Grace Dent – set to replace Gregg Wallace on MasterChef – says Bristol is “lucky to have it”
New restaurant Lapin at Cargo 2, Wapping Wharf(Image: Paul Gillis/Reach Plc)
A Guardian food critic, set to judge some of the nation’s best cooks on MasterChef, has offered her praise to a new restaurant at Bristol’s Wapping Wharf. Grace Dent described Lupin as “a peculiar, meta, slightly earnest, definitely delicious French restaurant that you would never, ever find in France – not least because no one in France would be seen dead eating in an old metal box.”
However, this is no slight or insult – her review shows she clearly admires what chef Jack Briggs-Horan and restaurateur Dan O’Regan have done with a “small, repurposed shipping container”.
She notes how she’s previously written of Bristolians’ love of delis and dining spots in former shipping containers, adding that with “a little imagination and clever sleight of hand, you can turn an impersonal iron box into a tiny slice of France”.
Lapin head chef Jack Briggs-Horan and co-owner Dan O’Regan(Image: Ed Schofield)
Grace and her dining partner tried the asparagus with sauce gribiche and beurre noisette, the chicken schnitzel with oyster mushroom, chicken wing and madeira jus and St Émilion au chocolat.
She said she would, on the whole, recommend Lupin “because this is a menu that could thaw the iciest of hearts” and that Bristolians were “lucky to have it”. She added: “It’s only early days, and they’re still finding their feet, but mange tout, Rodders, mange tout.”
BristolPost’s own content editor Mark Taylor reviewed Lapin in May this year, noting it was already one of the city’s most talked about new openings after arriving in April. He explained that chef Jack and co-owner Dan had built up a bit of a cult following on the Bristol food scene in recent years thanks to their award-winning Bank restaurant in Totterdown.
Lapin has been busy since the day it opened(Image: Ed Schofield)
He recommended the “good value £29 set menu” for lunch but returned for dinner to try the main à la carte menu, with dishes at the time including the juicy confit duck leg (£27) or a super-fresh skate wing (£28). Mark highlighted the “extensive menu considering the fact the cramped open kitchen is about the size of a domestic one”.
Lapin Unit 14, Cargo 2, Museum Street, Bristol BS1, 0117 4084997
Open lunch Fri & Sat, noon-3.30pm (10pm Sun); dinner Tues-Sat 5.30-10pm; Sun noon-8pm. From about £55 a head à la carte; three-course prix fixe menu £29, all plus drinks and service
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