Breakfast review – Tinto Lounge, Bristol

Right then, first bash at a review – met up with a friend for brunch this morning at Tinto Lounge on Gloucester Road.  It’s a nice, friendly little bar/cafe/eatery up in Horfield with quite a wide menu (burgers, steaks, all sorts, and brunch stuff served all day…), teas and coffees and some decent beer on tap – two very good ones today, Bath Ales Dark Hare stout, and nice lighter ale, also from Bath Ales, called Toga Man, which I particularly enjoyed as it was served in an old-fashioned pint pot!  Given that it was breakfast i also bowed to convention and had a coffee.


View Larger Map
On to the food.  Service was a wee bit slow today – it was quite busy with lots of families in, and not a huge amount of space.  The kitchen also seemed to be prepping for a later service, but the waiting and bar staff were friendly and apologetic (our food turned up at about 10 minute intervals…).  Trina and our friend Jason both had eggy bread (£4.50) with bacon and maple syrup – American stylee.  It looked really good and Trina managed to polish hers off pretty much before mine arrived! Reliably informed it tasted good and was great value.

I went for their standard Lounge Breakfast (£6.50).  Good quantity – gives two slices of bacon rather than one (which really annoys me).  But… what i’d assumed was a sliced sausage was a strange sausage patty, the bacon was a bit on the crispy side, and the toast was a bit underdone… they also appear to have left my baked beans under a heat lamp for a few minutes too long, as they had that lovely skin on… On the upside, the patty was actually quite tasty, the black pudding was nice, the egg was perfect (though served with a parsley leaf, which was somewhat redundant…) and the hash browns were… well… hash browns.  In all, it was good and filled a hole – good enough to require a pint of Toga Man to wash it down… – but if we go there again, i think i’ll join the fashionable crowd on the Eggy Bread.

Overall, i like Tinto – the staff are friendly and while it’s a little crowded (it could lose a table or two)it has a good buzz about it.  I have eaten there once before a few years ago, and the food then was also good quality – simple but nicely done.  Overall, 3.5 our of 5 i think – though the beer and service definitely helped that mark.
Cheers!