Sonny Stores, Bristol: ‘They get things absolutely right’ – restaurant review

Sonny Stores, 47 Raleigh Road, Bristol BS3 1QS (0117 966 0821). Starters £4-£9, mains £13-£19, desserts £6, wines from £18

There is no glittering river running down the middle of Raleigh Road, in Bristol’s Southville district. There are no Arctic snowfields of white linen dressing the tables. The dining room is not polluted by braying parties of media plutocrats of a sort that might make even the most ardent pacifist think ugly, violent thoughts. As a result of these things, the prices will not quite make you wince, like someone has poked a vinegar-dipped finger into a recently incurred wound. Or to put it another way, no one would look at the humble, whitewashed space housing Sonny Stores, on a corner in residential Bristol, and mistake it for the famed River Café. Until the food starts arriving. And then: oh my. Gosh. And thank you.