Sugarvine

It's all very well offering wonderful food, but for a really satisfying meal the atmosphere of a restaurant has to be just right as well. In both departments, Bells Diner, in bohemian Montpelier, is spectacularly successful, and that's why it has rightly won universal praise as one of Bristol's best restaurants.

Run by chef and owner Christopher Wicks, Bell's Diner is located in a converted 1950s grocer's shop, and the restaurant still retains all the fixtures and fittings from its previous incarnation. The walls are a mass of wine racks, cupboards and shelving cluttered with decanters and old bottles, with walls and shelving all painted a subdued shade of blue. The effect is of a warm, restful den. And it's a small room, with only seven tables, adding to the air of cosiness. Behind this room is a more modern, white-walled part of the restaurant looking out onto a courtyard, and though the food's just the same inevitably people always prefer the front room. There's also a third room where you can sit and sip your pre-dinner drink next to an open fire. Subdued lighting with blue glass shades, and dark floorboards evidently varnished and polished for generations, add to the charming farmhouse-kitcheny effect. The only mystery, though, is why such a wonderful restaurant has a name more reminiscent of a hamburger joint with glaring neon lights than the cool oasis of fine dining which it is.

The cuisine is very eclectic, British with Mediterranean overtones, all characterised by imaginative and intriguing combinations. The menu changes every day, and Chris Wicks places a strong emphasis on local and organic produce. The eight-course tasting menu (£45, with a £30 supplement for wine) is one delicious tasting sensation after another, kicking off with an unusual white onion foam with cubes of espresso, followed by oyster accompanied by tomato sorbet, then foie gras and salmon. The foie gras is something else, with its sublimely fine texture and concentrated flavour. Each course has its own suggested wine as an accompaniment and for the fois gras and salmon this was a clean-tasting Crozes-Hermitage. In all you get six glasses of wine with the tasting menu - that is to say, the non-drivers among you do.

Next might be Snail Kromeski, a Polish dish where the snail is fried in batter and laid on a bed of parsnip puree, followed by rabbit saddle with truffle potato puree, all wrapped round with Parma ham, and this time accompanied by a fine Rioja. Then, turning sweetwards, there's goat's cheese wrapped in honey 'canneloni', sweet blackberry foam, and finally plum souffle with balsamic ice cream, and with it an unusual sweet red wine from the Pyrenees, Banyuls Grand Cru 1996, one of the many more unusual wines from the eclectic wine list.

The a la carte menu has many of the same dishes as the tasting menu, with starters between £5 and £9.50 and main courses between £12.50 and £18.50. The service is attentive and efficient, with the staff every bit as enthusiastic as the chef about food and wine. So in short the verdict - what with the quality of the food, the wine, the atmosphere and the service - is: go there!

Bells' Diner
1-3 York Road
Bristol
BS6 5QB
Tel: 0117 924 0357