{"id":119,"date":"2010-04-18T00:25:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T23:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philonfood.wordpress.com\/?p=119"},"modified":"2010-04-18T00:25:37","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T23:25:37","slug":"saturday-casa-mia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/18\/saturday-casa-mia\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday: Casa Mia"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not \u201cmy house\u201d, but the trendy restaurant Casa Mia in Westbury-on-Trym, currently Bristsol\u2019s only Michelin-starred restaurant which we dined at last night with friends Lewis and Elly.<\/p>\n

Fine dining without the pomp of formal dining, the family run restaurant had a relaxed atmosphere. There are two taster menus (meat and vegetarian) so there isn\u2019t much to choose from, but that means the concentrate on execution of every dish, some of which are very technical. We all went for the meat menu and opted for the wine flight (curiously we didn\u2019t see this listed on the menu or wine list) – \u00a355 for the 9 course taster menu felt about right, and the \u00a330 additional for the wine flight was exceptional value for money.<\/p>\n

The dishes were well executed with impeccable presentation. For me, highlights included the layered chicken liver parfait with jelly of mushroom and parsley gel, beetroot risotto with iced yogurt, picked fennel and piscahios, and roast quail (leg served as a crusted lollypop, breast cooked sous-vide).<\/p>\n

The wine flight, especially given its price point, was a nice match with the dishes with some interesting wines. I don\u2019t think they have a sommelier as such as I believe the owners select the wines for the flight, but our server certainly knew her wines and talked us through each pairing.<\/p>\n

Since our last visit, they\u2019d upped the anti with some of the dishes including the use of dry ice and liquid nitrogen to add some theatrics (but didn\u2019t feel too contrived), and a few dishes cooked sous-vide (I will be talking about this more in a later blog posting). You get the impression that they don\u2019t want to stop at their current accolades.<\/p>\n

We were there for nearly 5 hours (as we opted to take our time), so although it isn\u2019t priced as a restaurant to go to every week, I\u2019d still say it is value for money for the length of time you are entertained.<\/p>\n

All in all a great meal. Personally I thought a couple of dishes were a little bit eclectic (too many flavours on a single plate mainly because that made the appreciation of the wine a little hard with so many individual flavours), but it certainly feels high-end dining and a great night out for something special in Bristol with a warm family-run atmosphere and some lovely, contemporary food executed with precision.<\/p>\n