Review: Clarence Social, Cheltenham

Full disclosure: my meal at The Clarence Social was paid for by dem. Though that’s only because there was a cock-up with our booking two weeks previously, and they very generously offered us a free meal by way of apology! Any business has the odd cock-up, you ought to be judged by how you deal with them. So, they get good marks for that.

The Clarence Social is a seriously stylish place to drop in for a drink or a quick bite; we had brunch there a few weeks back and it was good. The bar on the ground floor is buzzin’ with a more exclusive little cocktail bar in the basement that we didn’t explore. The restaurant is upstairs, darkly furnished with care taken on the details. It has an open balcony over the ground floor, which is spiffy design but certainly floats the buzz upwards. Basically, this isn’t the place for a romantic tete-a-tete but would be just fine for food before a night out with friends.

The menu is unpretentious but interesting enough for me. I picked ham hock croquettes off the starters, and these were classic deep-fried cheesy nuggets, though I might have liked a bit more hock. Maureen’s gorgonzola arancini sounded great but were a bit disappoint. They were wanting in the cheese department and wanting in the seasoning department. Nice slices of pickled pear with them.

For main I picked their house wagyu beef burger. It was a nice bit of beef, with a nice char, but very properly medium cooked (I discovered later that I could have asked for it to be done differently, which is a bit of a stable-door-horse-bolted scenario really). The disk of raw red onion hiding in the bun was a bit stark. Nice bun though. Overall, because frankly I’m no burger geek so I don’t know all the things I should be ticking through, I’d say it was a fine burger but it wasn’t a grrrreat burger.

Maureen’s cubed pork belly in Japanese BBQ sauce was a rather more spiffy plate. Nice cubed of pork, properly shreddable and unctuous without any big lumps of fat left on ’em. Good sauce, gingery and sticky. I really liked the oriental salad/slaw it was served with too, a very good accompaniment, cutting nice and clean through the porky goodness. Good stuff.

They’ve got decent wine on the list, if my Picpoul was anything to go by, and Maureen had a capable caipirinha. It would have been £18 each for 2 courses, and that feels about fair. They haven’t shot straight into my “favourite locals” list – too noisy and food not good enough overall – but I wouldn’t worry about enjoying a bite to eat out with friends there.