Patisserie Valerie, The Mall at Cribbs Causeway
Food Feedback: Patisserie Valerie at Cribbs Causeway
Published: 20 July, 2009
Coverpoint’s Jonathan Doughty serves up his regular shopping centre catering review. This month he visits Patisserie Valerie at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway.
If you haven’t paid a visit to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway on the outskirts of Bristol recently, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise when looking for somewhere to eat.
Following an extensive refurbishment programme, the ‘heart’ of the foodservice offer has undergone a dramatic change. Gone is the former food court and fast food kiosks that served out to centrally shared seats, replaced with a combination of cafes and restaurants, all newly named The Avenue. This exciting new dining experience has seen the introduction of new restaurant tenants including Yo! Sushi, Carluccio’s and a soon to be occupied unit (although we can’t tell you who yet).
Some of the operators have remained during this transition phase, including McDonald’s, Spudulike and KFC, but all new offers now have their own demised unit combining production and dedicated seating areas. All the seating areas ‘spill out’ into The Avenue, to form a boulevard of terrace seating allowing guests the opportunity for social eating, drinking and relaxing. Each of the new tenants also has greater control and flexibility of the management of their unit demise.
We took the opportunity to visit the new foodservice ‘hub’ to see how the offers were trading. We couldn’t have picked a better day with the country in the middle of a heatwave and, sat in the palm tree-lined Avenue, we decided that afternoon tea in Patisserie Valerie was the order of the day.
My colleague and I were immediately greeted at the door by enthusiastic staff and this set the benchmark for the attentive and friendly service throughout the visit. The unit was about 40 per cent full at 4.00pm, attracting a mixture of families, professionals and ‘ladies who lunch’, who we believe had ventured from their regular John Lewis and Marks & Spencer venues.
My colleague ordered a millefeuille (£3.60), which looked stunning on the plate, but was quite dense and sweet for his palate and was left half-eaten. My almond frangipane tarte (£3.20), however, was a delight and polished off with an individually served pot of tea (£1.55). All in all, a great afternoon tea experience in a superb newly created environment.
