food, reviews and of course coffee
I went to the Temple Quay Street Food market where there was a lot of choice. However, I defaulted to one of my favourite boxes, the Fritto Misto from King Fin.
This was just as good as the previous boxes of Fritto Misto I have had from King Fin. Delicious fresh seafood cooked to order, with tasty fries on the side.
I was in Bristol and I walked to Finzel Reach for some lunch. I was tempted by the Little Smoker who were there again, but when I saw them preparing their food, I was (initially) a little disappointed. So, I went to King Fin and ordered the Fritto Misto.
Now as I waited for my Fritto Misto two people walked past with their Little Smoker meals and they looked really good. So, much so, I will try them out next time they are at a street food market I am at. I realised what I saw, they hadn’t finished putting the dishes together.
My Fritto Misto was freshly cooked to order, but it wasn’t long before it was ready. There wasn’t much of a queue, so little delay.
The box was brimming with freshly cooked deep fried crispy seafood, with calamari, fresh anchovies (whitebait), whole prawns, chunks of battered haddock, courgette slices, and sage. Alongside I had a side of rosemary fries and sauce.
Like previous boxes, this was delicious. The freshness of the box was amazing. I still found the prawns a little messy and fiddly to eat, but it was all really tasty.
I had bought this ready meal, No.1 Keralan Inspired Fish Curry from Waitrose which was 20% off.
Our No.1 Keralan Inspired Fish Curry is our take on a favourite dish from the coastal state of Kerala, in the south west of India. Succulent hake fillet is marinated and roasted, and served in a creamy coconut, onion and tomato sauce, spiced with chilli and mustard seeds. It’s finished with fresh coriander and sliced red chillies.
I cooked it in the oven and served it with some basmati rice. It was rather good and I enjoyed it. The fish was nice, and I enjoyed the curry sauce that it was served with. There was heat in the dish, but not excessively so. I certainly would have this again.
I was intrigued by this ready meal as I do quite like a fish curry. I had enjoyed the Tawa Fish from Nadu, was simply a seasonal fish grilled in bell pepper & ginger sauce. Likewise the fish curry I had at the Hen & Chickens in Birmingham last year was also a dish I equally enjoyed. The Goan Monkfish Curry from Dishoom in Birmingham was also very tasty.
I think it was these three experiences that made me want to try the fish curry from Waitrose. I should really try and cook my own fish curry in the future.
I recently blogged about my experience of the set menu at Côte in Marlow. At the end of the day was I happy? Well I wasn’t unhappy. It was a pity there was limited choice for the starter, I had my heart set on the potted crab, and I also liked the sound of the charcuterie. However with the set menu choices it was restricted to the soup and the beetroot. I did enjoy the meal and it was nice to sit down, be served.
It wasn’t an amazing experience, but the food I did have I enjoyed. I thought I might try and give that Côte menu another go. This time though my experience would be at the Côte branch in Ealing. My last experience eating in that branch was very positive.
Overall I did enjoy my food at Côte, the service was excellent, and I had a lovely dining experience. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice, and with the fixed price menu, I thought it was value for money.
I did write in that blog post about how I feel about the chain.
I kind of have a love hate relationship with the Côte chain of restaurants. I really like French style cooking and the Côte menu has an extensive choice of French inspired dishes. The service at the Ealing branch of Côte has always been excellent. Welcoming, warm and friendly. The food arrives in ample time, and I have never felt rushed. The waiting staff are attentive, but not intrusive. What’s not to like? However, though the food is good, it isn’t excellent, and so I always have to temper my expectations. I like the food, but I wouldn’t say I love the food. I am not entirely sure what they could do to make things better, but I am confident that they could.
Since I wrote that, I did visit Petit Pois in Brighton, which is an amazing little French restaurant where I had some excellent food including a delicious cassoulet, a wonderfully tasty bouillabaisse, and a exquisite skate wing.
So, I kind of know what a great French bistro in the UK can be, Côte is not quite there, but despite that I do enjoy the food and the cooking.
I booked a table through the app and headed off to the restaurant. I was given a friendly and warm welcome and was shown to my table.
On this visit to Côte in Ealing, it was back to the set menu, unlike Marlow, they did have all the starters. This meant I could have the potted crab. The simple basic presentation to me worked well. There was some fresh seeded bread. The potted crab was topped with lobster butter.
The crab was delicious. You really taste the crab in the pot. Sometimes when I have crab based dishes in restaurants, you struggle to taste the crab. When I had the Crab Maison at Côte back in 2023 I said of that dish:
I was hoping for an intense crab flavour, which I felt was missing, and what crab there was, was overpowered by the mayonnaise.
