Good shopping centre and not too many empty stores. We last went on a very rainy day but it didn't…read moretake away from the shopping experience. I love that they have little food places staggered around like Ben's Cookies (which is always an essential when shopping for the family!) Easy to get to and access. Worth the visit.

Wow! I could do some serious damage at this place! Cabot Circus is a beautifully constructed…read more"outdoor" shopping centre with every store you can imagine! We were staying across the street at the Future Inn and on the evening we arrived, we strolled over to take a quick peek at the adventures I would be exploring the next day. Much to my surprise, pleasure and happiness, there was a Pret right there as soon as we walked in! Breakfast at the hotel was on the pricey side so we knew where we'd be coming in the morning and we certainly needed to get fueled up for a day of shopping! CC has lots of high end, brand name stores and with even more shops beyond the boundaries of CC, this made for a lovely day of retail therapy. My poor husband... oh well, at least they had an Apple store for him. ;)

I'm a passionate Bristolian. I love everything about Bristol and every inch of this beautiful city…read more However, every time I go through Broadmead I can't help but ask: what happened? What went wrong? I know that the high street has been in decline for a while now, and that it's not only Bristol that has empty shopping centers, but that doesn't make it any easier watch. When I was a kid I used to love going into town and going to the galleries to by someone a birthday present, or go to choose my own. But now broadmead and the galleries are a non-event. There's not really anything there apart from boots and a few discount shops. Saying that, every christmas the German markets come to town and liven the place up with mulled wine, bratwurst and some much needed christmas cheer. It's a really nice place to go on your lunch break or to start a night off. Without it, this would be a 2 star review!

This is Bristol's main shopping precinct, complete with a mall, two cinemas and various department…read morestores. It's always felt a bit tired and run down, with too much concrete and boarded up windows. They've taken a step towards dealing with a recent refurbishment - cleaning the brick work and stuff like that. It's still a bit crap to be honest, especially next the brand spanking new Cabot Circus next door. There's everything you'd expect from a big city's main shopping area. They've got a Marks and Spencer and several McDonald's - it's pretty much a clone of what you'd find in somewhere like Southampton or Wolverhampton. Everyone says Bristol can do a bit better - I suppose that's what Cabot Circus is all about. It's got a quite a Bristolian feel to it, which makes it feel a bit less soulless. Staff are a bit more likely to meet your eye than London and there's quite a friendly atmosphere. Anoyances include charity muggers and men standing around with microphones decrying your sins, but nothing too bad. Broadmead isn't flash, or even very smart but has everything you'd want when you go into town.

Ok, now for a little history lesson (sorry I wouldn't do this unless it was very interesting). The…read moreClifton Arcade, a beautiful Victorian version of a shopping mall, was buried under 60 tonnes of debris (including a caravan) until just 20 years ago. The story goes, when a builder was working around the site twenty years ago and started drilling into a wall, his drill went all the way through, meaning it was hollow inside; he made the hole big enough to look through and saw this beautiful old Victorian parade of shops, untouched for decades. Now I don't know how much of that the complete truth, but pretty cool is nonetheless. As far as shops go, they are suitably useless but fit in with this special building. They are lovely little independent businesses. There is an amazing little Mexican shop that only sells, well, Mexican things. Like wrestlers masks. Nacho Libre!!! There are art shops & a really cool vintage clothes shop (woman only, dam!). The biggest shame is that the brilliant little record store that used to be at the far end has now closed. Dam, now this arcade really is only suitable for woman, mothers and grannies who can literally get lost in their for hours. Some peace for the rest of us.

This is kind of symptomatic of everything that's good and bad about Clifton Village. You enter by…read morethe Promrose Cafe and stroll through this beautiful arcade, though I have to say, I'm struggling to think of a time that I've ever bought anything here. Pretty much everything in here - bar the music store - is high end, which means, especially in this day and age, that it's all a little rich for my blood. Always worth a quick stroll when you're in the area, but you may want to encase your wallet in concrete before you enter.

