Other, Cannon Street: 'Quite simply, some of the best food you can get in Bristol'
Zak Hitchman, ex-head chef of Casamia, has come back stronger than a 90's trend
How do you introduce someone who wishes to remain anonymous? Let’s see. PXandTarts has been writing comprehensively about food since 2012, mainly on Twitter. Few people know our country’s restaurant scene better and even fewer can tell you about Bristol’s food in the same meticulous level of detail. He’s my favourite person to go to restaurants with and this collaboration is the second of many. We were unanimous in our opinion of Other because we both have excellent taste. Enjoy.
~ Meg.
Orange is the new black. Perhaps that was what Zak Hitchman was thinking as he painted a vibrant sunset hue on the walls of Other, his new restaurant on Cannon Street. Or perhaps he just took inspiration from the tanning salon next door.
Either way, it’s a significant departure from his previous haunts Casamia and Ynyshir.
Zak’s food, however, has not changed so much. And that’s a good thing. It’s still executed to the highest level; innovative and creative but not overwrought. It still caters best to those with small appetites but now you don’t have to take out a small mortgage for the pleasure.
It is, quite simply, some of the best food you can get in Bristol, as PXandTarts and I discovered on a recent Friday night having donned glasses and a scarf to visit incognito (he wasn’t best pleased with my previous article about the restaurant).
But first, the tableware. Many chefs lament the changing tides of crockery. Four years ago it was all clean white plates, easy to stack and dishwasher safe. Now it’s locally made earthenware which has to be hand-washed and is constantly chipping.
True to form, Zak has rejected both options and used vintage Wallace and Gromit plates in a nod to a certain nearby animation studio. It certainly adds an extra element to the excellent hot and sour crab (£7) dish to be slowly revealing the grinning face of Wendolene Ramsbottom which each swoop of crab leg.
Did Zak deliberately choose plates that reference Bristol’s position in pioneering an art form, or did he just run out of plates and have to raid a car boot sale? Either way it is an apt choice. Wallace himself is an inventor, and his creator Nick Park brought stop motion animation into the mainstream and straight into the hearts of the British public with A Grand Day Out in 1989.
Both would appreciate the playfulness and innovation that carries through Zak’s food. Crisps - potatoes (£5.5), came with dips - peanut sauce and aioli - an unexpected duo but one that worked nonetheless.
Popcorn chicken with scratchings (£7) was also a small plates highlight and will satiate anyone with an inclination to rip the skin off a roast chicken the second it leaves the oven. See also a) the best people and b) people you shouldn’t invite over for a roast dinner without being prepared to incite vengeance most fowl.
Shaun the Sheep would struggle to disapprove of his little piggy friends being turned into such beautifully soft pieces of slow-cooked jowl (£7). Both chunks were as much fat as meat, topped with sweet umeboshi sauce and citrussy shiso leaves perched like Donald Trump’s wig.
Zak proudly announced his ‘cool new smoker oven’ in Other’s first Instagram post and slow-smoked sheep (£22) would suggest he’s making the most of it. Incredibly tender morsels fringed with frazzled golden fat make for a damn good wrap when enveloped with white cabbage salad, baba ganoush and harissa. Still, it might astute to invest in a ‘cool new bread oven’ as the flatbreads were taken to the extreme - more like a crepe and a little on the chewy side.
It was the generous discs of raw scallop that persuaded us to order the mackerel with tandoori sauce and beer-braised tomatoes (£22). The flavour profile was very similar to that of the crab dish - no bad thing given how good it was - majoring on the delicate sweetness of seafood in a vivid contrast to a delightfully sharp sauce.
Ratte potatoes with black garlic mayo (£6) proved to be the only other dull note on the menu. Potatoes with skins on so rarely achieve ultimate crispness. Or perhaps they’d just missed the third round of cooking. Either way they didn’t quite live up to the innovation and promise of the other dishes. Over half were left in the bowl.
In a disappointing episode of Instagram vs reality, we’d previously spotted both the ragged skinless chips and puffy flatbreads with puddles of glistening oil on Other’s social media. If Zak had delivered on those two things as well as everything else, I’d say we’d been a little too hasty in naming Dongnae the opening of the year. Even so, there’s not much in it.
The specials board offered a ‘dessert tip’ to order both the sweet and salty doughnut (£4.5) and the honey crème brûlée (£7) and to dip the doughnut in the brûlée. We did order both.
It’s without a doubt the best doughnut in Bristol; fluffy, singed and with a faint tantalising whiff of sheep fat, though it escaped unscathed straight from Casamia, unlike the restaurant’s TripAdvisor ratings.
And the crème brûlée is the best either of us can remember. The addition of honey brings a slightly bitter floral note to the custard, which in contrast with sharp plums and shards of burnt sugar elevate an otherwise one-note dessert to something ethereal.
Other has something of a diner feel to it. The food turns up quicker than you can say ‘cheese Gromit’ and consequently table turnover is high. People either side of us seem to be constantly coming and going, which on one long table is a little disruptive, although you could try to snag one of the island tables. The pacing could be slowed down - at the moment it’s a bit like listening to your mates’ voicenotes at 1.25x speed.
After a slightly controversial end to his time at Casamia, once the Michelin man’s Bristol pick, Zak seems to have come back stronger than a 90’s trend. The bounce has not gone from his bungee and Other is a triumph. I just hope I’ll be allowed back in.
Words and photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour & PXandTarts
Other, 32 Cannon Street, BS3 1BN
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Again, lovely writing!