BOX-E | Bristol (UK)
Uncomplicated dishes, possessing great quality, with all ingredients belonging on the plate. BOX-E proves that size really doesn’t matter!
Two standard shipping containers, a stove called Sandra, and two inspiring owners, kind of sums up the bedrock of BOX-E in Bristol. Wapping Wharf, facing the harbour on the south side of the city centre, is home to Cargo, a retail yard made of stacked converted shipping containers. A collection of container-unit restaurants, some with outdoor seating, offering from steamed bao to exotic beers, burgers, tacos and vegan curries.
Opened in 2016 by husband Elliot (Chef) and wife Tessa (Front of house) Lidstone, BOX-E is a fine-dining restaurant upstairs at Cargo 1. An open kitchen, walls clad in chipboard and blond plywood, with room for 14 diners plus 4 at the kitchen counter.
Head Chef Elliot Lidstone worked his way up through the ranks after a course at Plymouth College. He became Head Chef at L’ortolan * and earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand at the Empress in Hackney, East London, before returning with his wife and two daughters to his native West Country and Tess’s home town of Bristol. This year BOX-E also received the Michelin Bib Gourmand.
BOX-E is open for lunch on Wednesday to Saturday and for dinner on Tuesday to Saturday. The succinct à la carte menu offers 4 Starters (at £6.50-£8.50), 3 Mains (at £14-£17.50), 2 Desserts (at £6) and a Cheese plate (at £7). The Kitchen Table gets an unwritten 7-course tasting menu (at £45). Unfortunately that tasting menu isn’t offered to the other guests.
We had lunch last week Saturday. We decided spontaneously the night before to visit Bristol and were lucky to fill a late cancelation for lunch the next day. Not at the kitchen counter, so we selected three courses from the menu.
Fresh crusted sweet white bread, served warm, with a quenelle of whipped butter flavoured with salt and seaweed.
Smooth and creamy parsnip soup, mildly spiced with curry. Delicious seared scallop, with its natural sweetness matching perfectly with the parsnip. Flavoursome bowl of comfort!
Celeriac soft and gently charred for bit of smokiness. Enhanced by the grated smoked Pendragon Buffalo cheese. Lovely cheese with a buttery texture and a very distinctive strong and savoury flavour. Pickled walnuts provides a bit of contrast, as does the nose-tickling mustardy vinaigrette. Simple but nice.
Chef Elliott Lidstone at work just a few feet away. The Kitchen Table is on the far side. But I say all tables may be called Kitchen Tables as all are closer to the kitchen than the chef’s table at most other restaurants!
Beautiful blushing pink lamb, nicely charred on the outside. Below the lamb are braised Borlotti beans and delicious salsa verde lifting the beans and giving the whole dish meaning.
Crispy skin on the stone bass with a precise cuisson. The black rice is like barley providing great texture. Sharp spring onion butter adds refreshing flavour. No supporting roles on this plate as all elements star in this fishy production.
The glossy quenelle shaped chocolate mousse was beautiful silky and rich. A variety of textures with soaked Griottines cherries, cherry sauce and pistachio nuts. Nice!
But this was my favourite dessert. Vanilla panna cotta, wobbly just within a whisker of collapsing into liquidity, as light as a dream. Lovely with hazelnuts and tangy rhubarb.
Although it’s a very intimate setting, the atmosphere felt a bit distant. Don’t get me wrong. the service was perfectly fine and the hostess (Tessa Lidstone wasn’t there herself) was friendly and efficient. I just missed some interaction I guess. Also from the chef as he is so close. But the only interaction was with the four eaters at the kitchen table. A missed opportunity I think.
But the food is excellent! Served on rustic plates and bowls, made by Tess’s fellow Backwell School alumna, potter Carmel Eskell, Uncomplicated dishes possessing great quality, with all ingredients belonging on the plate. The parsnip soup, stone bass and panna cotta were my favourites, but every course displayed refined and robust cooking. Menu prices are more than reasonable as well.
A clear asset at the container dining scene of Bristol. Restaurants don’t get much smaller than this, but BOX-E proves that size really doesn’t matter!
