Zero Degrees, Bristolback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Zerodegrees feels more like a restaurant than a pub. It's a large single space, half of which is taken up by the dining area. Decor, again, is 'industrial chic', with the brewery occupying a space behind the bar. There are two outdoor seating areas, one of which has raised views over Colston Street
On my visit, the taps were dispensing Mango, Pale Ale, South Pacific Lager and Black Lager. I opted for a pint of Mango, which I was surprised to find wasn't to my taste at all.
I visited this venue at midday and there was only one other customer so cannot comment on the atmosphere as there wasn't any at that time. I wasn't greatly impressed by the place but wouldn't rule out another visit in the future.
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Staff friendly and courtious, beer brewed on the premises is fantastic.
Top marks.
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What a place! After walking up the Christmas Steps we needed a drink. The place is all galvanised steel, girders and echoey but at least they brew their own beer. After sampling two or three, we really don't like fruit beers, the Pale Ale was quite brilliant, nice and bitter and to my taste, Definitely worth a visit.
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this place couldnt be any further from a "pub", but i absolutly love it. all brewed onsite, the beer is amazing, and the food is wonderfull too. the pilsner is superb, and the pale ale is spectacular. the black lager is a thin stout (not my thing) and the mango beer was enjoyable too albeit a touch 'alco-poppy'. the venue itself is really not conductive a nice relaxing pint, as its a huge, metal glass decorated building and full of groups and parties on a night out. but as a dinner and drinks venue its brilliant.
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Against my preconceived views was in here the other night , nothing to change my views, mango tasted like a cross between tango, and lucozade, definitely in the luke d camp here. My cup runneth over, I can't wait for my next visit.
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A large, modern, purpose built pub and micro brewery, conveniently situated a few minutes walk away from the centre.
The on-site brewery is very much made in to a central feature, with the large stainless steel brewing vessels being clearly visible behind the circular bar and elsewhere through large glass walls. There is even pipe work running through a glass covered trench in the floor which you walk over as you come in, and large stainless steel pipes running from the bar taps to the brew vessels up above. The remainder of the decor is suitably industrial, with bare screed floors, metal girders and all the ventilation ducting and other services on display. The downside of this is that the acoustics are very harsh, and it can be quite noisy in there even when there are relatively few punters in.
There are a few black and white prints on the walls along with a plasma or two, and a few leather sofa�s around, but other than that the furnishings are minimalist. It�s a big pub on two levels, with the upstairs area tending to be used more for dining. We didn�t eat on this occasion, but from memory pizza�s feature heavily, although a rather more unusual selection than the ubiquitous Meat Feast or Spicy Pepperoni. An outside balcony is a pleasant enough spot, although can soon fill up in the warmer weather. There is also a small patio area up on a higher level.
Service seemed a bit haphazard and we were ignored for some time, but when the barman actually got around to serving us he was pleasant enough, and was happy to provide a sample of the cider (I initially asked what it was like, but after some head scratching all he could come up with was �appley�, so he probably felt obligated to let me try it). At least they�ve started to do cider now, when they first opened it clearly wasn�t on their agenda being a London company and so I didn�t go in here for many years.
Beers are all their own brew, and all have generic descriptions rather than names � Pale Ale, Pilsner, Cider, Wheat Ale, Black Ale and Fruit Beer. The fruit beer rotates regularly I believe, and on this occasion was Mango.
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I agree that this should not be in the good beer guide. If CAMRA have reservations about the solitary 'real ale' on offer, how does it merit inclusion above pubs serving several real ales in their traditional form?
Visited yesterday - service was poor, the beer was average, and all drinks were overpriced. Lacked atmosphere and charm.
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I must fully apologise to Zero Degrees about my previous comment. Apparently CAMRA Technical Advisory Group do consider their IPA to be Real Ale, albeit with reservations regarding temperature and over condition due to the ale not having any opportunity to vent. So I believe that they do serve one Real Ale.
Regarding temperature, I was under the impression that the name Zero Degrees referred to the location of the original microbrewery (in Greenwich) rather than the serving temperature, as it is all but impossible to serve any liquid at zero degrees centigrade.
Anyhow I retract my previous comment.
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How does this place get into the beer guide when they don't serve any Real Ale and never have done ? I obviously don't understand the criteria, but I thought that you had to serve Real Ale to be considered for inclusion.
