Author: jamesclay

Posted on

Time for a Cassoulet in Brighton

I first visited Brighton in the 1980s when as a family we would sail over to France. Sometimes we would sail from Ramsgate to Calais (or Boulogne), but if we were on our way to Normandy, we would sail from Brighton, arriving in Dieppe, Fecamp, or Le Harve. I also made a trip there for a JISC programmes meeting in July 2004. Then I had stayed at The Grand Hotel. I remember thinking it was a little too posh for me. I headed out for dinner finding a nice French place in The Lanes, it was probably Cafe Rouge. I think it closed down years later. I also visited Brighton in June 2005 when I was on holiday in Bognor Regis. Then we stayed mainly on the seafront, visiting the Pier and the Doctor Who Exhibition there. We returned to the holiday camp for dinner on that visit.

Brighton beach and pier

I had planned to stop there last year on my way to Newhaven on a driving holiday to the continent, but ran out of time and stopped at Horsham instead for something to eat. This time I was attending a conference all week and it was nice to see Brighton once more. We also had a fun conference dinner on the Brighton Palace Pier. While I was in Brighton I went out to eat a few times.

On my first night and upon arrival in Brighton and checking into my hotel, did have a look around on Google Maps to see what places were around. Had thought about going to Mowgli, having enjoyed my meal in their branch in Bridgend, however they have stopped doing their Tiffin boxes for one. So, where else in Brighton I could go. There was lots of choice, however I wanted to avoid chains, as I can eat there in Bristol or London if I so choose, so I picked on a couple of places on the map and headed out.

I first arrived and looked at the Petit Pois Restaurant on Ship Street, I did like the menu, but then walked around to Embers as I did like the sound of their barbecue. I was thinking I could visit Petis Pois another day during my time in Brighton. However upon arrival, I found Embers were only doing their Sunday lunch menu. Now I like a good Sunday lunch, but having had an excellent Sunday lunch in London recently at the Drayton Court Hotel, I was in the mood for something else.

So, with that in mind, I headed back to Petit Pois, the French eatery I had walked up to before. Now I can sometimes find it challenging about where I am going to eat and can spend so much time looking that I actually lose my appetite or run out of time to eat. I had to make a choice, I was out of luck with Embers, so I said to myself that I would eat at Petit Pois.

It was quite busy, but they managed to find me a table. Inside was a French style bistro, lots of wooden tables and chairs. There was an air of informality about the place. There is an eclectic decoration on the walls. It was busy and I think I was lucky to get a table. They had a really interesting looking menu and it was quite challenging to work out what to have. I was stuck between the Bouillabaisse and the cassoulet.

In the end I went with the cassoulet, I did think if I was able to I would visit the restaurant again another day (as I was in Brighton for the week) and have the Bouillabaisse then.

The cassoulet arrived and it looked really nice, duck leg, pork belly, sausage on a bed of cooked beans.

cassoulet

This was incredible, really tasty. The duck was tender, the pork was melt in the mouth, the sausage had a meaty texture. You could taste the three kinds of meat and the beans were delicious. Alongside I had some bread, which was delicious for mopping up the sauce and juices. 

The menu does change and looking today as I write this, there is no cassoulet on the menu, but I suspect it will be back. Actually just looking at and reading the menu, is making me hungry.

Posted on

Pasta from La Panza

Close to my office in Bristol is La Panza, now an Italian restaurant, which use to be Chatterton’s Cafe.

They have a £10 lunch deal which consists of pasta, focaccia, and a drink. I liked the idea and on my first visit I had a nice plate of pasta and a glass of wine. 

So when I was working in Bristol and wanting lunch, and not sure of where to go, I decided to make another visit to La Panza. I did their lunch deal for £10. I had a nice rigatoni pasta dish with a pork based sauce, a slice of focaccia and a glass of white wine.

I did think the pasta was a little undercooked, but the sauce was tasty. It was a delicious dish and I enjoyed it.

I feel quite continental drinking wine at lunchtime, but I thought it was really good value for £10 and it was nice to sit down in a restaurant (well this time I sat outside) and be waited at table and have your food served to you.

I would certainly go again.

Posted on

Not a fan

Recently tried the Iberian Chorizo & Pork burgers from The Young Bulls. I think the name of these is slightly misleading as only the chorizo is made from Iberian pork. Also they didn’t look like the burgers on the packet either.

I thought they were okay, but I wasn’t really taken with them. Not something I would buy again.

Posted on

King Fin Calamari and Fries

King Fin, a consistently excellent street food stall, is a highlight of both the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach markets. Their commitment to freshness and quality makes them one of my absolute favourites.

I nearly always go for my usual order: the calamari and fries.

It’s a dish that perfectly showcases their dedication to preparing everything to order. You can tell the moment you receive it that it’s incredibly fresh. The squid itself is remarkably soft and tender, encased in a light, crispy batter that’s never greasy – simply delicious.

