As far as Bristol views go, you would be hard-pressed to find a better example of old-meets-new than the approach to the cafe that’s just opened on Castle Park.
Still being built, the 26-storey Castle Park View block of flats towers above The Vaulted Chambers Cafe, parts of which date back to medieval times.
The remaining 11th Century ruins of Bristol Castle are believed to have originally been the entrance to the great hall and are now listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
READ MORE: New lease of life for last remnants of city centre castle
Once used as a Boots chemist before the surrounding streets were bombed during the second world war, there was a cafe in this building as recently as the late 1990s but it has remained closed and derelict until now.
The eighth cafe and kiosk operated by the Bristol Park Cafes, this council-owned building has a large patio area with benches and tables ideal for alfresco lunches.
Inside, there is a counter laden with cakes, a freezer of Marshfield Farm ice cream and a fridge of sandwiches and salad pots. The cafe is housed in the Porch and the North Chamber, two stunning interconnected rooms boasting ornate stone arches restored to their original Norman splendour.
It really is a beautiful space and countless passers-by were popping in for a look around during the time I was there for lunch.
The £2.95 traybake cakes on the counter are supplied by St Philips-based bakery Cakesmiths, which now seems to supply the majority of cafes in the city. They include blueberry Bakewell, banana and chocolate loaf, and dark and fruity flapjack.
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In the first week of trading, the food was surprisingly limited and there was no sign of a printed menu or even blackboards listing the full offering.
The savoury choices in the fridge were restricted to two types of sandwich and two salad pots.
The penne pasta pot (£5.75) was the better of the two options. The pasta was mixed in with a generous sprinkling of crumbled feta, roasted cherry tomatoes with a decent flavour and sweetness and strips of chicken. It was as enjoyable as cold pasta salads served straight from a fridge can be.
And it was certainly more enjoyable than the falafel and mint yoghurt sandwich (£4). Made with slices of thin brown bread (inexcusable when there are so many great bakeries in the city), the claggy filling of crumbled falafel and yoghurt had rendered the sandwich damp and limp. It was thoroughly depressing and should really have come with a side order of Prozac.
It’s early days for The Vaulted Chambers Cafe and it’s great to see that this wonderful and historic space has been given a new lease of life. It has bags of potential and I’ll be back once the food matches the surroundings.
The Vaulted Chambers Cafe, Castle Park, is open Wednesday to Sunday from 9.30am to 4.30pm.
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