Cow & Sow (Clifton)

Wow! So good! Came here for a birthday dinner and had the best time. I’d highly recommend. The food was impeccable, my partner is a vegetarian and had the most amazing dining experience, we usually spend our time in restaurants talking and talking but we were totally silent for about half an hour as we ate. Everything was incredibly delicious, my fillet steak was to die for! However, our favourite part was the incredible service. From the minute we stepped in the hostess was welcoming and friendly, she was so lovely and set a high standard of high quality. Our waitress Meg was incredible. She was very kind and friendly, she really made the night for us. A big thanks to all the staff working tonight, especially the woman who recommended our wine, as they truly made the experience wonderful. We will definitely be back! The staff really do work hard and it shows, everyone was so so lovely. If you’re in the Clifton area PLEASE go to this restaurant you won’t regret it. 10/10

Amazing place for an exceptional meal. Staff all fantastic. We was celebrating our son’s graduation 👨‍🎓 he received a glass of bubbly on arrival. Lovely atmosphere very busy which is good to see. Chef is amazing!! best steak cooked to perfection . We had the porterhouse for 2. Taste amazing and we are a family of butchers so we know our meat. Highly recommend this place. 5 stars from us

We were visiting Bristol and stumbled upon this restaurant. The food was great and we were served by Becs and Asa who were both incredibly attentive and friendly. Thanks for making us feel welcomed and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this lovely city :)

Lovely setting, smart decor and delicious steak and chips. Finished it off with caramel tart and ice cream. It was a very rare lavish lunch on a weekday afternoon but I'd finished work and was heading for the weekend! A great experience, made to feel welcome and had a chance to relax. Will definitely be back.

We chose this place to celebrate my birthday because my husband and I are true meat lovers. The staff were extremely polite, attentive, and always smiling. They showed us to our table and surprised us with a glass of champagne for my birthday – such a lovely touch. For starters, we had the beef bone marrow, which was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious – a must-try! We also enjoyed the sea bream ceviche, which was refreshing, light, and full of flavour. For the main course, we chose the single cut fillet, cooked medium. It was perfectly tender, juicy, and packed with flavour – we loved it! On the side, the onion blossom was fantastic, and we would 100% recommend it. We also ordered the smoky sweet potato, which paired wonderfully with everything. For sauces, we had the beefy blue cheese and béarnaise, both of which were excellent. For drinks, we tried the Peach Spritz and the Raspberry Nojito mocktails – both were amazing, but the Peach Spritz was my personal favourite. A huge thank you to Asa and Meg, who looked after us so wonderfully and made the evening extra special. Also, many thanks to the chefs and the whole team for such an unforgettable experience!

We came to Cow & Sow for a later evening meal after a long journey from Devon, before we continued on home. We rang before to check they catered for coeliac's and dairy-free - which credit to them, they were brilliant with. Upon arrival we were given tailored menu's, they were very careful and went above and beyond here. The staff were also very friendly and welcoming. Sadly, the food was very disappointing. I ordered a fillet steak at a price of £35 including the side of smoked bacon dauphinoise potato at £6.95 and seasonal greens at £5.95 - as nothing comes included with your steak except the sauce. I asked for my steak to be medium-rare, but when it first arrived it was bordering on blue. I appreciate this happens with steak, so sent it back politely. When the steak came back, it was slightly more edible for me but unpleasantly swimming in blood. My friend had nearly finished her meal and I was too tired to send it back again. The potato was extremely bland, and very dry. It was not dauphinoise - no creamy, garlic sauce as expected. The seasonal greens were fine, but very watery. My friend had ordered the flat iron, chips and grilled baby gem which was fine but everything was rather under-seasoned. Although the chips were lovely and crisp and the steak cooked well considering it was dairy-free. We asked for the bill, which came to just under £100 between the two of us with no drinks except tap water. During our meal, we weren't asked how our food was which didn't provide the opportunity to speak up and we didn't feel comfortable speaking up again after initially sending the steak back. It wasn't until we paid that there was any mention of the quality of the food, but we were both wanting to continue on our journey home at this point so we didn't comment - in hindsight we should've as we feel embarrassed to have paid full price. We've both had much better quality steaks elsewhere. We don't mind paying more when it's worth it, which we didn't feel this was. Especially at nearly £50 each, as a 10% service charge was included, which is a lot of money at the moment. Although, both having allergies we'd like to reiterate this was dealt with brilliantly and we had no doubts.

Update: After being offered a steak on the house by the staff after my below review in an effort to redeem themselves, my opinion has improved. I’ve upgraded the food stars to four and the overall review to 3 as the scoreboard is still 3 bad visits to 1 good visit. This latest time, all steaks including the new porterhouse were cooked perfectly and everything was delicious. It’s just a shame that it had to come about after 3 bad experiences. I will go once more some time and see which trend continues. Hopefully the good one. Then I will upgrade my review again. Original review: 2 of my three visits have had overdone steak. One of which was very very overdone. That was today. 900g porterhouse ordered to share in medium rare. It arrived well done, and in some places even more than well done. So much so that it was hard to chew and very dry. Most pieces were at medium-well to well done, with the edge pieces very very well done. about 3 pieces were pinkish but in the mouth were still tough and dry overall. Another time visiting here, the steak was cooked only slightly over, but acceptable. The third time was in the city centre branch, in a party of 6, where everyone's steaks came overdone by at least one level. Today, since we had already waited 45minutes for the food we couldn't be bothered to send it back for a new one and just dealt with it. A £25 discount was given for this as the server did see that it was too well done, but honestly, it should have been offered for free given its state. I cannot recommend this steakhouse, and won't be returning. There are better and more reliable options elsewhere. Before today I was willing to give another chance and thought it was just bad luck, but after three chances it seems to be a pattern. For £10.50 per 100g, this is unacceptable really. Crispy Squid starter was great though.

Lily was out server that night. She was absolutely lovely, courteous and polite when seating us. Lily informed us after we were seated about the wait times and the reason for this. She gave great advice about the appetiser to person ratio. We didn't have to wait around for her to come back for our orders. She checked in about the food and cleared the empty plates without being asked to. She informed us any complaints and compliments about the food would be past on to the chef. By far the best server we have had visiting steak houses. The food was amazing as well. The fried squid was the best appetiser ordered. The ribs and pork belly were good too. We ordered 2 flower onions, one came golden brown and the other a little burnt but still edible. The drinks were really good. The kids menu had good choices and great portions. Filled my 7 Yr old and cleaned the plate, which doesn't happen often. I would definitely recommend and we will definitely visit the Clifton branch again. Lily recommended the roast dinner.