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Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'Immaculate' ingredients and a melon dish that is 'pure summertime succour' - Tom Parker Bowles is impressed by a sunny new spot in Bristol
Bristol, on a blazing Thursday lunchtime, and there's nowhere I'd rather be. As we perch on the terrace of Ragù, a new Italian upstairs at Wapping Wharf, in the shade of a vast umbrella, I realise I've yet to have a bad lunch in what is little more than two storeys of repurposed shipping containers. There's Seven Lucky Gods and Root, and Gambas, where I first came across Mark Chapman, manning the stoves before going on to open the excellent Cor in Bedminster. He's now back as co-owner of Ragù, with his wife Karen, and he's done it again – no faff or fuss, just cooking that captures the pared-back purity of proper Italian food. There are baby artichokes deep-fried in the Roman style, getting that all-important combination of soft heart and crisp leaves. A swaggering aïoli adds to their bronzed allure. Then Tuscan mortadella, lusciously piggy, with great ivory blobs of fat, topped with cornichons and a lusty glug of olive oil. And sea bass crudo, clean and pristine, with black olives and slivers of orange and onion. Melon with prosciutto and tomatoes sees the sweetest, most fecund and heavily scented fruit, draped with silken ham and a few leaves of basil. Every ingredient is immaculate, and all it takes is a sprinkle of salt and still more grassy, peppery olive oil, to create a dish of pure summertime succour. Classic, but beautifully done. Pasta is equally adept – tagliolini with a mass of fresh white and brown crab meat, lots of lemon, a whisper of chilli and pangritata (deep-fried breadcrumbs) for discreet crunch. My old mate Mark is less keen on the fregola with fennel sausage, judging it a touch too oily. But I'm more base than he is, and crave the gleaming porky slick. Next, slow-cooked lamb, formed into a thin patty and served on a pea ragù, with a jolt of salsa verde and a sprinkling of pecorino. It's both rustic and refined, the acidity perfectly judged. For pudding, a peach and basil sorbet that's River Cafe good. It's one of those lunches that doesn't put a foot wrong, the sort of Italian that should grace every neighbourhood. As the last of the pudding disappears, we sit back, order another glass and ease into a sun-dappled, postprandial Bristol afternoon.
The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ragù, Bristol B3: ‘I recommend it wholly, effusively and slightly enviously' – restaurant review
Ragù is a cool, minimal, romantic ode to Italian cooking that's housed in a repurposed shipping container on Wapping Wharf in waterside Bristol. No, come back, please – don't be scared. There are tables, chairs, napkins, reservations and all the other accoutrements of a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, even if this metal box may at some point in its existence once have been used to ship things to China and back. To my mind, Wapping Wharf has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and no longer feels at all like one of those novelty 'box parks' that have about them a heavy whiff of the edgy temporary fixture. Today's Wapping Wharf is a true independent food destination in its own right, and with a bird's-eye view from one of Ragù's window seats, while eating venison rump with gorgonzola dolce and sipping a booze-free vermouth, you can watch the crowds head for the likes of the modern French Lapin, Tokyo diner Seven Lucky Gods, modern British Box-E, Gurt Wings and many more; by day, there's also a bakery, a butcher, a fromagerie and so on. Of course, anyone who calls their sophisticated modern Italian restaurant Ragù clearly didn't live in the UK through the 1980s. For me, as for many others, ragu will always be sold in a glass jar and advertised via caterwauling operatic ditties during the breaks on ITV's London's Burning: 'Ragu, it brings out the Italian in you,' etc. This was back in a time when Britain's attitude to Italian cuisine stretched, broadly speaking, as far as spag bol, though many of us were at a loss to tackle the 'bol' part of that equation without Unilever's industrially squished sieved tomatoes at 79p a jar. Those days are long gone, however, and the evidence is clear to see at Ragù, with its crisp, lightly battered artichoke fritters with a punchy aïoli, its Hereford onglet with cipollotti onion, and its cannoli with rhubarb curd and pistachio. Ragù caters to a young-ish, knowing audience who are well aware that Britain's current Italian dining culture was shaped by the River Cafe, Angela Hartnett and Giorgio Locatelli. Owners Mark and Karen Chapman opened Cor on North Street, Bedminster, in 2022, where they serve clever, fancy yet erring-on-the-hearty Mediterranean plates – think Catalan sausage with clams and fino butter sauce followed by tonka bean creme caramel. At Ragù, meanwhile, their focus is wholly Italian and, to my mind, this could be some of the most skilful cooking anywhere in Britain right now. I recommend the place wholly, effusively and slightly enviously of anyone who gets to taste the heavenly tiramisu made with sumptuously soggy slices of panettone before I get the chance to return. After the artichoke fritti, we moved on to a bowl of humble-sounding 'crespelle in tomato brodo, spinach and sheep's ricotta'. That's cheese pancakes in tomato sauce, right? Wrong. Very wrong. This was the greatest, richest, most drinkable-by-the-bucket tomato brodo I've ever tasted. Juicy, sweet, sharp and rich in all the right dimensions. What are they doing to tomatoes back there in that tiny kitchen? Next up, slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, pulled off the bone, shaped into a loose patty, placed on top of a fresh pea stew and dotted with a sharp salsa verde and earthy pecorino. The star of the show, however, was the Ashton Court venison, cooked rare but as soft as butter, then given plenty of colour in a hot pan and served on pungent gorgonzola with bone marrow butter. This is not a dish for the faint-hearted or slender of appetite. Those wanting something lighter might opt for the skate wing with salmoriglio and courgette and fennel salad, or even the tagliolini with Devon crab, but this is cooking that lends itself to excess. Service was fantastically prompt throughout, as the young team coped with the Saturday night chaos with calm aplomb. Desserts are another highlight, with three types of Italian cheese (robiola la tur, ubriaco rosso and taleggio) and a gelato, which on that day was a pink grapefruit and Campari sorbet, but please leave room, if possible, for the chocolate budino with sour cherries – a thick, almost-too-much truffle-type cake with huge, boozy cherries and crumbed amaretti biscuits. It's like an Italian take on the St Emilion au chocolat, or perhaps the French stole it from the Italians in the first place? I'm not sure who makes it better, but it's a fight I'd happily referee. Either way, Ragù might very well be my favourite new restaurant of 2025, and we've barely reached summer yet. All hail the Bristol riviera. Ragù Unit 25, Cargo 2, Museum Street, Wapping Wharf, Bristol BS3, 01179 110218. Open lunch Tues-Thurs, lunch noon-3.30pm, dinner 5-10pm; Fri & Sat all day, noon-10pm. From about £40 a head à la carte; set lunch Tues-Fri, £30 for three courses, all plus drinks and service.
