Furthermore, as already noted, it's in a pub, which brings a double benefit. First, you can get a real pint of beer with your food, and second, you can enjoy a limited selection of the food in the bar downstairs if you want to keep it really casual, or choose the upstairs restaurant. Don't be fooled though into thinking the upstairs restaurant is going to be all posh however, this is still a pub (and a proper boozer at that) and the upstairs has an informal and very often quirky style.
And then there's the food. While the Disco Bistro restaurant is a residency, it has not gone down an exclusive burger route. Nor however is it pitched as tasting menus only, showing off the chef's wares that way, the chef in this case being Carl Clarke, whose former ventures include the Rocklobsta and God Save the Clam projects (neither, we have to admit, did we sample). Rather, it is we guess what Carl wants to cook, using great suppliers (see below), to give the punter broadly what they want.
The upstairs menu in fact has snacks, which can be considered starters, followed by 'plates', yes, real plates of food, cooked and all that, and burgers of various proteins. There's even desserts, and in that sense, it is recognisable to all, not simply those in the food know, and you can even construct a traditional looking three course meal if that's what you want.
Readers of our blog will know that we are huge fans of Philip Warren who, as many of you will also know, supplies a limited wholesale market with customers that include The Ledbury, Alyn Williams at The Westbury and Pollen Street Social. On a personal level, we have been so impressed by Philip Warren's meat this past year that at Christmas, we ordered both our Christmas Day goose and Boxing Day beef from them (and loved both). It's a quality burger then with the beef inside, both the patty and the short rib, amongst the best meat you'll find in a burger. It's a mighty burger too, for there is also bacon, cheese and more on top such that when it arrives at the table, you simply stare at it for the first minute wondering how exactly to tackle it. I could barely finish it and certainly couldn't manage the fries as well.
The crackled jumbo shrimp is crackled with pork and comes additionally with spicy crab, buttermilk and fennel slaw. This burger was, however, somewhat unbalanced in our view as the spicy crab was too dominant a flavour
We visited at lunch time when things were reasonably low key, but we understand that in the evening, the place gets really quite lively. And talking of lively, even at lunchtime, as you enjoy your burger, expect the music to be pumping, for this is no ordinary bistro, this is, of course, a disco bistro.