Bristol’s best restaurants for food and live music

The Old Market Assembly is a restaurant/bar that serves up delicious sharing plates and pizzas from a seasonal and sustainable flexitarian menu. It focuses on creating creative flavourful dishes, that showcase local produce and suppliers. The head chef has brought beautiful influences from southern Spain to the food giving it a fresh and warming twist. Every weekend, Assembly nights are in full swing, with the freshest live music, vibey club nights and raucous cabaret. There’s always an eclectic mix of music styles, from hip-hop to afrobeat, via house, Latin and many more. Bringing energetic, diverse and vibrant events to Old Market, this is a venue you really don’t want to miss out on! 

The Love Inn is an amazing little restaurant and live music venue on Stokes Croft. It has a pop-up kitchen currently hosting the Bristol wide famous Danny’s Burgers. It serves food from Thursday to Saturday, with some of the best burgers in the city. Try the Hot Blue if you want some tangy cheese to tickle your taste buds, or the Oklahoma fried onion burger if you want something a little different. After you’ve filled up on a burger and all the loaded fries you can dream off, The Love Inn hosts some of the best up and coming music acts Bristol has to offer. From disco to electronic, and drum and bass, there’s something for everyone. Once the evening gets going, the tables are all folded away and pushed aside to make for a dance floor – perfect for dancing the night away.

The Canteen is an amazing venue on Stokes Croft, serving a great menu of vegetarian food, Bristol booze and free live music. As members of the sustainable restaurant association, the food is made using only the best and freshest produce. Communicating closely with local suppliers, it works hard to reduce food waste and create an ever-changing menu to suit both customer and supplier. The menu includes a range of delicious small plates including dishes like oyster mushroom calamari, gorgeous salads, and pearl barley risotto. It has free live music on six nights a week including gigs of different genres and open mic nights. The live nights are all listed on the website so have a scroll, pick something that tickles your fancy and book at table for some delicious food beforehand.

This quirky restaurant on Gloucester Road is vibrant, cosy and lively; the perfect setting for some light bites followed by a boogie. In terms of food, it does a range of ‘Galli Plates’, which are small bites including things like butternut and harissa hummus, and flatbread and smashed potatoes with rocket pesto and aioli. There are also some larger seasonal main dishes on offer. The entire menu has a range of meat, veggie and vegan options making sure it’s inclusive for everyone. After your food why not stay for some drinks and some live music because come late evening this restaurant turns into one of the most popular bars in Bristol. It hosts live music every night of the week, with some of Bristol’s best up and coming artists. You’re guaranteed to have a night full of fun, laughter, and great music at the Galli.

A venue providing amazing tunes and equally amazing food is The Pipe and Slippers. Smoke and Glaze cooks up amazing burgers from the pop-up kitchen, with its chefs dedicating their lives to creating the perfect burger. Some options on the menu are the hot honey chicken burger, which includes brown butter aioli, parmesan, smoked streaky bacon and hot honey or why not try the veggie alternative with a halloumi patty. The sides don’t disappoint either, with wings, halloumi fries, truffle fries and barbacoa brisket fries on offer. From Thursday to Sunday, its extended licence allows the crowds to keep boogying until 1am. Every week you’ll find some of Bristol’s finest selectors and music heads behind the decks. From funk and boogie to dub and reggae, the tunes are always flowing. Make sure you don’t get there too late because it’s known to fill up quick!