Lunch at Lost & Found, Bristol: A Review

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Hey Owlets,

Today I'm back with another restaurant review and it's quite a bitter-sweet one if I'm honest, as today's foodie trip was a bit of a tale of two halves. Lost and Found opened on Clifton Triangle a few months ago and I was invited to try it out.

The first thing you notice when you walk in is that every corner of the restaurant is an Instagrammer's paradise - in one corner there's a stunning artificial rose bush with fairy lights running through the branches that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding, in the other there are slogans lit up in pink neon. Each Lost and Found bar is decorated around the theme of a mythical professor and the Bristol bar's inspiration is Elizabeth E Lightfoot, an astronomer. Pieces of her imaginary life can be seen everywhere, from a telescope towards the back of the bar, planetarium chandeliers and fairy light stars everywhere you look, it's the perfect homage to her imaginary life. While all of this is beautiful, I do find it a little confusing - if you look on Instagram their account is Elizabeth E Lightfoot, not Lost and Found, and the lack of cohesive brand makes it difficult to find the accounts without going to the bar first. Maybe that's the "lost" part.

The thing that Lost and Found do best is without a doubt their incredible cocktail offering. In fact it's difficult to choose just one drink - they range from a fairly normal looking drink that tastes amazing, to something far more "out there" that looks incredible but you might need to be a little braver to try. I was torn between pear-flavoured "Picture Perfect" that comes with a personalised polaroid (I think the measure of if you've had too many is if you can say that sentence), and the "Mr Black". I chose the latter and the only way I can describe it is that it tastes like Costa Coffee after hours. It's a mix of vodka, coffee liquor and caramel syrup, and it's one of those dangerous drinks that you could be sipping on all night and suddenly realise you've lost your legs when you go to leave. The cocktails are quite pricey - they average around £10 per drink and I didn't see a happy hour- but they're great for the novelty so it's worth it to try something different.

The first thing we ordered was the antipasti to share. We would've liked to have ordered the Fritto Misto but we were told they wouldn't be able to cook it separately to squid, which I'm badly allergic to, so make sure you check if you have any allergies before ordering to make sure it won't be contaminated. Even though the antipasti was our second choice I think it did us a favour, as the quality of the meats and the cheese was incredible, and I think Dad was ready to walk into the kitchen and ask for a jar of gherkins because they were that good. For £18 the starter was really impressive, good quality and not too small for the price so I would definitely order this again. However, that's where the positives start to dwindle.

One of the things I must say is that the staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating. I ordered the pork which would usually come with rosemary potatoes but I swapped this for the pomegranate and spring onion sweet potato wedges - they said they wouldn't normally do this but because it's for a review they would. There's definitely a reason why they wouldn't normally put them together; it wasn't the right combination. In fact I didn't feel that sweet potato, pomegranate and spring onion went together at all. The pork was nice but nothing spectacular, it was just "ok". The steaks were quite pricey but they're half price on certain days of the week which makes it a lot more reasonable. Dad ordered a ribeye which would normally be £30 - unfortunately what he received was tough and very overcooked (he ordered the steak rare, and it came out medium to well done), so neither of us enjoyed our meals and ended up leaving a lot. The one part of the main course I did enjoy was the caesar salad, so if I was to go back I'd ordered the antipasti and a salad to share.

We were offered a second round of drinks and dessert, but after the greasy pork I really didn't feel like eating anything else, so we ended up leaving straight after mains, which is quite unusual for us.  In fairness I wanted to let you know that I emailed the PR to let her know that I wasn't impressed with our meal and she asked me to write the post anyway, which I really appreciate as before now I've been asked not to write the post when it's not been a good experience.

On a whole the staff were amazing and the cocktails are fun and tasty, but if I was spending an evening on Clifton Triangle I'd start with a drink at Lost and Found for the novelty and great Instagram opportunities, then head elsewhere for food and cheaper drinks.

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

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*photo: Google