Reviews

Compass Suffolk Magazine

The first thing that you notice when you walk into Keo Bar and Bistro in St Nicholas Street in Ipswich is the animated buzz of a popular and happy meeting place, where friends get together for a few drinks after a day's shopping, or work colleagues go to unwind after a hard day in the office.

The restaurant occupies the first floor and is galleried over the bar area. In the warmer summer months, a pretty garden patio area with large umbrellas and candles makes for a fun and lively 'alfresco' atmosphere.

Set in a Tudor building, the restaurant has a rustic feel with exposed brickwork, timber beams as well as wooden flooring. The whole place is well laid out and spacious with air conditioning and low voltage lighting. Lighting a candle on each table supported in an empty bottle of Veuve Cliquot gives it a romantic edge.

We were of course slightly late in our arrival, but we were still greeted with a smile and an ice-cold beer in a chilled glass, which was a nice touch. After a good day's sailing on the River Orwell, we were absolutely famished and so lost no time at all in studying the varied and exciting looking menu. Luckily the starters came very promptly and were so beautifully presented it was almost a shame to eat them, but not quite!

My dinner guest decided to kick off with the 'Camembert in a Poppy and Sesame Seed Coating', deep fried and presented on an 'Apple and Courvoisier Confit'. The crispy coated Camembert was piled high on a colourful salad and when cut into, the cheese was deliciously creamy and perfectly ripe.

I decided to try the freshly made Cajun Spiced Crab Cakes' on a bed of 'Curly Endive with a Light Red Thai Sauce'. This as delicious and plentiful, with the Endive salad giving it a lighter touch.

For the main course, my guest decided to try the day's special, 'Fresh Local Cod Fillet With Virgin Olive Oil and fresh herbs', served on a bed of sautéed new potatoes with watercress and lemon dressing, and with fresh market vegetables. This was a very good choice for a hungry person, the Cod was extremely fresh and looked as if it had just landed off the fishing boat at Aldeburgh. The olive oil and fresh herbs gave the fish a lovely subtle flavouring, with the watercress and lemon dressing giving the dish a nice contrasting tang.

My 'Scottish Tournados Fillet Steak' came served with Brandy Sauce. I could have chosen to have had it with the 'Green Peppercorn' or the 'Mushroom, Shallot and Red Wine Sauce', but felt that the sweetness of the brandy would compliment the richness of the steak to perfection, I was not disappointed. The Steak was cooked medium rare, with just the right amount of pink meat in the middle, and the accompanying medley of vegetables were cooked perfectly 'al dente'.

At the start of the meal we were famished, half way through we were satisfied, but my dinner guest was thinking of a chocolate dessert, with this lady there is always room for chocolate; She eventually chose the 'Belgian Chocolate and Southern Comfort Warm Sponge Pudding' served with a homemade fudge sauce. This dish seemed to bring forth a lot of'Ohhs and Ahhs' and was consequently very well received.

The wine list was varied, with house wines at £9.95, of which there were three to choose from, two white and one red. We had a bottle of the La Fortuna Merlot at £12.75, a red wine from Chile, which Oz Clarke described as 'stunning' in the Daily Telegraph. There was a good range of Champagne on offer from £25 for a Devoux Grande Reserve Brut, to £42 for the Laurent Perrier Cuvee Rose Brut.

The cost of the meal and wine came to just over £65. We had a thoroughly good evening in Keo, the food was of an extremely high standard, the service attentive without being intrusive. I would highly recommend this restaurant, and will certainly be coming back for more.

Suffolk Business Magazine

Keo Bar Bistro is one of the smartest and most popular restaurants in lpswich. Formerly known as Butts Wine Bar, Keo was converted by owner managers Ross and Geoff Keough early in 1998. Uneven floorboards, mismatched furniture and huge crockery appropriate for the sizeable portions are trademarks. Keo really comes into its own at lunchtime when its perfect for those tough working lunches. Not in the slightest bit stuffy and the delightfully friendly waiting staff seem to have a knack of knowing when they are needed and when they are not.

