Casamia in Bristol announces closure and issues statement to customers

Michelin-starred restaurant Casamia has announced it is closing permanently this summer.

The restaurant, which is in Lower Guinea Street in Redcliffe and is one of three in the city to have a Michelin star, will shut on August 20, executive chef Zak Hitchman announced this morning in an Instagram post.

He said the closure was for ‘reasons out my hands’. In an interview with Big Hospitality, owner chef-patron Peter Sanchez-Iglesias said increasing costs were making the business financially unviable.

Casamia describes itself as an ‘unconventional restaurant’ where people are served 20 courses of food accompanied to an ecletric mix of music.

It offers an ever-changing day-to-day seasonal menu which costs customers between £90 to £120 per person to enjoy.

As well as being awarded a Michelin star, it considered one of the best restaurants in the south west and, according to Harden’s Best Restaurant Guide - just a year after opening.

In the statement on Instagram, Mr Hitchman said: “We created an unconventional restaurant, serving 20 courses of food like you’ve never had before, soundtracked by an eclectic mix of music played through a ridiculous soundsystem.

“We were determined to keep evolving, so we quickly became a very creative space, taking on influence more from gigs, film and theatre, than restaurants we’d been to.

“We filled Casamia with graffiti, record sleeve menus, neon lighting, strobes, and projectors showing interesting and peculiar cinematography. Most importantly we created a restaurant filled with a team enjoying themselves.

“We kept the same core team through covid, and there is no way Casamia would be the same without any one of us.

“For reasons out of my hands Casamia will be closing permanently on August 20th.

“I have very mixed feelings about this, part of me likes that it couldn’t exist for long as it fits the concept of rip it up and start again, it would obviously be great if we weren’t all out of a job though.

“I don’t know that a restaurant quite like this will exist again, and we won’t be going out quietly, so come and see it before we close.”