Ardito's Kitchen, The Royal Oak: 'So rich in flavour and warm spices you’d think the cow itself had been raised on molé quesadillas'
The World Cup just got a lot tastier
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There are a lot of similarities between a game of football and a meal out. Both last, on average, about 90 minutes. A strong team in the right positions and a solid manager will ensure success on the pitch and on the floor. The French are the current favourites, from wherever you’re sat. Throwing pizza in someone’s face is frowned upon in both cases. England would be useless on both fronts were it not for immigration. Whichever way you look at it, Pep Guardiola was briefly successful in Manchester, and Salt Bae should never be anywhere near the action.
But football and good food are so often mutually exclusive. Last week in his column for Broadsheet, critic Jimi Famurewa posed the question: Is it ever possible to balance serious culinary intent with televised football?
In Bristol, options are scarce, but certainly not absent entirely. There’s Three Brothers Burgers, Cord Kitchen at Bristol Beer Factory, The Sportsman for a Guerrilla Burger, The Pelican in Chew Magna and The Shakespeare in Redland, all of which are showing the football and serving food. And then there’s Ardito’s Kitchen at The Royal Oak.
The name will ring a bell for those with ears to the ground and noses to the wind. For the last 18 months or so, Ardito’s has operated as a pop-up in front of Lost and Grounded’s brewery/taproom, serving a concise but thrilling central and south-American offering including birria tacos and arepas.
The very same Jose Ardito can now be found delighting ravenous customers at The Royal Oak on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The walls of The Royal Oak are flanked with TV screens showing the football, meaning that World Cup revellers need no longer choose between England and a damn good dinner.
Depending on which side of the table you were sat, it was either Spurs vs Chelsea or Man City vs Bournemouth a few weeks ago. Despite my loyalty the boys in sky blue, I wasn’t really paying attention — the birria nachos (£12), which arrived shortly after we did were really very distracting, loaded as they were with dense strings of soft beef, melted mozzarella, garlic mayo and fresh onion and coriander with a pot of birria consommé.
Being a food critic is one of the least healthy occupations out there, so I’m always relieved to be presented with a bit of vegetable garnish on any meat and cheese fest. With that in mind, I would have taken some pico de gallo or guacamole in place of the garlic mayo, but once I’d resigned myself to the fact that this was going to be an evening heavy on the meat and cheese and that #fibremaxxing could resume tomorrow, I took to the basket with vigour. In fact, all evidence of them was gone — and Spurs were predictably 1-0 down — by the time our delayed dinner date had even turned up. Though if he’d suggested ordering them, I’d have enthusiastically gone in for a second round.
Come to Ardito’s Kitchen to be fed well, but don’t expect variety. Next up were three birria tacos (£14), once again loaded with cheese and that Mexican stewed beef; so rich in flavour and warm spices you’d think the cow itself had been raised on molé quesadillas and cochinita pibil. When the birria is that good — as good as any I’ve had Guadalajara or Mexico City — you don’t mind that every menu item features it, because it would be a waste not to.
Rich ordered a burger because he wanted his meat and cheese wrapped up in a bun rather than a tortilla, and being the generous man that he is, sawed off a quarter and pushed it across the table. The chimi burger (£15), one of four on the menu, is your only chance at greenery — but to get to the fresh salad you’ll have to compromise on two beef patties, bacon, mozzarella, cheddar, chimichurri and garlic sauce. As long as you’re hungry, it’s no bad thing; the patties flaunted their dry-aged flavour with caramelised edges and a just-cooked centre.
Finally an arepa (£14) arrived along with a wave of mild panic; Spurs were on the brink of being relegated, too much birria had been consumed and now a thoroughly-stuffed pocket of corn dough had to be dealt with. Carefully. One wrong move and this pabellón arepa would burst its banks, leaving yet more beef, cheese, beans and sweet plantain all over the table. Taking one small bite was a perilous operation and confirmed what we already knew; it was utterly delicious because it was virtually a carbon copy of everything that had come before it. That said, arepas are very rare round these parts, and it’s great to see the Colombian flatbreads represented in the pubs of Clifton or, indeed, Colombian fare full stop.
There was no dessert; a blessing, as I felt ready to birth a birria baby. Haaland had scored, Spurs had lost, and yet both seemed irrelevant in the face of such artistry in the kitchen. Usual order had been restored.
Until now I have been fairly loyal to Gourmet Warriors when it comes to satiating my birria needs round these parts — and to be fair I expect Easton’s (and possibly the world’s) best pub The Plough, in which they are residents, will also be showing the football this summer. So now you’ve got not one but two very good options for watching football while consuming birria tacos.
As Jimi said in his column: ‘The winners, to my mind, are those kitchens that dial in to vividly flavoured comfort, operate within clearly established parameters and bring rigour, craft and surprise to something ostensibly simple.’ He’d love Ardito’s, and so will you.
All words and photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour
Ardito’s Kitchen, Tuesday - Thursday, The Royal Oak, 50 The Mall, BS8 4JG
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I can really respect a kitchen that finds one thing exceptional and keeps building around it