It's Christmas Eve, and we've just had breakfast in Coppa Club in Clifton Village in Bristol, as we wanted to go somewhere this morning so that we would get out and about and make the most of the day. We wanted to go somewhere that was a bit special, and we really like the interior at Coppa Club - mid-century with a modern twist - and the internal architecture of the building is quite interesting, with a mezzanine level.
We booked our table quite a few weeks ago, for 10 a.m, at which point it was really quiet, and it was very easy to park on Clifton Down, along the promenade. However by the time we left at 11:30, it was quite busy and the parking spaces were largely full. We paid £3 - I think it was £3.20 with the Ringo charge - for 2 hours parking.
Clifton Village on Christmas Eve
Clifton Village is a lovely place to walk through on Christmas Eve because there are lots of little independent shops with their pretty Christmas displays. I particularly liked walking past the perfumier because the smell coming out there was amazing. The other place we like having breakfast in Clifton Village is the Ivy, and they do do a really good breakfast "meal deal" where it's about £16 for breakfast with a drink, but we went there not that long ago, so we thought we'd go back to Coppa Club today. Whilst Coppa Club is cheaper than the Ivy, it was still about £60 for 5 people to have breakfast, and 3 of those people were 10 and under.
Food at Coppa Club, Bristol
The last time we went, I don't think I was overly struck by the food because I just had poached eggs on toast, the toast being sourdough, which means it's very nice but quite small. But I just liked the ambience there so it still stuck in my mind as a nice place to go. When we went back this morning, I ordered something different, just to make the food seem more exciting. I had the pancakes, which come with whipped mascarpone, honey, pistachios, and a berry compote, and they looked amazing - really beautifully presented and quite tasty. I also did a half and half swap with my husband who had the mashed avocado and poached eggs on sourdough toast, and he particularly liked the way it was served with coriander and a slice of lime, which, along with the chili on it, gave it all a great zingy flavour. My son ordered from the adult's menu, and he had mashed avocado on toast, which was part of a breakfast club "deal", so that it was £10.50 with an orange juice, which he traded for an apple juice, and a cup of tea, which I had, so then I didn't need to buy a drink separately. I don't think there was an avocado on toast that wasn't in this meal deal, but there was poached eggs on toast, for example, which you could do for £7.50 on its own, or you could do it for £10.50 with an orange juice and a hot drink. So if you want two drinks or there's people in your party that you can share the drinks between, it does work out slightly cheaper to do the meal deal.
Coppa Club kids menu
It was a nice touch that my kids were given a children's menu, but it didn't say it was a children's menu... so the little people don't feel segregated. BUT that does mean it did take me a while to be sure it definately was a children's menu! It was the absense of any hot drinks and just juice boxes which convinced me!
My daughter had scrambled egg with toast soldiers, but the soldiers are sourdough toast, which is very lovely, but for a seven year old, that means you've got very hard crusts and it's quite holey bread. So by the time they've taken off the hard crust, if that's not really their thing, and the bread is quite holey, there's not an awful lot of toast there. Don't get me wrong, sourdough is lovely, but I don't think it's the best bread for toast on a children's menu. I thought my 3 year old was going to choose the toast with jam and butter because that's his go to for breakfast and I was a bit concerned that he then wouldn't be able to eat much off it and it would be a really small portion, but he ended up going for a stack of pancakes with syrup and butter. When it arrived, it looked like it had an amazing piece of banana on top, and he immediately grabbed the "banana" and put it in his mouth just to find it was a really nice piece of butter. So he was quite disgusted by that....!
My husband and my eldest quite fancied a sausage on the side of their menu, and we noticed that if you buy sausages or any side from the children's menu, they're £1.50, whereas if you buy them from the adult's menu, they're £2. So we ordered them from the children's menu and they must have been the same sausages because they were really big. It meant that my 7-year-old was quite excited to hear that her scrambled egg and soldiers was being ordered with two sausages, but she only got to keep one of them. And this little 3-year-old and his pancakes got 2 sausages, but again, he only got to keep one of them. (Actually it would have been cheaper to just buy 2 adult sausages rather than get them for the little kids too and have to buy 4.) Overall, it came to about £60 for the 5 of us, and that did include a 12.5% service charge. Which I think there might have been VAT on which made it even more, and that does add up to the overall cost of the meal.
Overall, we still really, really love the interior of Coppa Club and have come away wanting to convert our living room to look like a snug area that's there. I'll put a photo below. But it did feel a little like it was lacking in some tender loving care compared to our previous visit - or there was too much to look at last time so we only noticed this time. The plants felt a little droopy and in the toilets, the taps in the gents and the ladies weren't quite working properly. So it did feel like they need to do a bit of maintenance on the place in general and not just rest on their laurels.
Service was really friendly, and the kids were brought colouring to do. The two people that served us were both really lovely and helpful. When we were shown to our table, we were a little disappointed to see that we were sat right by the secondary door, so not the main entrance, but still a door that people were leaving through. We almost asked to move because my husband was literally sat on the doormat, but didn't because there was a sign on that door asking people to use the other entrance so we thought it would be fine, but it ends up that didn't stop people leaving through it, and it's also the door we've used to enter through before, so we did kind of know it'd probably get used. It made me think as soon as we got there, when it was quiet, that maybe we didn't need to have booked, because they might have wanted to leave the more appealing tables empty for people who came in off the street. It was a fine table over all though, and I heard other people coming in saying they'd booked, so I think it was safer overall to have planned in advance. The kids were sat on banquette seating which does mean they kinda roll around a bit but I think it's easier to have them sat in a corner overall rather than scuffling and falling off of chairs.
Breakfast in Clifton Village
There are lots of places in Clifton Village that are really lovely bakeries where you can just buy a cookie or a croissant and sit outside and eat it, and we will do that when the weather's a bit better, but just for Christmas Eve, we wanted to be sure that we'd have a seat in the dry for everyone.
We were done in Coppa Club by 11 and then we wandered back through Clifton Village, looking in shop windows and are now home to wrap some final presents by the fire!
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