Last week, we were invited to head over to the Stove Monkey Smokehouse – the recently revamped kitchen at the Love Inn on Stokes Croft. The kitchen is now run by Head Chef Brendan Baker – formerly of the River Cottage Canteen – and features a variety of southern US-style dishes with a twist and a focus on locally sourced ingredients. They’re also now offering Sunday roasts, which seem to have been going down well…
The Love Inn is a former bank that retains elements that hint at its former use: at the back of the main room you’ll see a heavy safe door that leads through to the old bank’s former safe before heading out into the small paved courtyard garden. Decor-wise, it’s certainly an eclectic place: slatted wooden tables and benches sit alongside green plasticky booths along the right hand wall, which is adorned with huge mirrors, plenty of ivy and various posters. A DJ booth by the front windows shows that you’ll find regular local talent on the decks, and an extensive bar menu includes some interesting beer choices, plenty of spirits and even a short cocktail list.
We were there for the food, making our choices from the below menu. On the night of our visit, a chalkboard also informed us of two specials (a half rack of BBQ pork ribs with fries and corn salsa, or a black bean gumbo with fried chicken and salt fish), while a separate board listed the desserts (we were disappointed to be too full at the end of the night to try the peanut butter and salt caramel cheesecake…)
Both the starters and the mains looked great, and so we decided to order both. We were understandably a little surprised when our burgers were brought to the table first…we questioned this with our server who told us that our starters were on their way. A minute or two later he returned to the table to let us know that they had been missed off the original order that was put through to the kitchen, and asked if we’d still like them. Naturally, we said yes – and also said yes to the offer of ketchup and mayonnaise to accompany our fries.
We both ordered the beef brisket and pickled walnut burger on a dripping trencher, priced at £8.50 and coming with a choice of one side order. Rather than a trencher in the traditional sense, it was served on a roll, which held together nicely throughout the meal. The pickled walnuts came in the form of a tangy relish spread on the base of the roll – its flavour great on its own, but somewhat lost beneath the huge mound of meat that the roll contained. The burger itself was cooked pink, which we both loved, but was a little underseasoned.
I chose to accompany mine with the chilli cheese fries while Chris went for the garlic fries – both came complete with skins, which was another positive. My chilli con carne was packed full of black badger beans and the occasional tender chunk of flavoursome salt beef, and the whole dish was topped with plenty of well-melted cheese. The garlic fries were just as good, with a level of seasoning that was strong but not overly pungent.
Shortly afterwards, our starters arrived – along with the ketchup and mayonnaise, which were a little too late. First to be tried was the deep-fried buttermilk bunny legs (£4.75) – a well-seasoned southern-style crunchy buttermilk batter which peeled back to reveal an incredibly meaty and tender interior. Delicious. The dish was accompanied by two sauces: the fruity but incredibly hot option from Dr. Burnorium, and a very sweet BBQ sauce too.
We had also ordered the anchovy and brown shrimp toasts (£2.95), which were most definitely too generous as a starter-sized portion. Three massive slabs of toasted bread were slathered with a herby and slightly spicy mixture, with the flavours of the anchovy and brown shrimp a little hidden amongst the other flavours. We loved the strips of pickled cucumber that accompanied it, though.
All in all, a bit hit and miss. The concept of the place is great and the burgers are very different to those served anywhere else in Bristol, but there’s a bit of refining that needs doing and we had a few service issues too…
Please note: this meal was received free of charge, but in no way impacted on our opinion. We were not obliged to write a positive review, and the venue did not see this review before it was put up on the site.