The Blue Lagoon Cafe & Bar

I came here with my dad after browsing some smaller (too busy) cafes looking for a cooked breakfast. There was plenty of space here do we sat by the window add it was too cool to be outside. The full cooked breakfast was ok, just like a greasy spoon. The ambiance in the day with only a few customers and staff for company was a bit like an empty canteen.
For a larger group I’d come back but otherwise I’d look for another spot with a bit more charm.

Very nice breakfast and friendly service. Watching football to Roberta Flack was a bonus.

I really like this place, so nice sitting outside watching the world go by.
There’s always a really good atmosphere and even sitting outside is never to chilly being out of the wind tunnel.
The food isn’t half bad i had a baked potato with chicken and bacon and my friend a toasted sandwich. Both were really tasty and reasonably ish priced.
I do wish they had a larger more varied menu it’s kind of a bit more expensive café food, bit limiting for choice.
I think most people come here for the music, location and vibe to the place.
Defo worth a visit for a bevvie or two, i’d say better places to eat on glouc road but if you just want the tummy rumbles to stop it’s ok :)

This place is very local to me, in fact I can usually hear the live music from my flat of an evening.
I have to say I just find this place ok, I love the outdoor seating area which is great for summer evenings drinking with friends. But I find it all a bit disjointed, the outside areas usually rammed then hardly anyone inside, that is unless there’s music on. This place does live music well, they have live, usually local bands, most weekends and they are sure crowd pleasures.
Haven’t eaten here a while last time I did was a couple of years ago, when I’m pretty sure the soup I was served was a tin of a well known family favourite. Don’t get me wrong I love this soup but usually in the comfort of my own home.
Would recommend this place to meet friends and listen to some cool music, but it can be a bit hit and miss.

The best summer and people watching spot — just got bigger!
I love the Blue Lagoon. Have done for ages. It is a welcome change to have the place bigger and spruced up in time for summer.
As documented in other reviews, the food isn’t that great. I’ve eaten there a number of times and had the breakfast and brunch; each time was a little disappointing. The cheap, pinkish sausages really let the breakfast down.
That said, this is thee best place for a summer Stella. It is right in the middle of Gloucester Road and has an awesome outdoor seating area. Nice long benches cater for small and big size groups. The atmosphere is awesome. It’s super casual and appropriately bohemian. Everything you expect from Bristol’s coolest road and Europe’s longest stretch of independent shops.
The owner, Ali, looks like a Māori rugby player with short, pony-​tailed dreadlocks. He’s really the heart of the Blue Lagoon and you can tell he loves the place as much as his patrons.
I know I’ve moaned about the food, but I’d definitely eat here again. Purely because I wouldn’t want to go for breakfast anywhere else that’s close. The vibe and views totally make up for it.
I’m buzzing for summer and my next afternoon session at the Blue Lagoon.

This place is popular with students and young people in the evening and often seems to have live music. In the day it’s a great café with good all day breakfasts, burgers and decent veggie options. Service is usually great and there’s always a decent cider available.

Solid outdoor ambiance. Good smoothies. Nothing mind-​blowing, but hits the spot when you’ve been out for a long walk.

This place has always seemed like a really popular choice with people looking for food during the day; the outside seating section is really well positioned on Gloucester Road and usually very busy, I wish I had been down to see why.
But we went down to The Blue Lagoon really late on Saturday night (mostly because it was near the Grecian) and we had obviously just missed a band who were packing up when we arrived, which was a shame.
It’s really great that this place open late as it clearly offers something very different to some of the other bars & clubs on Gloucester Road; you can actually have a conversation with your mates and listen to some great music. I mean it did sound like we had walked into a Rolling Stones fan club meeting, but I have no problem with that, I would rather hear the Stones all night than half the nonsense some bars play in this city.
There was a good mix of people, spanning most generations, all of who obviously enjoy a drink… but as we were there late on Saturday night my memory isn’t exactly crystal clear. But they played great music in a very chilled out, friendly welcoming bar.

