Always Eating

For Valentine’s Day, my partner and I wanted to try a new (to us) place for lunch but were after somewhere small, not pretentious, with Asian cuisine and at a reasonable price point.  We don’t often celebrate Valentine’s Day and aren’t romantic by nature so an expensive tasting menu by candlelit with lots of sentimental couples smooching wasn’t high on our list!   We decided to try Mangosteen, somewhere my younger brother recommended on his last visit to Bristol (he lives in Essex now with his lovely wife and bonkers dog and I miss him a lot) because of their lunch menu, and I’m glad we listened to his advice.  Mangosteen is a Thai Tapas restaurant with three small locations dotted around Bristol and we visited the Cotham Hill location.  It’s an intimate sized space, perfect for cosy dates, and has a great selection of small plates to choose from. 

Their lunchtime Tapas Deal includes four small dishes (marked with an astrisk from the main menu) and two drinks (either house wine, Singha or a soft drink) for £30, which is a great price and portion size for two people.  However, we ended up spending more because we ordered additional dishes, amended our drink choice and paid extra to add meat to the vegetarian dishes.  Hey, it was Valentine’s Day, so we decided to treat ourselves!  Spoiler alert: we didn’t regret this!

We chose Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice with chicken, prawn, vegetables and a fried egg), Pad Thai (Thai rice noodles with chicken, egg and peanuts in a spicy, tangy sauce), Golden Prawn Bags (garlic and herb marinated shrimp and prawn in filo pastry served with a sweet chilli relish), and Chicken Spring Rolls (served with a plum sauce).  We also ordered the Sweet and Sour Aubergine because aubergine is one of my favourite vegetables and I almost always order it if it’s on an Asian inspired menu, even though my partner isn’t so keen.  The Aubergine dish was my favourite, it was soft and sticky and worked well with the sweet pineapple, shortly followed by the Nasi Goreng as I love fried rice in any way, shape or form. 

I was intrigued to try a cocktail as I thought their flavour combinations sounded really exciting.  I order a Gin Peach Tea Crush (gin, mango syrup, peach iced tea and lime juice topped with prosecco) which was fizzy, fruity and flavourful.  And the elephant mugs were a cute touch.

The staff were friendly, the service was efficient, the food came quickly and was piping hot.  I would definitely recommend this spot for small parties, who are after a filling lunch after shopping on Whiteladies Road or going for a walk around The Downs.   I’d like to go back with a couple of my female friends to try a few more of their delicious cocktails!  Click here to have a look at their menu.