. As it happens it wasn’t so therefore I had to move along the deck and find another place to eat. We arrived at Gambas and took a seat outside. Nothing like eating al-fresco in the summer sun in England unless a seagull decides to relive itself of another’s Cornish pasty on you! I’m happy to announce that little pleasure was not visited upon me on this occasion. Our waiter presented us with the menu and we ordered some water for the table. Now this place is a tapas bar so we knew that the portion sizes are going to be small. I don’t mind that because at least you know what to expect? When the waiter returned to take our order we had the following: king prawns in chilli and garlic, olives, patatas bravas, boquerinos, Russian crab salad, calamari and baked tortilla with aioli.
So let’s start with the prawns. The first thing I noticed was that they where partially out of the shell. Just a gentle pull in the tail and they where free of their shell and ready to enjoy. They where juicy and flavourfull but I’d have liked a little more garlic and chilli. Never the less they where nice. The other down side was that there where three! Considering there where two of us eating it would have been nice to have had two each rather than one and a half? Olives are olives. I’m not a huge fan. Plus they had the stones in them so I wasn’t that fussed! The calamari was really good. Delicately fried they where cooked beautifully. Sometimes calamari can go like rubber bands and you end up chewing them for an age. These where delicious. The patatas bravas where delicious. In fact they where the star of the meal. Really crunchy and golden brown and lacquered in this beautiful tomato and cheese sauce. Like little golden nuggets of Spanish goodness the where delicious, like eating a little Spanish festival this is comfort food at its best. Onto the boqueronis these are little fillets of fish that have been cured and preserved in a light vinegar and olive oil. I diary had these out in Lanzarote a couple of years ago so I knew they’d be good. They didn’t disappoint, they where lovely. Their silky texture and fleshy goodness really go down well. The picking vinegar is no too overbearing and the oil not too greasy that it leaves a film in your mouth. The final two dishes where the crab salad and the tortilla. The salad looked like baby food and didn’t taste much better either. Really bland like eating a flip flop. I’ve had Russian salads before this was not a good one. I’m sure if Putin where there he’d have been reaching for that red button I can assure you! The baked tortilla, when it first came to the table I thought it was a quiche! It was a wedge of I honestly do not know what, served cold with aioli (garlic mayonnaise out of a jar!) I began to tuck in and it didn’t taste awful but it didn’t really taste of anything. It tasted interesting but I don’t know if that is good intersecting or bad interesting? Put it this way to make it tase of anything you has to slather it in this garlic mayonnaise which I think has come out of a jar? I was expecting something totally different to what I got. I was expecting something new, fresh, tasty, vibrant and exciting. What I got was a cake like wedge of cold stodge!
Overall this was a pleasant lunchtime experience. Not what I was expecting but not completely horrendous. For the two of us to eat of cost £35.00. A little steep for a lunchtime possibly but as the saying goes no one forces you! I wouldn’t rush back purely because I think you can get better quality tapas in other part of the city that won’t cost as much and probably have more of that authentic Spanish feel to it. I wouldn’t recommend this place either for the same reason. For me this place was just not good enough in my opinion. There’s a lot better in the city to choose from.
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