I’ve just read the plethora of reviews for Blue Lagoon that have found their way to Unilocal.I only intended to scan one or two to see how other people feel about one of my favourite places in Bristol. Expecting glowing reports I was a little surprised to find that people have found niggly annoyances to gripe about, so I ended up reading the whole lot, and realised that a pattern was emerging.
The main bone of contention is the food, and to some extent I agree that its not exactly perfect. When Ali, the owner, took on the Blue Lagoon a few years back, he inherited a legacy that presumably he felt was difficult to move away from. The previous owners ran the place as a greasy spoon, and I guess that Ali didn’t want to offend the existing customers by offering something entirely different. A few years down the line, and they are still doing fry ups, which I find a little curious… I had expected them to be phased out a long time ago. But, I guess, if the regulars want them, then they’ll continue to make them.
I don’t feel too impelled to defend Blue Lagoon. With eleven reviews, mine making twelve, I wouldn’t be surprised if Blue Lagoon isn’t the most widely covered bar in town thus far on Unilocal.The fact that so many people have written about it is indicative of how important this café bar is on Gloucester Road.
I love the place because of the ethos it espouses. Ali is one of the kindest, caring people I have had the pleasure of meeting. Having worked with quite a few venues in Bristol, staging gigs that showcased emerging talent, I have endured a belly full of bad practice, and professional indifference. It’s both mystifying and incredible that the owners of many music venues don’t care about the musicians that they invite to play at their nights, quite often without payment. They refuse to invest in decent sound equipment, which would even make Hendrix sound like your kid brother, locked in his bedroom, aged thirteen, wrestling with an unwieldy instrument that refuses to be mastered.
Ali is different. Not only has he bought a decent PA, he’s also invested in a decent light rig as well. He has my respect.
Every time I go to Blue Lagoon, whether it’s to take advantage of the Panini deals during the day, or to watch a band, I see the same faces, time and again, dotted about the place. This is the best recommendation a bar can have. It shows that they’re getting things right.

Similar to The Prom down the road, Blue Lagoon aspires to a continental café vibe.
Personally, I still feel there’s something very British about this place. For one, the British menu of stodgy food (I don’t recommend). The décor as well leaves a lot to be desired — it’s quite tacky and looks out of date. The coffee is weak, and for somewhere so down at heel the prices aren’t as low as they really should be.
One thing I do appreciate however is lounging on the terrace of a sunny afternoon. The Blue Lagoon is a fine place to stop off if you’re marching up Gloucester Road, but give the food a miss and only stay for one.

Blue lagoon has a laid-​back, continental atmosphere that’s best suited to the summer when you can sit outside on the pavement of Gloucester Road and enjoy a spot of people-​watching from their prime position on this busy strip.
I’ve always thought of this as a place to go for a sociable glass of wine or a cold beer, rather than a café or a place to dine — and while they do serve coffees and food (with student discounts from Sunday to Thursday) I haven’t tried either there myself.
This place is fine if you want a quick lunchtime beer outside in the sun, or if you’re looking for a late-​night bar that’s relaxed and unstuffy but still serves some wicked cocktails — with the occasional live acoustic band for entertainment. With the huge selection of eating establishments along Gloucester Road, however, I’ve never found myself drawn to this place for food.

I’ve not been here to eat, but I have popped in here for drinks with friends when there was live music playing. I seem to remember us being somewhat lairy, the cider on tap may have had something to do with that. Despite our general drunken rantings, the bar staff were friendly and helpful, the atmosphere was good and we left the place smiling. I give it 4 stars for not scowling at our drunken selves and instead being friendly and patient.

The Blue Lagoon is a little independent bar /​café, very noticeable from it’s blue exterior — the whole building stands out along Gloucester road! It is a great place to meet with friends and grab a drink or a snack — but the service isn’t much to shout home about…
I went there for a fry up one morning with a group of friends, and it took them about an hour to bring our food out — which also came out in irregular stages — and they also managed to get about half of our orders wrong! The woman who was serving us wasn’t especially polite either, and her response was that it wasn’t her fault and we would just have to wait!
Saying this, whenever I have visited this café with just another friend, the service has been fine and our meals have been great and reasonably priced! It just seems that they struggle to cope with larger groups of people — so perhaps stick to coffee or small groups! And on the plus side, this café does offer a student discount of 10% from Sunday to Thursday which is worth taking advantage of.
Aside from the service, this little place is a hot spot in the weekday evenings when it opens till late as a bar, and serves tasty cocktails! It also has its own weekly open mic night which is worth popping along to if you’re bored of one evening. So overall, it’s a good little social hang out to grab a coffee or a cocktail at, but don’t expect great service if you’re in a larger group!

