The Cheese Connection is a deli restaurant in Wapping Wharf, Bristol.
Editorially verified August 27, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Why locals love it: A one-container cheesemonger tucked among Cargo's louder kitchens, curating South West wheels.
Tip: Order a platter to eat on the wharf; the counter leans hard into Somerset and West Country wheels.
Address: Unit 8, Cargo 2, Museum Street, Bristol BS1 6ZA
Bristol Sweet Mart has anchored St Marks Road since 1978, a family-run Easton institution stocking over 9,000 products, spices and a curry deli.
Why locals love it: A world-food emporium on an Easton side street that out-stocks every supermarket in the city.
Tip: Come hungry: the deli counter's daily curries and Indian sweets turn a grocery run into lunch.
Radical Roasters runs a Diedrich 5kg roaster on St Mark's Road in Easton, Bristol, screen-printing its bags by hand and chasing experimental lots.
Why locals love it: A hand-screenprinted micro roastery hiding among St Mark's Road's grocers and grills.
Tip: It sits on the same Easton street as Bristol Sweet Mart, so pair a bag of beans with a spice-shop run.
Sources from: Fruity and experimental small lots
How they serve: Espresso, Filter, Whole bean retail, Subscription
Little Martha brews in a Totterdown railway arch on Oxford Street, a Bristol microbrewery taproom sharing its lane with the FCP roastery bar.
Why locals love it: A Totterdown railway-arch taproom brewing metres from the tracks, unknown beyond the hill.
Tip: The arch sits next to Full Court Press's roastery bar, making Oxford Street a two-stop caffeine-then-cask lane.
The Drapers Arms is Bristol's first micropub, a one-room former draper's shop on Gloucester Road serving cask ale and conversation, nothing else.
Why locals love it: Bristol's first micropub, one converted shopfront on Gloucester Road with no music and no fuss.
Tip: No music, no phones encouraged, no lager: order a cask third and talk to a stranger, that is the point.
Beese's pours drinks and cream teas on a wooded bank of the Avon in Bristol, a seasonal riverside institution best reached aboard its own little ferry.
Why locals love it: A riverside bar and tea garden reachable by ferry, hiding on a wooded Avon bank since the Victorians.
Tip: Take the ferry from the centre rather than driving; Sunday roasts and big groups need booking ahead.
The Bank Tavern hides down a John Street alley in Bristol with an award-named Sunday lunch so popular its roast bookings sell out a year ahead.
Why locals love it: An alleyway local that outsiders walk past daily, hiding a Sunday lunch booked out a year in advance.
Tip: Sunday sittings for 2026 sold out again; weekday lunches need no booking and carry the same kitchen's cooking.