The fries are equally impressive. They’re twice-cooked, resulting in a perfect balance of crispy exterior and fluffy interior, and beautifully seasoned with rosemary. A delicious sauce accompanies them, adding another layer of flavour. To cut through the richness, there’s also a small, refreshing portion of slaw on the side.

Every element comes together to create a truly delicious and satisfying meal. If you ever spot King Fin, I highly recommend giving them a try!

Posted on

Gurt Wings on the Harbourside

Went out for a walk at lunchtime. I was hungry, but wasn’t quite sure what to have. Walking down Baldwin Street I saw the lunch menu for Rosa Thai, decided quite liked the sound of that, however when I sat down inside, the lunch menu was completely different from what was displayed on the window. Didn’t fancy what was there, I had it in my mind what I was going to order from the lunch menu in the window, but as the actual menu was very different, I decided to give it a miss.

Eventually I headed to Whapping Wharf and went to Gurt Wings. I’ve had them before from the Finzel Reach street food market.

Gurt Wings have been a regular on the Bristol street food scene for many years now. Normally I miss out as they always have a huge queue at their street food stalls. They now, however, have a more permanent home in Cargo at Whapping Wharf.

I went with the wing meal deal, which was five wings and tater tots. I went with the Gurt sweet and smoky BBQ sauce and baconnaise drizzle, topped with crispy onions and bacon crumb.

Enjoyed my chicken wings but realised that eating them was quite a messy affair. I normally eat chicken wings with a knife and fork, however this time I had to delve in with my hands.

They are tasty wings and the sauce was quite intense, in the sense it was quite sweet. I did enjoy them and would go again.

Posted on

Pan-fried Hake

Last year in October I was over in Dublin for a meeting. I was staying at The Mayson Dublin.

The hotel has two restaurants, Ryleigh’s Rooftop Steakhouse. The Elephant & Castle is on the ground floor. Ryleigh’s had a focus on high end steak (as you might guess) and a price to match. The Elephant & Castle was (slightly) cheaper. After looking at the menu online, decided I would head to the Elephant and Castle. They were busy, so I waited at the bar for a table. I had a pint of Guinness.

I was a little disappointed to find that the calamari and chicken I was going to choose were not on the menu, though they had been on the online version of the menu.

I went with the pan-fried hake, red atlantic prawns, mussels, tenderstem broccoli, chorizo & baby potato.

I was pleased with the plate of food, it looked great and it was delicious. The fish was cooked well and was tasty. I liked the potato and chorizo as well. The sauce brought it all together. Overall one lovely plate of food.

Posted on

Rigatoni Carbonara from the Grano Pasta Bar

The other day when I was visiting the Bristol Harbour Festival I saw that there was a new food stall in St Nick’s market. It was a pasta stall; it replaced the Chilli Daddy stall. I thought to myself I wouldn’t mind trying that. I use to avoid pasta in restaurants as more often than not it was overcooked and too soft. However more recently I have had better experiences.

So, needing lunch a few days later I headed off to the Grano Pasta Bar to try out their pasta. I don’t think I have ever had pasta from a street food stall before, so this was a new experience for me. In the back of the stall, you could see them making and forming the fresh rigatoni pasta.

All the pasta was cooked to order and they had about six choices. I went with the carbonara, other choices included pesto and ragu.

You could watch them cook the food. After a short while my box of pasta was ready and I took a seat to eat it.

This was not a huge portion, but perfect for a light lunch. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and I have to say that the carbonara sauce looked and tasted authentic, no cream here.

My only criticism was that I thought it was a little too salty. I realise that the guanciale is cured and salty, but I think overall the dish was little over seasoned for me. However, would I go again, I think I probably will.

Posted on

Fillet Steak and Fries

The other day when I was visiting the Bristol Harbour Festival I was wondering if there were going to be some interesting food stalls. I have noticed at previous festivals that sometimes the food stalls can be a pile them high, sell them cheap type of festival food stall, and often local Bristol stalls can’t be seen.

If you take paella, on previous occasions there have been stalls with massive paella pans selling paella by the box, but compared to the paella from Riceminster, the festival stalls are selling a much inferior product and at a more expensive price. Having said that in the past, there have been some gems within the food stalls in the festival. This year it felt like there were a lot less food stalls at the festival. I did have a look around and one that did stick out for me and was tempting was the Flying Fillet stall in the heart of Queen’s Square.

They are Malvern based so not local, but they looked like they were selling a quality product. After wandering around the festival and seeing what else was available, I headed over to Queen’s Square and looked over the menu, as well as the fillet steak they also sold chicken wings as well. Though the beef fillet loaded fries sounded tasty, and I also quite liked the idea of some chicken wings, I went with the beef fillet and fries.