I really wasn’t impressed with the Blue Lagoon café and am always suprised to see it cramped full of people dining and drinking every day. I came here with great expectations of enjoying a brunch in the sunshine but was extremely disappointed with the atmosphere, service and quality of the food. My order came half an hour later and was the wrong order. When they brought the food back after i told them what i had actually ordered, it was wrong again. I won’t be coming here again.

This is my new favourite place to have a bevy outdoors in the sunshine on the whole of Gloucester Road. It is probably one of the more obvious bars with outdoor seating in that you know its the kind of establishment where you can get a decent beer or a cider. The staff are friendly and chatty and they serve a good selection of booze on tap, including Star lager and Bounders Bath Cider (the cider arm of the amazing Bath Ales company). They also serve a decent selection of food, which looks delicious, though I am yet to try it. What’s more, this place really comes alive at night and it is open refreshingly late. It’s the kind of place where wonderfully random stuff happens, think hearing a random barbershop quartet practicing California Dreaming or an up and coming R’n’B star treating you to some mesmerizing beat-​boxing. A great place for day and night.

Sited on the bottom of Gloucester Road, Blue Lagoon café offers the usual food and drink averagely priced. The freshly made orange juice is especially good. There is free Wifi and is always showing sports TV with adequate seating.
The decoration is pleasant, especially the massive wide shot photo black and white print of the fountains in the city centre.
On the occasion I visited, I had to give my order twice and wait for 45 minutes whilst my friends were given the wrong dishes. My friend specifically asked for no mushrooms and after a very long wait, his plate came containing mushrooms. After re-​explaining this to the waitress, she replied «its not my problem», dumped the plate in front of him and walked off! This was when I then cancelled my order and got my money back!
I don’t think I would return purely for the horrific service we received.

This isn’t the greatest establishment in the world in virtually all respects. The food is distinctly below average. The service is slow and mildly incompetent, and the décor leaves a lot to be desired.
I have never been here during the evening, but I hear it turns into a bar with some live music occasionally. I can imagine it would be a fairly decent as a bar, but the size of the place would (I imagine) make it a little cramped, as it isn’t the biggest. Not having to concern themselves with food would definitely help them as they clearly haven’t got their heads around how to take orders, make food, then bring that food to your table in a reasonable time frame. I ordered some cheesy chips here last time I was in and had to wait 40 minutes for it.

The Blue Lagoon is a café by day and a bar by night. I visited in the day, with a friend visiting Bristol.
The glaring sunlight, concrete walls and metal tables and chairs made the place feel like it should be at the edge of a beach in Spain rather than Gloucester road.
My friend and I made use of the panini and drink deal, which was pretty good value. The panini was well presented, but the cheese inside hadn’t quite melted enough.
The staff were courteous and accommodating, but seemed to not know the place very well. I’d like to come back at night and see the place transform into a music bar, I think it might have a better vibe.

Another coffee shop on the café culture stretch of Gloucester Road, the Blue Lagoon quite a nice café/​bar, and quite similar in style to the other places, primarily the Prom, along this part of the road. I’ve had lunch a couple of tiems here, which was un-​obejctionable experience — the paninis are always good, but I’d usually opt for one of the baguettes, which gives you a bit more for your money.
In the evenings they have mainly local acoustic acts on the bill, and it’s quite a good, chilled out venue for the type of music they orientate themselves towards. It gets full marks for ethical community spirit — it sources most of its ingredients from the local shops on Gloucester Road where possible, helping to keep alive the independent spirit of the region.

Sitting on Gloucester Road just down the road from The Prom, this newer establishment is almost a carbon copy. Indeed, the first time I saw it, I mistakenly thought The Prom had been taken over and refurbished, so similar are they.
It’s a similar size, has the same cordoned off seating out the front, has a bar down one side, and acts as a café during the day and bar/​live music venue at night (with a leaning towards acoustic artists). Where it scores higher over The Prom is the décor, which is a bit more up-​to-​date, including an impressive mural of Bristol which covers one wall.
A relaxed place, customers are just as likely to order a coffee here as one of the tasty ciders they have on tap, and there is also a range of grub (which I believe is cheaper on weekdays), though I can’t comment on the quality as I haven’t eaten here.