LukeD - 29 Sep 2011 12:09 |
I think that the Microbrewery-Theme interior is pretty logical, when compared to similar establishments i have visited in the USA & Germany..
It is, however, better suited to the warmer weather & the summertime, in my opinion... as the high ceilings & vast space & doors opening & closing to the Terrace can lead to it getting chilly..
The food has been very good on my 3 eating visits...it is mainly focused on Pizza (again, this is a theme i have seen in the USA, in Micros)..
The Beer is very nice, too...maybe not as extreme in Hops/Flavours as, say, Arbor Ales or the recent BBF Southville/Acer...but certainly to a high standard...the Belgian Style Wheat was in particularly good form last time i visited...
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Went here last weekend. The barman who served us was very knowledgable and explained the beer selection well, offering us a taster, we didn't eat but the food smelled lovely, However...
The IPA was too cold and too fizzy and like many others have written on here, the place feels cold, metallic and lacks soul.
It's a shame as I love the concept, unfortunately it feels like a chain - which i understand it is!
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Metallic, pretentious and soul-less, yes. Nice pizzas, and the mango beer is less fizzy, back to how it used to be. Delicious. A few degrees to cold though, so you have to let it warm up a bit! Apparently the black lager was also very good.
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Can't really c ware gibbonhead is coming from here as most of the previous views are fairly positive , apart from mine.and at the end of the day everyones entitled to their opinion .
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I'm so disappointed about the poor reviews on here for Zero Degrees! Yes, it's a modern building, so if you're looking for traditional surroundings you might feel uncomfortable.
But if the place appeals to you (check out its website first?) the beer is great (and the bar staff have let me try a bit in the past, before I committed to which beer to have, so you needn't be stuck with a pint of the fruity one if you don't like it...). The menu has loads of choice, and I've never been disappointed with the food. The pizza choice alone is varied and original.
They cater well for all guests; I've been with young children and oldies alike. Upstairs is a bit quieter for conversation, downstairs has more of a party feel.
Full marks from me, we go here all the time!
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Good beer, bloody freezing. Nice smoking area.
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ten out of ten mouth watering pint of �2 happy hour "Black Lager" was quaffed here last nite, DELICIOUS!! 9/10
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very metallic , soulless sort of place , , i think i'd rather have a bit of rumble tumble down the mardyke , than this endless quee of card board customers . beer uninspiring choice
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Visited yesterday, mid-afternoon on a Wednesday, so while I can't comment on the service at busy times, I must say I really enjoyed my time there. The staff were friendly and knowledgable about their beers and the food, and the mango fruit beer and pale ale were superb. The beer prices are okay, but food a bit expensive.
It is a big site as people have commented, but with great design such as the pipes descending from the brewery to the bar. I found it refreshing to see a modern bar, free from fake heritage features and memorabilia, and to examine the brewery laid bare for all to see.
dmncf - 27 Aug 2009 13:38 |
Horrific and pretencious bar/diner. Over-priced is an understatement. The food was good and more fairly priced. The sport being shown on the telly as you are having your dinner wasnt a great idea either. Bar staff too busy to serve you and a waiter who informs you that your starter might mean the rest of the table having to wait for their mains pissed me off.
Never again.
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A strange one, decor is normally a big factor for me when it comes to pubs, I like an old fashioned looking pub.
If you have visited Zero Degrees, this is certainly not the case. However, it manages to achieve a unique modern look that is just as nice as a traditional pub.
The beer is lovely, but too cold. Being a city center pub it also lacks from a friendly local atmosphere.
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Visited last month and found it to be a large glass and chrome type barn of a place. The music was far too loud for such a massive place with only a couple of customers in. Maybe staff round Bristol need loud music. Beer was fine.
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Not impressed with food, beers or state of the interior, looks great from outside but goes rapidly downhill on entering- very disappointing.
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It was empty when I went with some friends. Even though we had the place to ourselves it took ages to get served! The Pilsner was good. It would be interesting to see what it's like in the evenings.
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Very good food, service a bit slapdash, beer good.
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Only visited this place after a very enjoyable evening at the new Cardiff branch. This was quite a different experience. The place has all of the atmosphere of an aircraft hangar. The feel of the place is somewhere between a construction site and a school canteen. The beers, as mentioned before are all brewed on site and you can see all of the workings, so you can at least be guaranteed a fresh pint. I guess they are subject to variances in batches but none of the beers tasted as good as they did in Cardiff. The staff were a pale imitation also and seemed disinterested and aloof. The staff in Cardiff could not have been more friendly or attentive, service was also quick and efficient. The Bristol people could learn a lot of lessons.
