Bulrush celebrates 10 years in Bristol

Chef George Livesey’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Bristol celebrates its 10th birthday this year.

Bulrush was Livesey’s debut solo venture, having worked in restaurants such as St. John, Roux Fine Dining, Club Gascon and White Rabbit. The venue has earned a strong reputation in the city since opening in 2015 and first achieving its Michelin star in 2018.

This neighbourhood restaurant is in the Cotham area of Bristol, arranged over two floors of a former greengrocer's with just 28 covers. Livesey and the team serve a menu of Anglo-French cooking with strong influences from Japan, where the chef has family and has spent a great deal of time.

An equally strong influence on Livesey’s menus is his family farm in the Derbyshire Dales, which supplies them with organically grown produce, as well as rich lamb and mutton from pedigree sheep raised on species-rich ancient pasture.

Interiors are pared back with Scandi-style touches, peppered with jarred pickles and ferments from the team’s foraging trips, and boasting an open kitchen where diners can see George and head chef Jake Pain in action on the pass.

New tasting menu

Livesey and the team are proud to have retained their Michelin star for the seventh consecutive year. To mark the restaurant’s 10th birthday, the chef has delved into the menu archives to bring back some of the most popular dishes from Bulrush’s early days, to sit alongside current classics. Many of the dishes hold special memories from Livesey’s travels, from Cornish crab with black yuzu to a dessert made with buckwheat honey, first tasted in the Japanese mountains and never forgotten.

The tasting menu also comprises a duck liver macaron; tuna and bone marrow hollandaise; pigs' trotter sponge with langoustine tartare; Bulrush sourdough made with bremeal flour and served with butter; asparagus, yeast and spruce; barbecued Chalk Stream trout with mussel sauce; Ryeland lamb merguez sausage; and spruce, apple and sorrel. 

The restaurant serves its tasting menu on Tuesdays through to Saturdays, priced at £90 per person, and offers an ‘early evening’ five-course sitting at 5.30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, priced at £65 per person. There is also the option to dine at lunchtimes on Fridays and Saturdays, with a set lunch menu priced at £48 per person. Vegan and vegetarian menus are also available.

A wine pairing option is available, as well as a non-alcoholic pairing with Feral botanical drinks. The wider drinks list includes an ever-changing wine list, ciders from Somerset-based Wilding Cider and cocktail specials made with the restaurant's own ferments and Cornish spirits, such as an unami-rich Cep Martini.

“Reaching this 10-year milestone is a huge accomplishment for myself and my incredible team," says Livesey. "When I first envisioned Bulrush, it was about reinventing the classics in my own expression, always with the best produce I could find. But really, it’s been about making people happy through food. When someone enjoys what you’ve cooked, it’s some of the best moments of your life. As we’ve evolved and held onto our Michelin star, it’s rewarding to bring the next generation of young chefs through the restaurant, learning from my experience and sharing those highs.”

Image: Dave Watts

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