Sylvesters

Decent bistro-​style food in a light and airy space.
We went during the festival so the restaurant was very busy and the service was not 100% but I can imagine that it would be excellent in quieter times.

Really busy on a Friday night. Staff very friendly. Went with 3 friends and tried all their dishes (‘cos I am like that!) and they were all really, really tasty. Had a smoked mackerel pâté, then duck confit (which was quite like Chinese crispy duck) then orange torte with pistachio ice cream.
I thought the duck looked a little dry when it came, but in fact it was juicy, fall off the bone tender inside and the skin was really tasty and crisp. It was on a bed of green lentils and I hoovered up the lot. Loved my starter, but also loved my pal’s tomato soup, so when next in town to meet up with old University friends I want that for my lunch.
All in all, a lovely little place. Clean, uncluttered, friendly and every one of the party cleared their plates, so that says a lot. Oh — and one friend is intolerant to wheat, so she got oatcakes in place of bread with no fuss.

So about a week ago when walking to Uni I saw that what used to be the Pink Olive was being transformed and taken over. Having been to PO before, and enjoying it but not having much to shout about, I was excited to see something new coming along so close to where I live. I did some investigating and found out Sylvesters were having a trial run of their menu for the first week on a pay-​as-​you-​like basis, and so decided to book a table for me and my girlfriend to test this new place out!
It’s a big improvement on the PO, it’s a pretty small place, but I think the redecorating they seem to have done really makes the place feel bigger and lighter, with new seating in place the restaurant feels fresh and inviting. The restaurant was pretty busy on the night we went, and there was a great atmosphere.
We were warmly greeted by one of the waiters who showed us to our table, and given their sample menu to choose from (only about 3 or 4 different things to choose for each course, but I’m assuming this will become larger once they roll out the full menu). I chose the bruchetta to start and the burger for main, whilst the OH went for some soup and salmon for her main. We both really enjoyed it, the portion sizes were spot on, each of the dishes were cooked really well and we always felt attended to by the waiting staff for any more drinks top ups (we also had some house white wine which was very nice!). We also decided to share a delicious banoffee cheesecake thing which finished the meal off nicely!
I think it is really impressive that the food was so good for the first week of being open, all the staff seemed to know what they were doing and we never felt we were waiting too long for food to come out, despite the place being close to capacity. As a student, it’s exciting to have somewhere close to Uni to go for a nice dinner, the lunch menu wasn’t available to see yet when I went, but it could be a great place to go for a more upmarket lunch spot.
Im sure there will be a lot of growing and learning in these first few weeks, but from what I have seen so far it is definitely somewhere I will be back to and I’m excited to try out the full menu when it comes available! As it was pay-​what-​you-​like, we opted for £50 in total, for 3 courses each including the bottle of wine.
I love finding new places that are family-​run rather than having to go to the same old chain restaurant, so will definitely be back soon.