Hope & Anchor

Fantastic family-​run real ale pub tucked-​away in Bristol. Guest ales on tap (try before you buy) alongside the usual beers and lagers. Wine by the glass or special wine list by the bottle for something more decadent. Serves food until 10pm weeknights, and the food is amazing. Specials are a feature as are veggie options. Popular with those who find it this pub has a great ambiance and friendly staff. Sunday roast, served all day until it runs out, is great!

If you are a meat eater you can rely on the earlier positive reviews, no need to read this one. If you are a vegetarian don’t even think about eating a main meal here, stick to a cheese sandwich or something safe. The menu has plenty of veggie options, but the broccoli and Stilton pancakes I ordered were truly disgusting with not a spot of Stilton in sight. The waiter did apologise on removing my uneaten meal though.

Great beer and still doing a tasty Sunday lunch at 6pm! Lovely!

Simply terriffic! Excellent boss, excellent staff, excellent food. AND excellent beer. Seek it out!!!

Their choice of ales and ciders is excellent. There is a good size beer garden for summer days. The food is also excellent and the portion sizes will not leave you hungry. Mains about £10.
Great place for a quiet few pints and a meal.

Great selection of real ale, wine and good wholesome food. Their portions are BIG and even their sandwiches defeat all but the largest appetites. I’ve been going there for over 15 years and can’t fault it. Suitable for all age groups over 20 years. Dogs welcome too! Staff are both helpful and very cheerful, décor is traditional with natural floorboards, old tables and chairs, no fruit machines, nice terrace beer/​smoking garden, Sunday Roasts and good Veggie selection always available. One of the top 5 Pubs in Bristol.

This pub is a big favourite with everyone who has lived nearby with its hidden away, almost secret beer garden. As you walk out into the back garden you climb a flight of stone stairs and as you ascend the different levels you can find a variety or different, equally appealing seating options. The whole thing feels really open and public while also being very private, peaceful and intimate.
They are always playing good music; The Beatles or Dylan, inside the pub and the staff are always welcoming. The interior seating area of the pub is fine, but not as special or as recommended as going out into the garden. Here amongst all the used beer barrels, amongst the gardens of the residential houses there is nothing better than grabbing a table with a group of friends and drinking away a weekend afternoon (and evening f course).
The menu is huge, there is such a massive choice of food, some of it more reasonably priced than the rest. They have the usual burgers and sandwiches, but they also have a good selection of curries among other things.

One of Bristol’s hidden gems, you’ll either have to walk here uphill or walk home uphill which may explain why my lazy friends and I rarely visit unless we happen to be on the Triangle.
I first found out about this pub when some student friends were living on the same road, making it their local. We often met here to start a night out and the atmosphere was always loud and busy, with most of the seats taken up throughout the night.
Although there are some great beers and ciders on tap I would also recommend coming here for the food. It is mostly traditional pub grub but it’s of a high quality and decent sized portions for the price.
Very much a local pub for local people, it feels like everyone knows everyone here but don’t be off-​put as this means you’ll have someone to chat to while you’re queuing at the rather small bar.

Top pub. Great staff. Scores on all.

Tucked away in a relatively residential area, the Hope & Anchor doesn’t exactly advertise its presence. The fact that is has a diehard clientele of regulars testifies to a delightful locals’ pub boasting a charming, candle-​lit atmosphere and a large ‘n’ leafy outdoor seating area.
The one and only downside is the extortionate prices of some of the drinks. I seem to remember a pint of Heineken clocking in at £3.90…thanks, but no thanks. The house wine selection is much better value at £12.50 and they seem to have put some effort into selecting decent bottles.
I’d heard such great things about the food as well that I decided to sample a burger a couple of weeks ago. Freshly made with good quality meat, it was as good as I’d hope (d and anchored) for. (You’ll have to forgive me for that)

This is a real drinkers pub as it has a very nice range of beers and real ales along with the obligatory lagers and some decent premium ones to boot. It also has a nice selection of locally sourced ciders.
Along with the drink comes great food, which is largely your pub grub variety which is a favourite with the regualrs during the lunch hour. It has all of the essentials, but the portions are very generous and the prices aren’t too bad either.
It also has a decent sized pub garden that can get very busy in the summer. Overall it has everything you want from a good pub and would even go as far as to say it’s worth the trip and the hassle of finding a parking space.

Well known enough to have a rude rhyming nickname (I’ll leave that to your imagination), the Hope and Anchor sits, looking slightly lonely, on Jacobs Wells Road at the base of Brandon Hill. It’s neatly turned out with its gold lettering and wood panelling. Unfortunately there are prices too match, with the three pound barrier being broken a long time ago. Never dead but occasionally a touch too busy.
A gastropub (what pubs aren’t these days?), the food on offer is mostly traditional pub fare and is served quite late (available after nine when I went). Good sized portions and a particularly good sunday lunch service. There’s a big focus on ales, with options changing all the time and plenty I hadn’t seen before, again not fantastically cheap. Lovely beer garden though very much a smokers retreat until the summer months. The Hope and Anchor is a nice stop off before a hike over Brandon Hill or a good somewhere to get a filling meal.

This Bristol institution is a bit of a hidden gem, skulking away out of the limelight on Jacobs Wells Road. Never mind, for those in on the secret, this probably offers the best pub grub anywhere within spitting distance of the city centre. And pub grub is certainly the best description for their fantastic fare, with roasts and lasagne vying for you attention, though I would personally recommend one of their impressive range of pies, which all come with loads of perfectly cooked veg and proper homemade gravy.
If that wasn’t enough, it also boasts the added attractions of a great garden and a choice of real ales to wash it all down with. Be warned: it gets very busy at times but with a location and grub this good, it’s certainly worth a visit.

I wasn’t very adventurous in my food choice (broccoli and stilton soup) but oh my gosh is was delicious. Huge bowl for the money I spent.
My fiances’ and my friends’ food looked delicious too with quick service.
Quite a small place and, as it was a rather chilly night, it was sparsely populated but I can imagine it being a really bustling friendly local.
Spirits were well priced too– bonus!

Another jewel in the haze of standard pubs in Bristol, The Hope and Anchor really stands out from the crowd. Firstly there is the range of drinks, and as a beer drinker myself, it is marvelous. 4 or 5 guest ales are usually on, along with 4 or 5 largers/​premium largers. There are various ciders to choose from and all other drinks you would expect.
The food comes next, and what a meal they serve! I work quite close to this pub, and Friday lunchtimes are often spent here eating great, proper pub grub. they have all the usuals you would expect, along with 3 times more of the unusual. The food is fantastic value and the portion sizes are very generous! My favourite lunchtime ‘snack’ to date was the roast beef sandwhich (which was effectively a whole roast dinner between two slices of thick, wholemeal bread.
It can get rather busy in the evenings, but the garden outside is large enough for four or five large groups of people, a great place to spend the summer evenings!

The Hope and Anchor is a great pub, but probably because of the steepness of constitution hill, isn’t packed by students…(apart from us back in the days, oh what fun we had with the name) although it usually is pretty busy in the evenings. This may be because there is always great food to be had there (served from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.), or it may be because of the real ales and beers that are on offer. Personally I love this pub because it is nicely old-​fashioned, and the kind of place that feels as if everyone there is a regular, creating an atmosphere that is so comfortable you can even bring in your boardgames and not get weird looks.