Italian restaurant Bomboloni closes, announces owner with heartfelt message to customers

A popular Italian restaurant on Gloucester Road has closed as of today (October 17), with its owner leaving a heartfelt message on the reasons behind the decision. Bomboloni Italian Kitchen was extremely popular thanks to its high quality food and reasonable prices.

But late last night, owner Sara Griffin posted a message on Instagram in which she announced the restaurant closure. She said a health scare earlier this year along with issues of staffing and ‘absolutely sky rocketing bills’ were behind the decision.

She also mentioned her husband, Andrew, who died aged 48 three years ago. Andrew was a generous restaurateur and a talented chef whose death shocked the community.

Sarah, in her message on Bomboloni, which she opened with Andrew in 2017, said: “It is with a heavy heart, that as of today I have taken the decision to close Bomboloni.

“There are many reasons for this, first and foremost having a health scare earlier in the year. There are also other factors of course, such as staffing and absolutely sky rocketing bills. I have given Bomboloni everything since Andrew died, now it’s time for me.”

She thanked several people for their support before thanking her ‘wonderful customers’.

Bomboloni was put up for sale in 2019 - six months after the death of Andrew - despite the business performing well. Food critic Mark Taylor gave the restaurant a glowing review when he worked for Bristol Live.

Mark, who now works for Bristol World, said it was a ‘must-visit new neighbourhood restaurant’ with ‘no-frills simple Italian home cooking served at wallet-friendly prices that will appea to local families. He marked it four out of five overall.

On Tripadvisor, the restaurant wasrated 156th out of 1,163 restaurants in Bristol.