Keo Bar Bistro offers a range of facilities for corporate entertaining, catering and parties from 20 to 200. With a variety of menus available, the Presentation Buffet is particularly popular as it offers companies the ability to entertain in a relaxed and informal manner providing the opportunities to socialise whilst still maintaining the same high standards of cuisine. Keos Bar and Brasserie has a very extensive wine cellar —something for everybody and a garden at the rear perfect for those summer days and nights. It really is one of the best places to eat in Suffolk. For bookings and enquiries please call 01473 215721

The Magazine

Sharing a table is one of like's basic pleasure's. Washing up isn't. So find the sounds of a Friday Night, plus a dash of clientele, who want this to be where they get the first heady taste of the weekend, and you might just be enjoying yourself.

Keo Bar Bistro in St Nicholas Street, Ipswich, is the place for this. Owner Ross Keough and Head chef Steven Taylor knows what there customers want and is delivering. Interesting to see he offers a free opportunity to win a meal for two by filling in a customer satisfaction questionnaire left on each table. A way of gaining willing recipients of mailshots, publicising details of gourmet evenings and other special events, for sure.

Respondents can decline the invitation to go on the mailing list too. Usefully, the survey reveals what the establishment thinks of its own priorities.

Armed with answers, the management can presumably make sure customers are happy and so point the business in the right direction. It has the added benefit of maximising profit. I didn't fill in the questionnaire, I'd rather share the information now. Except the personal bits.

So, on to the more meaty stuff, in the order it appears on the questionnaire.

Music? A "live" musician was setting up when we arrived...Bar? Well-lit, smiling staff, sparkling clean glasses, swift service, large range of trendy wet stuff, good choice of wine and bottled beers.

Here's some homework for you. Next time you order a glass of wine, just have a look around the rim. I have become a regular complainer (since spotting lipstick imprint elsewhere) simply because there are so many dirty glasses about. I accept that machines may not get glasses ultra clean but having paid £5 for a glass of wine, in one particularly trendy Norwich pub, I think it could at least be poured into a clean receptacle. No such problems at Keo, with it's lilac walls, coordinating menus, and galleried restaurant with pews and scrubbed pine tables. Next on the questionnaire is comfort. Good mix of bar standing room and groups of seating and an intimate area to cosy up in, too. Service? A top-notch hard working and genuinely attentive team.

Food? This is where the fun begins. The food at Keo is outstanding. While we read the well composed menu, and read it again, and again, pieces of slanty-cut fresh-from-the oven baguette and butter arrived on the table. To start: One of us chose crab cakes(£4.75) - light and fluffy as opposed to dark and meaty. Crisp outer shell and soft interior. Cajun spices pepped up the flavour and the use of curly endive in the salad said "elegance". King prawns wrapped in filo pastry, deep fried and served with a sweet chilli sauce. Cost £4.50 Scooped out of the hot fat at the point of perfection, those in the kitchen was concentrating on quality, and it showed.

Can it get any better? Strangely enough, it did. Finest Scottish Tournedos Fillet steak served with green peppercorn (£15.95) was placed on the side of the table. And blackened swordfish steak with a lemon and honey spiced glaze, nestled on a potato Dauphinoise with roasted vegetable accompaniment (£11.50), appeared on the other. Ten out of 10. Vegetables were excellent too, and free. Baby corn, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, mange tout, potatoes and carrots came and went. How wonderful not to be offered a parsimonious mix of more boring greenstuff. We declined puds but there is a truly tempting list which starts with Cremè de menthe and chocolate-chip parfait, served with a peanut sauce; goes on to Belgian chocolate and Southern Comfort warm-sponge pudding, moves through conference pears poached in red wine and kirsch, ending with European cheeses plus celery, apple and water biscuits. And there are seven different ways of having a decent coffee. Espresso, latte, double espresso, americano, cappuccino, chocolate cappuccino and Bailey's latte.

Irish and liquer coffees are available, and a wide selection of after-dinner drinks at resonable prices (£2). Which brings us to the last question - value. With three glasses of wine and a pint of Kronenberg for Mr Perkins, we agreed that the £40-ish bill was entirely acceptable. And I'm not angling to be entered in the prize draw. I will certainly be back: no question.