Lovely shopping centre! Perfect to drive a piano around in while playing the Coconut Mall theme…read moresong.

The Galleries shopping centre was THE place to shop to avoid the grim main strip of Broadmead…read morebefore Cabot Circus opened up a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, the new and popular Cabot Circus has meant pretty much the end of the Galleries. Many shops have closed down or moved out of the Galleries in hope of a better future in the new shopping mall. A few shops have stayed though, which means that the Galleries is still worth a browse. For chain essentials such as Boots, WHSmith and Burger King, you will find all these under one roof. There are a few non-essential and pointless shops which are still quite overpriced considering they are on their last legs. You will find Hawkins Bazaar here, which gives the Galleries a thumbs up from me.

China Town in Bristol? Well this little gem called little…read morechina town at Bristol isnt quite China Town like London, but it has most of the stuff you will see in most China town. Chinese supermarket, Chinese cafe that serves real China town food, some bubble tea shop and a karoake too.

Great little surprise, a beautiful old Victorian shopping arcade tucked away in Clifton Village,…read moreBristol. Hidden down Boyces Avenue, this treasure originally opened in 1878 but later fell into disuse. It has been restored now and is home to a wide range of small shops selling all sorts of stuff from antiques, furniture, jewelry, designer clotes, art, music and books. A really good mix to tempt our various interests. Apparently, the building has been used as a film location, notably in the BBC drama Little Sir Nicholas, De Amitri's video Nothing Much Happens Here and on more than one occasion by the BBC for Casualty.

Prepare to be confused. The Mall is what used to be called The Galleries. Why the name The Mall is…read morebetter than The Galleries, I've got no idea, and quite where that leaves The Mall shopping centre out in Cribbs, I'm not sure (suffering an identity crisis to go with its Circus-induced financial crisis, I would suspect). I walked through here the other day, and it was actually surprisingly busy post- Circus, with no shops boarded up as far as I could see and all the big players (Boots, Smiths, Waterstones) staying put. This isn't to recommend this massive anachronism, though, which is, let's face it, something of a ghost town waiting to happen.

Before Cabot Circus opened The Mall was the centre point for Bristol. I was ashamed to invite…read moreanyone to visit for this reason! It was really small for a main shopping mall, and only has a few decent shops in it. Now that Cabot Circus has opened, most business has relocated and nowadays there seems to be more and more of these tacky, cheap clothes shops popping up inside which all sell the same things. As Mark very well said, one of the sole uses of The Mall has to be the escalators to the top meaning you don't have to walk up the stupidly steep hill to Castle Park and St Nicholas Market! I don't ever really visit the Mall, only for TK-Max and the use of their lifts. Press onwards the Cabot Circus in my opinion!

Quakers Friars is a branch off Cabot Circus. It is open air and is very modern and new…read more I do warn you, this section of shopping is a bit more expensive then the rest of Cabot Circus, the strech of shops is dedicated more to your Fred Perry, Fat Face, Lacoste and such like, so if you do a have bit of cash to spend I think this will be your main visiting point. I do like to wander down here and pretend I have the funds to go in and buy everything instore, I can but dream!

A very chic and upmarket stretch of the Cabot Circus shopping district, Quakers Friars is the place…read moreto come for pricey gifts, a glass of fine wine at Carluccio's beside the fountains, and a reminder of the luxurious things in life. Harvey Nichols stands proudly on one end, and the shops cascade in varying degrees of poshness down towards Broadmead where, abruptly, the tone shifts and you're back in Poundland territory. The White Company, Molton Brown, Bloomsbury & Co (a gift shop) ... It's all stylish, gorgeous, and at the higher end of high street shopping. Even if you're not here to buy anything, go and have a coffee at Carluccio's on a sunny day, sit outside on the terrace under one of their royal blue umbrellas, and enjoy watching people shopping, and listen to the tills ringing.