The only thing that the Bristol branch has over Cardiff is that it has a balcony for outside drinking, although a friend of mine on a separate visit was told he could not sit outside as he was not smoking. There's discrimination for you.
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Some fairly awful "novelty" beers (mango? passionfruit?), and those of typical varieties were dull. Staff seemed very easily confused.
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beer interesting rather than good.Sterile and souless. Worth one visit for something a bit different.
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Poor service Sunday last,barman rolling cigarettes behind the back of the bar pretending he couldn't see waiting customers. Only the Speciality beer redeemed the visit(Mango). Bit cold and fizzy though.
The physical set up of this "pub" make it seem unwelcoming. Always has big groups of people,making solo drinkers feel alien. Not deserving really of Good Beer Guide entry,the Pale Ale (and Black Lager) were off,advice from barman was-"don't know why they're off,if you want somethin' different you'll have to have the Pilsner..." Run of the mill type lager or piss off then it seems.
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Great locations with great views across the city. The beer is different in a good way, and everybody that goes here should defininetly try the sampler that they have to find something they like.
The service was fine and the food was standard, gets busy quickly on Fridays so arrive as early as poss if you can.
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soulless, acoustically intimidating.
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Modern, trendy bar serving home-brewed beer. Music is loud enough to be intrusive, but not loud enough to listen to. As ithers have commented, the mute TV's are very irritating. Beer quality is good, particularly the mango. Unlike others, I have always found the service to be very good.
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I really enjoyed this place. I think it's an interesting space built around the brewing plant and had a lot of novel little touches; the basins in the loo's, the use of glass in the floor to expose the piping etc.
Okay, so it is perhaps more of a 'young' venue, but I don't see any problem with a place that promotes real ale to the younger generations and from what I could see on my two visits it was definately working. I was most pleased to see most of the well-dressed ladies around me clutching pints of the fruity Special beer!
Later in the evening it did get a bit of a pre club sort of vibe, but it was still a varied crowd and I certainly wouldn't say it lacked atmosphere. I did a lot of people watching as the music and general volume did sort of prevent any decent conversation but it was still fun.
I didn't eat here; infact the restaurant area was totally seperate and I didn't even glimpse a fork.
Well worth going to see what a bang up to date pub looks like. Recommended!
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Nice to see a contemporary type of place making a virtue out of on-site brewing. Most of it tastes great (tho I wasn't too convinced by the mango beer...) and think of all those food miles they're reducing...
Food is very nice tho service wasn't very attentive, the beer sat on the bar 10 minutes before the waitress brought it over.
Prob best at lunchtime or a quiet evening, weekends it's rammed and the open plan steel n glass form makes it loud.
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I would only recommend this bar for warm, summery afternoons when one can sit outside and gawp at those redfaced from struggling up Christmas steps with their shopping bags. Often the red faces are of anger because yet again The Suger Loaves is closed. Zero Degrees has some great beers for sure, and the service is very civil. But the interior suggests sterility rather than chic(ness?).
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Bristol Turns Green For The Day!!!
The South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club are having their next meeting in Bristol this Saturday. The event kicks off at 12.43 pm in Zero Degrees, Colston Street on Saturday 19th May 2007 and is open to anyone to attend, especially any ex-Northern Ireland patriots living in the Bristol area. This is the second time the club will have visited Bristol and we are very much looking forward to it. The day will include an official meeting, a local charity donation, singing, dressing in green, watching the FA Cup Final together and a pub crawl.
Theme for the day is to turn Bristol Green. Green shirts, scarves, wigs and other memorabilia will be used.
Please turn up at Zero Degrees and join us!
Jonny Blair (Chairman of South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club)
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Previous poster says he/she doesn't like the stout being "nitrokeg" - AFAIK it's not - last I heard all ZeroDegs beers are (unlike most mass-brew stouts) unpasteurised, unfiltered & naturally carbonated - i.e. real beer, even the lagers, wheatbeers & stout. (though, unlike most real ales, some are naturally carbonated to a higher rate than a cask beer - more appropriate for the lagers & wheatbeer & they are all served from giant plastic bags inside horizontal cylindrical tanks, pushed to the bar by air pressure - weird but it works & keeps the beer fresh!)