This time you really knew it was crab. I forgot that the butter was a lobster based butter and avoided it. So, not really able to remember what is did taste like. At Marlow they did bring some bread to the table, this time, no bread. Actually I could have done with some more bread, as there was quite a bit of crab in the potted crab.
Having had the steak and frites at Marlow, this time I went with something different and had the sea bream. This was grilled Sea Bream with a sun-dried tomato butter, olive salsa vierge, and sautéed tarragon new potatoes.
This was well presented and was absolutely delicious. There was a real combination of French Mediterranean flavours in the plate of food, from the tomatoes olives and the sun-dried tomato butter. The fish was perfectly cooked, full of flavour and the skin was nice and crispy. I really enjoyed that dish.
Now for the third course. I did think about going down a different road for this course, as I had done for the starter and the main, but I am a sucker for cheese and biscuits, so yes I ordered the cheese and biscuits.
I wasn’t given a choice and my plate arrived with just three cheeses, three different cheeses though. The quince jelly was there, but not crackers. However a portion of bread was provided.
I did feel that the plate looked a little sad and certainly needed something else there, the crackers perhaps would have enhanced the presentation. As it was I prefer bread with my cheese to crackers, though the bread I did get was a little stale.
Overall this experience at Côte Ealing with the set menu was so much better than that at Marlow. They had all the dishes, and the starter and main course were excellent. The cheese like Marlow was disappointing and I must remember in the future to avoid it. Service was warm and friendly.
The street food scene around where I work in Bristol, is delightful. There are twice weekly markets at Temple Quay and Finzel Reach as well as all the stalls at St Nicks. The organisers of weekly markets always try and have a mix of stalls and types of cuisine.
On a recent visit I had eaten some delicious Fritto Misto from King Fin.
It was awesome. This was a delicious box of food. The freshly cooked squid rings, prawns and (small) fish were really tasty and it was a generous portion. The deep fried sage and courgette was a nice addition. I thought this was an amazing dish and I was well impressed.
However I like to choose different things. Well I say I like to choose different things.
So, when I was recently in Bristol, I went out at lunchtime to the Finzel Reach street food market. I had read who was there and I was really tempted by the brisket at The Little Smoker. They were a new guest addition to the line up. I even looked at their menu, but in the end I actually went with the Fritto Misto from King Fin.
The wonderful box of food I got from King Fin was slightly different to my previous Fritto Misto. It still had the calamari, the prawns, the fish and courgettes, however this time there were some chunks of battered white fish as well.
As before it was awesome, this was all cooked to order, so was hot, fresh, crisp and full of flavour. Every bite was a delight, well nearly I did find eating the prawns a little messy, but they were tasty. I was really pleased that I had gone again with this box of awesome food.
Nadu brings a slice of Sri Lanka to the epicentre of Bristol’s cultural quarter, Stokes Croft.
Myself and colleagues from work headed to Nadu for a festive meal, well I say festive, as it was that time of year, the menu very much from Sri Lanka.
There was lots of lovely stuff on the menu and I found it quite challenging to choose something. I decided would have a small plate as a starter and then something else as a main.
Across the small plates one dish did stick out to me, which was the Tawa Fish, though there were some others there I would have been happy with. I was quite intrigued by the Mojo Cutlets as well as the Miris Bhaji.
The Tawa Fish was simply a seasonal fish grilled in bell pepper & ginger sauce.
This was not the best looking dish I have seen, and they had tried with the peppers and other garnishes. However, the food was delicious. The fish was perfectly cooked, and the sauce, spicy but not overpowering. I really enjoyed eating this portion of fish.
For my main course, again lots of choice. I liked the idea of the roasted beef bone marrow in the Aeta Midulu, across the different karis, I was tempted by the Era Kulumba, a mild shrimp curry, or the Thora Malu, a fish curry. The Ceylonese Lamb Kari also sounded delicious. In the end though after much thinking I went with the Black Pork Kari, which was slow cooked pork belly with smoked coconut & cinnamon. Alongside I had some coconut rice.
Though not black, this was a very dark looking curry. I was expecting that though. This was also delicious, the pork were very tender, and the sauce was delicious. Not sure I could taste the smoked coconut, but I am sure it was in there somewhere. I really liked this pot and it was really tasty. There was a good level of spice, so you could say spicy, but wasn’t hot and fiery. All rather good and I did finish off this dish.
We also shared a Tear & Share Dosa, 48 hour fermented crispy rice pancake served with chutneys and sambar. Literally tear bits off, dip them in the chutneys and enjoy.
The service was excellent, well informed and friendly waiting staff offering advice and recommendations.