It as a popular stand so I had to wait a while for my food. What I got was a tin foil tray of seasoned fries topped with slices of medium rare fillet steak. The loaded version would have included asian slaw, chimichurri and chipotle mayo, but it was also another £3 on top.

The steak was very tender and easy to eat, which is ideal for street food where you only have a wooden fork. The chips were well seasoned, probably a little too well seasoned for me. The whole dish was quite salty and I think I would have preferred it to be made with less salt.

At £15 this was usually a lot more then I would normally pay for street food. The prices had been inflated by around £2 for this event, I suspect to pay for the high cost of the pitch. So, this was a dish I was happy with whilst attending the festival, I don’t think this would be something I would have for a lunch within the week.

Posted on

Honey Fried Chicken and Chicken Pho

After an appointment in Bristol we headed to Wagamama in Cabot Circus. Now I thought to myself I don’t think I have eaten at this branch before. However going through my photos using the Map feature in Apple Photos I discovered we had gone there in May 2022 and I hadn’t been impressed with the service back then.

As for the service, I was less than impressed. I know at Wagamama the food arrives when it is ready, so dishes won’t be served together. Normally I am alright with this, but this time the first two dishes arrived quite quickly, the other two took much longer to be served. By the time the final dish arrived, we had nearly finished our food. We ordered some more drinks, and they spent a lot of time on the bar, before they were brought to the table. There appeared to be a fair few staff. I think part of the issue was they were being inundated with online takeaway orders which was swamping the kitchen.

I have to say this time the service was so much better. My usual visits to Wagamama are when I am travelling or if eating locally, I find myself at the branch at Cribbs Causeway more so than Cabot Circus.   A lot of the places I would normally have eaten at when visiting Cabot have either closed down or have become something else. 

I went with a main course and a side dish. I decided I would definitely go with dishes I had not had before. I do like the food from Wagamama, but a lot of the time I order the same thing, I really like their yasai yaki soba and eat that a lot when I visit Wagamama. This time I wanted different things, also there were some new items on the menu.

For my side dish I went with the hot honey fried chicken with yuzu. This was chicken coated in hot honey + yuzu sauce, topped with mixed pickles and served with a zesty vegan mayo on the side.

hot honey fried chicken with yuzu

For my main dish I with the new pho – chicken thigh, a vietnamese-inspired noodle soup with a clear yuzu broth, red pepper, bean sprouts, spring onion, coriander, mint, lime; served over konjac noodles, a lighter alternative to rice noodles made from the root vegetable, konjac.

pho - chicken thigh

I usually avoid pho or ramen, only because they can be a bit messy to eat, being more of a soup. However I liked the sound of the dish, so against my usual behaviour, I ordered it.

The pho was really good, I really enjoyed the clear yuzu broth which had a real depth of flavour. I liked the konjac noodles too. I did think the chicken could have been better, but it was still nice. The mint was an interesting addition that I wasn’t expecting which added not just a different flavour, but also an interesting texture as well.

I have wanted to try the hot honey chicken for a while now. It was nice, but it was in the main crispy fried chicken with sauce and mayo on the side. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, but I am not sure I would order it again any time soon. I washed the meal down with an alcohol free beer.

My daughter had the duck donburi with some yuzu sauce. She didn’t enjoy it as much as she thought she would, probably would have been better with either no sauce, or some teriyaki sauce.

duck donburi

Overall the experience was so much better than it was in 2022, even though the place was busy (and they had online orders as well) the service was both speedy and efficient.

Posted on

Pie and Rump

I have been to the Landing Light quite a bit recently. It’s local so easy to get to, the menu is good, with special offers it’s good value for money. As a pub food place, it’s really nice.

On a previous visit to The Landing Light I had wanted to try the Roasted Lamb Rump & Mini Pie Duo but it wasn’t available that night.

This night it was still on the menu and available. The Roasted Lamb Rump & Mini Pie Duo is described as:

Roasted rump of lamb, recommended served pink, mini minted lamb pie, rosemary & garlic-roasted potatoes, honey-roasted carrots, kale, peas, green beans & mange-tout, and gravy.

Roasted Lamb Rump & Mini Pie Duo

When the plate of food arrived, I was both impressed and a little disappointed. I thought the plate looked great from a presentation perspective; I was disappointed though with the size of the portion of lamb.

I was expecting a portion of lamb rump, what I actually got was two quite small chunks of lamb. It was also a little overcooked and not served pink as recommended, which I think was probably down to the size of the portion.

I really liked the mini pie, which though small was for a mini pie, quite a good size, nice pastry and a tasty filling. I liked the variety of veg on the plate, from the crispy potatoes, the roasted carrots and green vegetables. I did appreciate the mini saucepan of gravy on the side as well.

Though disappointed with the size of the lamb portion (have I mentioned that), I did enjoy the plate of food.