Adelina Yard: Small but perfectly formed

Sitting on the historic, cobbled streets of Queen Quay in Bristol’s city centre, the diminutive, 28-seat Adelina Yard is pumping out some of the most exciting cooking to be found in this corner of England.

 

Opened eight years ago by partners Jamie Randall and Olivia Barry, the restaurant is located on the ground floor of a red-brick residential building overlooking the water’s edge.

 

Randall and Barry – parents to three children aged eight, six and five – first met while working at Corbin & King’s St Alban restaurant on London’s Regent’s Street. Randall, originally from Deal in Kent, studied at Thanet Catering College and was part of the team that won a Michelin star at Galvin La Chapelle and he achieved an Annual Award for Excellence from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (RACA) there. But it was his final role in London, working under Bryn Williams as head chef at Odette’s in Primrose Hill, with full visibility of the whole running of the kitchen, that Randall developed his skills as a restaurateur.

 

 

Barry, a Bristolian who hails from the suburb of Totterdown, graduated from Bournemouth and Poole College’s Specialised Chefs Apprenticeship Scholarship (also run by RACA) and went on to work at St Alban before moving to the Wolseley and Wright Brothers. Like Randall, she spent a period with the Galvins and then joined Angela Hartnett at the Michelin-starred Murano in Mayfair.

 

The name of the restaurant – chosen by Barry’s sister – pays homage to the place Randall and Barry called home for five years, a converted Victorian school in Whitechapel. “London was such a huge part of our lives and we wanted to bring a little bit of it down here,” explains Barry.

 

In the early days, Adelina Yard tried to be all things to all people by serving a mix of set-lunch, à la carte and tasting menus. Since lockdown, however, the chef-owners have simplified the offering. Opening Wednesdays to Saturdays, they serve a four-course set lunch menu each day (£38), an eight-course tasting menu on Wednesday and Thursday evenings (£70), and 10-plus courses on Fridays and Saturdays (£80).

 

 

“Looking back now it was absolute madness!” she laughs. “Because the kitchen is so compact, we can’t hold stock – it’s one of the reasons why we only do tasting menus now,” she adds. “Each day is a bit of push, but it’s just about being organised, doing things daily and making sure we’re not over-stretching ourselves.”

 

The modern European menu is predominantly based on local British produce, but there is also a strong Japanese influence with products coming from ‘Sushi Stu’ of Sushi Sushi.

 

A good illustration of the combined cuisines is a recent umami-rich dish of raw venison, kohlrabi, crosnes, smoked egg yolk, burnt apple and lichen. “We mix diced, raw venison with diced kohlrabi and apple, then make an apple purée, a kohlrabi purée, cook an egg yolk in the water bath until its super-thick, smoke it, and then top the dish with deep-fried lichen – collected by our forager – sprinkled with a little sugar and salt.”

 

 

While Randall and Barry tend to job share – Barry typically works midweek, while Randall works the weekends, supported by two full-time chefs – menu development is done together on Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed, the kids are at school and they can both sign off every dish. Randall focuses predominantly on meat and fish, they both develop starters and vegetarian options, and pastry falls to Barry.

 

On the current menu for dessert is rhubarb, white chocolate, ginger and orange, which comprises a spiced oat biscuit base topped with caramelised white chocolate, followed by a layer of rhubarb compote set with pectin and an orange gel. It’s then dressed with dots of ginger, orange and rhubarb gels and served with a rhubarb sorbet.

 

 

“It took me a while to get it to work because the layers kept collapsing,” she confides. “It took me till my sixth attempt, but now I’m really happy with how it looks and how it tastes.”

 

The restaurant is a favourite among the guidebooks, but are there ambitions for awards? “We do food that we really like and are proud of,” concludes Barry. “If awards come along, that’s amazing, but as long as we have a business that runs and supports my family, I’m happy.”

 

From the menu

• Pomme Dauphine, tomato jam, toasted seeds
• Black pudding, chive
• Peas, sheep’s ricotta, lovage
• Wye Valley asparagus, Taleggio, cured egg yolk
• Hand-picked Brixham crab, nashi pear, celery, apple, marigold
• Aged raw beef, burrata, ponzu, smoked ox heart
• Wild sea bass, Jersey Royal, chervil, anchovy, cos lettuce, Vin Jeune
• Cornish lamb, turnips, black and wild garlic
• Old Winchester, Eccles cake, pickled walnut
• Lemon, plum, Earl Grey
• Rhubarb, white chocolate, ginger and orange

Ten-course tasting menu, £80, served Friday and Saturday

 

Adelina Yard, Queen Quay, Welsh Back, Bristol BS1 4SL

 

www.adelinayard.com