fish Archives - Time for a coffee

October 11, 2026

Tempura-fried haddock

Last month I was attending a conference and meeting at Luleå in Sweden. I travelled from London Heathrow, then there was a layover in Stockholm before flying up to Luleå. Having had a great time in Luleå I made my way home. The flight from Luleå to Stockholm was fine, I then made my way to the departure gate for my flight to Heathrow.

However…

This was the day that the air traffic control system at Heathrow failed and over a thousand flights were cancelled.

My flight was that evening, after a delay SAS cancelled it. With the number of cancellations, the earliest flight SAS could rebook me onto was three days later. So, SAS booked me a hotel for three days. The hotel was the Sandic Star Sollentuna was a really nice hotel. The restaurant was nice and served a good breakfast and there was a nice choice of meals from the menu in the evening.

On my first night I was too late for dinner, on the second night, I had Swedish Style Steak & Fries.

On my third night I had two courses, I started off with the shrimp Skagen mix on warm sourdough bread.

For my main course I went with the tempura-fried haddock, shrimp, new potatoes, grilled green asparagus, crisp salad, mango aioli, lemon and whitefish roe.

After the nice steak the night before, and my nice shrimp Skagen, I was expecting another good plate of food. However, though the potatoes, salad, and mango aioli were nice, the whole dish was let down by the fish. I don’t know why I was expecting fresh cooked fish, what I got was something overly processed. I am guessing it was straight out of the freezer and into the fryer.

Overall I was quite disappointed.

October 3, 2026

Fried Anchovies

I had travelled to Thessaloniki in Greece for five days for a conference. After the conference boat trip a few of us went for a drink and then headed to Kazaviti Thessaloniki for something to eat. I wanted to have the fresh squid, but they had run out. Their other squid dishes were made from frozen squid, so I went with the fried anchovies instead.

My plate arrived with a portion of deep fried anchovies and a salad garnish.

I do like fried anchovies, they had a nice crisp coating. They were very nice, not sure they were fresh though.

August 31, 2026

Dressed Crab and Grilled Sea Bream at Rockfish

In August when we had the partial solar eclipse I wrote about my visit to Brixham back in 1999 to see the total solar eclipse we had in the UK. Since that visit, I hadn’t actually been back to Brixham, though had visited many other places in that area. I made a plan to go back there, and hopefully get a nice lunch from one of the many fish restaurants that surround the harbour. Brixham has a large fishing fleet, and had the largest fish market in England.

I had looked online before I got to Brixham, and had seen Rockfish, I liked how as well as serving fish, they had a restaurant. I liked the look of the menu too, they had a nice looking set menu, which I thought I might go for.

I hadn’t booked, but they were able to find a table for me. I looked over the menu and had essentially chosen my two courses from the set menu.

Then the waiting staff came over and asked if I wanted to hear the fresh fish they had in, I went yes. They had an amazing selection of fresh fish choices. It was a little more than the set menu, well much higher!

I thought about it and decided I would go with the fresh fish choices. For my starter I went with the dressed crab, and for my main course I chose the grilled sea bream.

The dressed crab arrived, with both brown and white crab meat, along with some slices of bread.

This was delicious, lovely fresh crab, which I really enjoyed.

For my main course I had the grilled sea bream. This was described as succulent, sweet and gloriously meaty – a highly prized whole fish with clean, white flakes. It came with a tomato sauce and unlimited fries (I could have had salad or new potatoes).

This looked amazing and was beautifully cooked. It had great flavour and I really enjoyed eating it. Obviously it was a while fish, so I did have to fillet it, to eat it. I also had to turn other to get the other fillet.

The whole meal was delicious, I was pleased that I went with the fresh fish choices, I paid more, but it was worth it.

Service was excellent, warm and welcoming.

What was interesting was that you could buy fresh fish from the fish stall at Rockfish and for £6 they would cook it for you.

This was my first visit to Brixham in twenty seven years, after such a nice meal, I think I won’t leave it so long next time.

August 5, 2026

Teriyaki Tuna Ramen

I don’t think this is authentic, but I enjoyed cooking and eating this ramen dish.

First I stir fried some vegetables and I added that to my bowl. I cooked some noodles and they were added to the bowl as well.

For the protein, I cooked some diced tuna in a frying pan, when it was virtually cooked I added some teriyaki sauce.

I then finished putting the ramen together, I added some chicken broth to the ramen bowl, which had been heated up while I was cooking the tuna. I then added the tuna to the bowl and topped with some crispy onions. I attempted to soft boil some eggs, I don’t think I managed that! These were then shelled and halved and added to the ramen.

The broth, which as from an itsu pack was very good, and I really enjoyed the tuna too. The noodles had stuck together, so need to reflect on that the next time I make this.

July 7, 2026July 7, 2026

Remembering the Sushi at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia. One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

I went with a selection of sushi. I had the Essential Sushi Box which came with ten pieces of sushi: salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, octopus nigiri, prawn nigiri, 3 salmon maki and 3 tuna maki.

This was a lovely fresh selection of expertly made sushi. I enjoyed the fact it was (as it should be) made with raw fish. My favourite of the ten was the tuna nigiri.

I also had the California Maki which was an inside-out seaweed roll filled with omelette, avocado, crab stick, cucumber and mayonnaise, garnished with tobiko.

These were beautifully presented and I loved the flavour and textures of the maki.

That really should have been enough but I was intrigued and tempted by the Kani Gunkan or snow crab sushi.

I should have resisted temptation, the snow crab was very watery and lacked flavour. It was not quite what I was expecting.

Despite my (slight) disappointment with the snow crab, the sushi I had were delicious.

February 12, 2026

More Fritto Misto

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.

February 6, 2026

Fritto Misto once more

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.

January 29, 2026

Keralan Inspired Fish Curry

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.

January 26, 2026

Slightly happier

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.

January 22, 2026

Another Awesome Fritto Misto

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.