The Kellaway has had an unsettled history in recent months. A few months ago, the Kellaway, which is on Kellaway Avenue in Horfield in Bristol, shut down. Then, soon after, it re-opened under new management. It then promptly shut down again. It re-opened again a month ago, under new management again.
This time I am more hopeful about the Kellaway’s success, however. The new managers are the same managers of the Beehive Bar and Restaurant where we recently visited and I then wrote about in my post ‘Top Nosh at The Beehive’.
We visited the new, re-opened Kellaway last week. My children and I had spent most of the day at Boing! Soft Play. I was disorganised and it was fast approaching tea time without any tea being cooked. So we decided to eat out and chose the Kellaway. It is not only close to where we live, but we were curious as to what it was like under the new managers.
The Kellaway has been freshened up inside with a new coat of paint and looks good inside…
As with the Beehive, the food on the menu is more ‘fine dining’ than ‘pub grub’. For example, the menu choices included Ragu Rigatoni, Spaghetti Vongole and Pan Fried Fillet of Sea Bass.
We asked for the children’s menu but they didn’t yet have one. We decided instead to buy a pizza for them to share and chose the Margherita (£6.85). My husband went for the Pizza Florentina (£7.25) and I opted for the Smoked Salmon Farfalle (£7.95).
One advantage of the Kellaway if you have kids is that the garden is completely enclosed, thus thwarting any aspiring escapees (e.g. my son). Unfortunately, the heavens had recently opened so my son was unable to play in the Kellaway garden.
The only disadvantage of the Kellaway garden is that the big, wooden climbing frame – always a favourite with children visiting – has been dismantled and is now unsafe to use. I hope the new managers get it fixed soon.
While we waited for our food to arrive, my husband and I did our best to occupy and distract our two, tired and hungry (never a good combination) children. We find keys are always a successful ploy (if only temporarily)…
Thankfully, we were given a (free) appetiser of bread and balsamic vinegar which granted myself and my husband a few more minutes of peace as our children chomped away 🙂
When we received our food (after a very short wait), it was absolutely fantastic.
I enjoyed my Smoked Salmon Farfalle…
…and my husband demolished his Pizza Florentina…
Here is a picture of my son tucking into the Margherita…
We were the only people in the Kellaway that evening, which is a shame as it is a nice pub for families to go to. The food is absolutely delicious and obviously reasonably priced. It is a good pub to go to where your kids can play in the secure garden within your view.
Hopefully, now that the Kellaway has new managers, its reputation will improve and word will spread. It is definitely worth a visit.
Have you ever visited the Kellaway past or present? What did you think? Please do comment below 🙂
Bishopston Mum 
We also recently visited with our 2 young children (a baby and a toddler). We arrived at Sunday lunchtime and there was only 3 or 4 other couples/small groups in the pub and as a result the atmosphere was a little quiet and we felt a little self-conscious of our toddler's noise levels at times. On the plus side it was easy to get a table and park the buggy inside! We were made to feel welcome and the pizzas were delicious. The enclosed garden was also a real bonus for our toddler who enjoyed exploring and letting off some steam outside. We had to cut short our visit however because there were no baby-changing facilities available – if this pub is to successfully appeal to local young families then it really needs to consider this. We live a short walk from the Kellaway and would really love it to succeed and become a great place for families to eat and spend time together however unfortunately it has a little way to go before it can compete with other family-friendly pubs in the area.
Hi, thank you for leaving a comment. I completely agree with you, The Kellaway needs baby changing facilities and would then attract a lot more people who have children. I think it is a near-ideal family pub in other ways, e.g. enclosed garden, etc. Therefore they need to get the baby changing facilities sorted soon as they are missing out on potential customers with kids!