I can’t wait until I can go again.
Bristol has a decent street food scene, around where I work in Bristol, as well as all the stalls at St Nicks, there are twice weekly markets at Temple Quay and Finzel Reach. The organisers of those markets always try and have a mix of stalls and types of cuisine. There aren’t that many traders selling fish, one that stands out is King Fin. If I am at a market and they are trading, it is usually one I go for. So, when I went to the Finzel Reach street food market, I headed towards King Fin to try their new(ish) Fritto Misto dish. The Fritto Misto replaces the tempura monkfish on the menu. I remember when they had Fritto Misto on the menu before, and tried it back in 2022. I wasn’t that enamoured with what I had then, I wrote:
Overall, if I am honest, though I enjoyed the dish, I was a little disappointed. The calamari was great, but the rest of the fish was a little soggy, despite having just being deep fried. There were two prawns in the dish, one peeled prawn and one whole prawn. The courgette was floppy and was quite greasy.
When I heard that King Fin were bringing back the Fritto Misto onto their menu, I was eager to try it again, despite my reservations from my previous experience.
I must go to King Fin quite a bit as I got recognised as a regular, which was nice. I placed my order and waited. As with all their menu items, the food was cooked to order. After a short while I was handed my box of food and I think it looked amazing. I took it back to my office to eat.
It was awesome. This was a delicious box of food. The freshly cooked squid rings, prawns and (small) fish were really tasty and it was a generous portion. The deep fried sage and courgette was a nice addition. I thought this was an amazing dish and I was well impressed. It certainly was much better than my previous experience. The batter was nice and crispy. As per usual the fries were great.
Looking forward to having this again soon.
On a previous visit to Minehead I had a lovely fish and chips from The Cod Shop. So, on a recent return visit to Minehead I sought out The Cod Shop to get some fish and chips. I was given a warm friendly welcome, there was quite a bit of choice. Like on my last visit I went with the small cod and chips, which I thought was good value for just £6.50.
I ordered my fish and chips and took a seat on the benches outside. It was quite mild for October, so was happy to eat outside. Having said that, there is plenty of seating inside if you want a more formal affair for your fish and chips.
It wasn’t long before the food arrived and I was pleased with it. Yes it wasn’t a huge portion, but if I wanted a huge portion I would have ordered a large cod and chips. The chips were better this time. The batter was nice and crispy and didn’t go soggy at all. I really enjoyed the food.
I was staying over in Birmingham with colleagues for an away day and a staff conference. We had decided to go out for dinner and one of my colleagues had recommended the Hen & Chickens, one of many desi pubs in Birmingham. Essentially this is a pub which sells curry. There was quite a lot of choice, but I went with the fish curry and a naan bread.
This was a decent portion of curry and it was really delicious. The fish was cooked perfectly, sometimes with a fish curry the fish can be overcooked, so it falls apart as you try and eat it, this fish was nice and firm. The sauce could have been over-spiced, but I felt it was just right, you can taste the spices, and I think the best way to describe it was that there was heat in the spice mix used, but it wasn’t overly spicy either. The naan bread was nice and fresh and went well with the curry.
I did like the look of the menu, and would have liked to try out all the starters and the mixed grills sounded interesting. I didn’t get a chance to talk a photograph go my dish. Hopefully I can make a return visit in the future.
I was up in London for some afternoon meetings and had arrived just before lunchtime. I did initially think about getting something from Market Halls at Paddington, but wasn’t sure what to have, and I wasn’t exactly hungry. I did notice that Bao had closed and was being replaced with a Thai stall. I did have some nice bao buns from Bao back in the summer. So, I headed off on the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon.
As I walked to the office, I saw that Honi Poke had an offer on their Ahi poke bowl.
The Ahi poke bowl, a quintessential Hawaiian delicacy, epitomises the rich culinary traditions of the islands, blending fresh, raw Ahi tuna with a medley of dynamic flavours. This vibrant bowl is seasoned with sesame soy sauce, pickled cucumber, and green onions, served over a bed of rice, making it both nourishing and satisfying. Each bite of Ahi poke bowl offers a harmonious mix of textures and tastes, transporting you straight to the shores of Hawaii.
I had been meaning to try a poke bowl the next time I was in London, and this looked really nice. I added a side of crab salad to my bowl as well.
My bowl did not look like the picture, but then what fast food ever does?
I really enjoyed the bowl, the bed of warm sushi rice was a great base for the fresh raw Ahi tuna. The accompaniments added more flavours and textures to the eating experience.
I was pleased to see that there is a branch of Honi Poke in Cabot Circus, so I can repeat the experience closer to home.