The glass rinsers mentioned usually use tap water, if you can taste chlorine in your beer, I'm guessing the tap water in Bristol is not too good!?
Agreed on the daft TV on/sound off - music on situation. The odd industrial feel & architecture of the place won a rare CAMRA new-build design award, but it's not my choice either.
There's a new one opening in Reading, so it seems to be working & I like that it might be moving some younger & other folks towards appreciating decent beer, but in general I'd rather be in a good & warmer-feeling pub or brewpub.
cheers,
Mike
(former ZeroDegs brewer, Blackheath, London)
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I really like the idea of this place, a bar that brews it's own beer on site.
Only had time for an Oyster Stout, which was pretty nice. Shame it's nitrokegged which spoilt it a bit, but at least it was more tasty than Guiness ever will be.
However I feel they fail on three points.
Firstly, they put the glass over one those 'quick-wash' things at the bar where they press the glass on a pad upside down and it gets rinsed with some sort of solution. This just made my whole drink smell like a swimming pool and made me worry exactly what strange chemicals I may be imbibing along with the beer. Which is irritatiing if you're drinking a shitty ubquitous lager, but if you're drinking a homebrewed stout it's plain off-putting.
Second, there was music on alondgside a TV with no sound, which I detest. One or the other please.
Thirdly it was cold and glum inside and very poorly lit. On a day when it was cold, grey and pissing down with rain outside, the trendy spartan decor just turned me right off and made me want to get a warm cosy vibe ASAP which I did in haste I'm afraid.
Pop in for one, and judge for yourself. I'm not sure I'd make a big effort to go back unless I was passing though. Maybe on a summer's day? We'll see.
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Although I tend to prefer more trad places I think they have done a very good and interesting job on this.
Nice location tucked in at the top of christmas steps.
A good addition to the bristol scene - good to see different places open up.
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it's still Mango beer as the guest but I think it's great to have such a contrast to the regular pub experience so more power to their elbow...came in with a group and all the beers got the thumbs up..
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I'm with TWG on this one.
Selling interesting real ales in an environment that doesn't include horse brasses and bearded blokes with 'Trowbridge Pump' t-shirts has to be a good way to win hearts and minds.
The exposed pipes semi industrial environment will split opinion, but doesn't stop the concept being valid, or the beer very nice.
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By rights, I should hate ZeroDegrees, and before I got to visit I was preparing to throw considerable vitriol at it even though I'd read about its esteemed reputation for well-kept, innovative beers and good food. I am a traditional pubgoer who likes a traditional interior, good conversation and a mixed clientele and usually shun chrome-dominated minimalism and trendiness.
Although I wasn't quite able to visit it on my last trip to Bristol this month (it had closed just before we arrived!), I now make a point of going. It is, predictably, very much a younger person's haunt, but one cannot fault the beer quality, and the fact that they have designed a contemporary pub that is in stark contrast to most of the existing competition and is very much its own identity. Whether such a radical design was appropriate for that part of Bristol is questionable, but despite its London-esque outlook I really do believe this can appeal to a broad range of drinkers, and I think it is a credit to the scene, especially in the wake of Smiles' sad demise. It ust goes to show that a modern youth-orientated venue such as this needn't be bland, branded and over-corporatised. I take the point about cider, but plenty of other places satisfy the healthy demand for that in Bristol - go to the newly-opened Apple instead and you shall find all you desire!
Try the Black Lager (despite the name it is not fizzy and actually has a discernible FLAVOUR!).
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Interesting range of beers for this smart, modern, brew pub. Pale Ale, Wheat beer,Black Lager, Pilsner Larger and Mango beer. The food is Itallian and not just pizzas. well worth a visit for something different.
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Interior looks like prisoner cell block H.
If you don't like their beer then you're stuffed basically.
Refuse to sell cider - in Bristol, The West Country...
"Not part of their ethos" apparently. (I bet they're selling some gut rot like Magners before the year ends)
And no, the mango beer doesn't "taste a bit like cider!
It all smacks a bit of "we've come down from London to teach you wurzels how to run a bar"
Having said all that the food is pretty good :P
iyers - 28 Jul 2006 14:26 |
Had the same guest beer on since it opened (over a year!) Mango Beer
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Micro Brewery
Very Cold Beer
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