The Glassboat - A Bristol England Restaurant Afloat

The Glassboat serves very well prepared modern English and European food in a barge, berthed at Bristol's historic docks.

The Glassboat was originally a Bristol-built timber barge. Grounded in the Severn mud and destined to become a tidal breakwater, it was rescued in the 1980s and refloated. Today, it is one of the highlights of the Bristol Waterfront area on the Bristol Channel.

It's hard to imagine this as a working barge. Today The Glassboat is all spit and polish, with big, plate glass windows revealing elegantly set tables inside. The fixtures and fittings come from other historic Bristol buildings, including solid Burma teak doors that once graced the Royal Hotel. In addition to the main dining deck, there is a comfortable lounge bar area and, below deck, a private dining room. We recently visited on a winter evening and can happily report that the boat was cozy and warm inside.

Topnotch food

We tried the £22.50, 3-course set menu, available for lunch or dinner. There were four choices for each course.

A starter of Bloody Mary Soup was nicely spiced with tabasco and Worcestershire sauce - we didn't detect any vodka. For mains, we had a Navarin of Lamb that was hearty, tasty and full of vegetables, and for "afters" we chose the English cheese selection, which included a good variety of tastes.

If we had any complaint at all, it was that the extra vegetable selection we requested included a generous portion of baby new potatoes - and everyone in our party already had potatoes, noodles or rice on their plates.

All in all, this is festive and sociable place to dine out in Bristol.