A couple of friends who have recently been lodging with us before going travelling wanted to say…read morethanks by way of a slap up 3 course meal and Harvey Nic's top floor restaurant and cocktail bar was the destination of choice. I'd visited Harvey Nic's main store a number times (mainly buying presents at Christmas!) but never thought about visiting the restaurant or bar. We arrived at the closed Harvey Nichols store, on the corner of Quakers Fryer just after 8pm and took a separate lift up to the top floor. The floor is split in to 2 main parts; a cocktail bar with a long window overlooking Cabot Circus and formal restaurant top to bottom coloured gold! First Impressions were that this is definitely a place for a special occasion and also very bling on the eyes. We stopped in the bar for a quick cocktail before being seated. The cocktail menu is pretty blooming amazing, all your usual suspects along with interesting takes on classics and the department store's own trademark tipples. I went for a wibble. I'd never heard of a wibble before but apparently it's quiet a well known cocktail. It consisted of gin, slow gin, pink grapefruit juice and blackberry liquor. Bang! It's actually making my mouth water now, is that wrong at 07:30am on the bus to work?! After we'd wet the whistle we were seated in the restaurant. As previously mentioned gold is definitely the theme and if your eyes are sensitive to light you may want to bring sunglasses with you. Seriously though the restaurant is presented to a high celebratory standard and is unashamedly swanky. We went for the set 3 course menu option which considering the setting was actually quite reasonable. You get a choice of a meat, fish or vegetarian option for starter and main and a choice of 3 deserts. I went for the meat for starter and main which was a game terrine followed by the pheasant, both were new to me and very tasty. My only criticism would be if you're not in to game then there would have been no meat option on the set menu for you. The starter was nice but as expected (terrine appears to be the starter of choice on many menus at the mo). I'd never had pheasant before and I was surprised at how lite it was. Highly recommended if you want to try game but don't want anything too heavy on the pallet. The desert was a treacle sponge with ginger which was really nice although I had to ask for more ginger as it was reasonably gingerless to begin with. The end result was awesome! The service was excellent from start to finish and the waitress brought out our friends deserts with a personalised message written in chocolate, wishing them good luck on there travels which was a great touch to finish the meal. However... The evening was just starting and there was a cocktail menu in the bar to revisit! We had 3 or 4 more cocktails and one of the Bartenders even knocked us up a personal cocktail made based on my wife Alice's favourite flavours! A great night had in Harvey Nic's restaurant and cocktail bar. Perfect for a special occasion that's a little different from most of the fine eateries in Bristol. Also highly recommended if your a fan of the colour gold.

Wowwwwwie!! This is one pretty special experience! located on the second floor of Harvey Nichols in…read moreCabot Circus you'll find this restaurant and cocktail bar. When we arrived we went through to the cocktail bar, looking out to the beautiful Christmas lights of Cabot Circus. The decor inside is clean, with neat clean lines its pretty timeless really, we had pre and after dinner drinks in the bar, they offer table service so no long cues. It was quite busy so there was a little wait for our drinks but it didn't matter as it gave is plenty of time to peruse the menu for our next cocktail. The staff were also happy to go off menu and make us bespoke cocktails, I had a snickers one, surprisingly it tasted much like the real thing! We were called to our table once we'd had our drinks, the restaurant had the 'wow' effect the floor to ceiling gold decor is stunning, think 70's glamour, it's beautiful! They offer an a la Carte menu, or the set menu. We ordered from the set menu, 3 courses for £20, it was excellent value for money the thought that went into every dish was incredible. They served a range of home made bread with the starters, we all ordered the game terrine which came with a lovely apricot terrine. I had the Hake for main course, which was so good! The staff were really helpful, offered suggestions when requested and were always on hand with out being in your face I enjoyed every minute of this visit, it was great value for money, a relaxed atmosphere with excellent food and drink, I'll definitely be back here soon.