Jk's Bistro

Walking through the town as our hotel restaurant was closed, but they had provided a list of some of the places to get food in town, and so we had several places to choose from, coming from the High St heading ENE at about 19.00 on a Saturday night. The Gurkha place had no space, the Thai we liked the look of only doing take away, so we ambled on, past some ropey looking pubs and a kebab place. We trudged on, up the hill toward the Eastern end of town. On my phone, perusing Google Maps and I saw there was a bistro down the dies street called New Street, and thought we'd go have a look. A bit shabby looking from the outside, but the interior looked okay and welcoming, and so we opened the door and entered. Immediately we asked if they had space, the single server said they could accommodate us at the space by the window, if that was ok? The only other people in were a group of 5 ladies celebrating a birthday, and there were other tables unoccupied. I had a look at the blackboard menu; for me if I can find three things that I could eat and like the sound of it is a winner, but there need to be at lest two choices minimum, and here the first two mains looked great - fish and pork, and then there was the steak sharing menu, including starters, so I said, yes, and we sat down. We ordered the set sharing menu which included a shared Tapas starter and rump steak as main, served with chips. We ordered our drinks and the food arrived presently. Starters were a mixed picking plate of cheese, olives, balsamic 7 oil, with home-made hummus, some tomato paste concoction, some cheddar with a house special infused oil dripped on it, some calamari and bread. All was nice and we finished it off as we were quite hungry. Our mains came with the extra side of vegetables I had requested they concoct - some greens and petit pois. The fixed price also included a 500ml carafe of wine, so I went with Shiraz, which worked well with the main course. Having cleared our plates, they were promptly cleared away and we asked to see the dessert menu. By this time a larger party of seven or eight had arrived and the background noise volume in the place had gone up. I feel many places need to add some soft furnishings to absorb the sound as having all hard surfaces makes it almost impossible to hear someone on your table when the other groups are getting animated i their own conversations. I ordered an egg tart decorated with tart-tasting berries, which was nice for dessert [see photo] (though, I prefer savoury to sweet) and had a double brandy as well. We ordered coffee and enjoyed the drinks. Overall, I felt service was good, cleanliness was okay (dropped food at nearby table left uncleared), welcome was good, hospitable staff, good food selection and we enjoyed the evening, before leaving and walking to the hotel. Even had a chat with "K" when she emerged from the kitchen a little later. Suggestions - bottled beers should be cooler; wine menu could be improved and expanded (not everyone wants a middle-of-the-road innocuous red, preferring something more full-bodied); dessert menu could be a little more imaginative, and stock should be sufficient to offer to customers if it is on their menu rather than taking the order only to discover later that all stock of a particular option was sold the day before (check stock before you begin your shift so you know what to say to customers??). Happy to recommend in a town with limited options available on this night for walk-in customers. Sorry to read about previous reviewer's experiences, but for us it was a pretty good evening.

We were recommended JK's bistro after being turned away by The Pig at Gitisham as they had a private function on, we are so glad they did as we found a hidden gem in JK's! The staff are so polite, happy to accommodate dietary requirements and fitted us in last minute. It has a really lovely atmosphere for being such a small eatery but I think the size adds to its charm. The food was lovely, lots of choice, fresh and absolutely delicious. We will be coming back again and will try to fit in pudding as it looked fabulous.