Lamplight along the long oak bar at The Ember & Oak on a winter evening
Kilngate Wharf · Licensed since 1904

A fire, a fair pint,
& nowhere else to be

Cask ale from the West Country, a kitchen that takes Sunday seriously, and a back room that has hosted folk sessions for longer than anyone can prove.

Kitchen open till 9.30pm
17 Kilngate Wharf, Bristol
Dogs always welcome
Cask AleSunday RoastOpen FireLive FolkWharfside TerraceQuiz TuesdaysFourteen Lines OnCask AleSunday RoastOpen FireLive FolkWharfside TerraceQuiz TuesdaysFourteen Lines OnCask AleSunday RoastOpen FireLive FolkWharfside TerraceQuiz TuesdaysFourteen Lines OnCask AleSunday RoastOpen FireLive FolkWharfside TerraceQuiz TuesdaysFourteen Lines On
The snug at The Ember & Oak, with a lit fire and worn leather benches
1904The year the licence was granted
The House

A century of people not going home yet

The Ember & Oak began life as a lamp store for the wharf, which is how it ended up with a chimney far too big for the room. The dockers found the fire first, the licence followed, and the pub has been arguing about football, politics and the correct way to pour a stout ever since.

We have kept what mattered — the long tables, the cellar, the two working fires — and quietly fixed everything else. The kitchen is ours, the beer is chosen by people who drink it, and nobody has ever been rushed out at last orders.

14Lines on the bar
2Working fires
80Seats, terrace included
From the Kitchen

Food worth crossing the bridge for

Pub cooking done properly: butchered in-house, landed that morning, and served in portions that assume you walked here.

A dry-aged sirloin Sunday roast with dripping potatoes and a tall Yorkshire pudding
Sundays only

The Sunday Roast

£22

Dry-aged sirloin, dripping potatoes, a Yorkshire the size of your hand, and gravy we start reducing on Friday.

Suet-crusted beef and stout pie with buttered mash and minted peas
House classic

Ember Pie & Mash

£18

Slow-braised shin and stout under suet pastry, buttered mash, minted peas, and a jug of gravy on the side.

Beer-battered cod with triple-cooked chips, crushed peas and tartare sauce
Friday landing

Wharfside Fish Board

£24

Line-caught cod in Ember Ale batter, triple-cooked chips, crushed peas and pickled shallot tartare.

On the Bar

Fourteen lines, changed when they're good and ready

Six of them are ours for good. The rest rotate through whatever the West Country brewers have done well that month.

Ask about the cellar cask. There is usually something on that never makes it onto the board.

Ember Best Bitter

Kilngate · brewed for us since 1987

£5.40Bitter · 4.2%

Oakcutter Stout

Mendip Hills · poured slow, twice

£5.80Dry Stout · 4.8%

Wharf Lantern Pale

Bristol · three hops, no ceremony

£6.10Pale Ale · 4.5%

Ridgeway Still Cider

Herefordshire · straight from the barrel

£5.20Still Cider · 6.0%

Nightporter Mild

Kilngate · the one the regulars order

£4.90Dark Mild · 3.6%

Old Kiln Barleywine

Cellar cask · halves only, and rightly so

£4.20Barleywine · 8.1%
What's On

The back room is rarely quiet

No tickets, no cover charge, no stage. Turn up, find a seat, and let whoever is playing get on with it.

Fri12

Kilngate Folk Session

8pm till late · Back room

Fiddles, whistles and whoever walks in with a case. It has run every second Friday since 1978.

Tue16

The Hard Quiz

7.30pm · Six rounds

Two pounds a head, teams of six maximum, and a bar tab for whoever ends up least wrong.

Sun21

Roast & Records

12–5pm · All vinyl

Bring a record and we will play it between courses. Nothing after 1979, house rule, no appeals.

Find Us

Down by the water, follow the chimney

Address

17 Kilngate Wharf
Bristol BS1 4RN

Opening Hours

Monday – Thursday12pm – 11pm
Friday – Saturday12pm – 1am
Sunday12pm – 10.30pm

Kitchen closes at 9.30pm, an hour earlier on Sundays.

A long table laid for a large party in the back room of the pub
Reservations

Table for two, or twenty?

We hold a third of the room back for walk-ins, so there is usually a seat. For Sundays, folk nights and anything over six, book ahead and we will keep the fire side free.

Swebsy