food, reviews and of course coffee
We had spent the day in London, having driven up and parked at the Westfield Centre, we decided we would eat there before heading home.
I had some vouchers, so we went to Zizzi, and they also do a decent gluten free pizza as well.
I quite like a white base, so after looking over the menu I went with the Rustica Slow-Cooked Beef & Burrata Pizza.
With slow-cooked beef, smoked burrata and scamorza cheese, mushrooms and rocket on a white base.
It was rather tasty.
At the end of last year I went to Cote in Ealing and had a very nice duck cassoulet.
I had been thinking about going out to eat, whilst up in London for work. In my hotel I looked over various menus, but did quite like the sound of the Cassoulet de Toulouse with confit duck leg that was on the menu at Cote.
I had eaten there earlier in the year and had, what could be described as a nice meal, wasn’t excellent, but wasn’t bad either.
I was given a warm welcome and offered a table by the window, which I took.
I ordered the Cassoulet de Toulouse.
The cassoulet is described in the menu as a hearty slow-cooked white bean stew gently simmered with wine and a blend of herbs. Originating from Southwest France.
Cassoulet de Toulouse was cooked and came with confit duck leg, Toulouse sausage and bacon lardons, topped with melted garlic butter and sourdough croutons.
Obviously they didn’t cook it from scratch and I don’t think they had a pot of cassoulet on the go from which to dish out my plate of food. So my guess was that they heated up a pre-cooked version of the dish. Not that I was too worried about that, as sometimes a nice cassoulet tastes better if cooked, cooled, left and re-heated.
The duck leg I enjoyed, but I would have said it was overcooked. It was very tender, and the skin was nice and crispy. I liked it even so.
I really enjoyed the cassoulet it was full of flavour and it worked well. I could have quite easily had a second portion.
My only criticism, the dining experience was slightly ruined by the neighbouring table where a very loud conversation was happening. They weren’t really thinking or considering their fellow diners. You couldn’t really ignore it. Maybe I should have asked to move, but I was hungry.
I didn’t stay for pudding.
I have always enjoyed the calamari from the King Fin. My introduction to King Fin was back in the summer of 2019 on a visit to the Finzel Reach Market. King Fin have recently revamped their menu. They have lost their calamari, but you can now have a softshell crab burger, a cod goujon wrap or fritto misto.
Since I found out about the new menu I was tempted by both the softshell crab and the fritto misto.
So when I was in Bristol one Thursday, this meant that for lunch I could visit the Temple Quay Market. It was nice to have the opportunity to get some tasty street food and I was pleased to see King Fin at the market.
A few weeks back when I was in Bristol, I had intended to pay a visit to King Fin at the Finzel Reach Market to try out their new menu. However upon visiting the market they weren’t there, so went to La Lola at the St Nicholas market.
So I joined the queue and ordered the fritto misto. There was a bit of a wait as they had a bit of backlog, a sign the stall was popular. They had already sold out of the cod goujons and their kedgeree scotch egg.
Whereas the calamari came with rosemary chips and salad, the fritto misto was just fritto misto. I could have ordered chips for another £3 but I wasn’t that hungry.
The dish contained calamari, prawns, whitebait, small pieces of cod, and some courgette slices. It was served with a slice of lemon and some bright yellow garlic aioli.
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.
I really loved the calamari special I’ve had in the past from King Fin and would be happy to order that again. Would I order the fritto misto again, probably not.
We went out to eat at Wagamama at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway, which is one of our regular haunts for meals out
The restaurant environment is so different to other branches of Wagamama as it sits on a mezzanine at one of end of The Mall. Those with long memories will recall that the location was the home of the deli style eating establishment, Café Giardino.
When we arrived the Wagamama, the place was busy and there was a queue. We didn’t mind so much, so we waited patiently for our turn to get a table and eat some food.
This time we had to wait a while as they were understaffed, but it didn’t feel too long before we were shown to a table.
I looked over the menu, I was tempted by dishes I had before but in the end I decided to have the Tofu Raisukare. This was a vegan curry of tofu, mild and citrus coconut sauce, mangetout, peppers, red and spring onion, sesame seeds, chilli, coriander, served with fresh lime and white rice.
This was a nice fresh mild curry, though the red chilli added a bit of heat. The tofu had an interesting texture and wasn’t quite what I expected. I had thought the tofu would have a little more bite. The sauce was nice, the vegetables were very crisp.
Overall I enjoyed the dish and something I would order again.
I was working in Bristol and had intended to pay a visit to Kingfin at the Finzel Reach Market to try out their new menu. However upon visiting the market they weren’t there. There wasn’t a stall that I did fancy getting my lunch from, mainly as I did quite fancy seafood or dish. Then I thought I know where I could go.
Back in December I paid a visit to the St Nicholas Market in Bristol and had some excellent calamari from the new(ish) Spanish staff in the market, La Lola.
La Lola took over the stall, Pure Pasta, an Italian pasta place.
I had enjoyed the calamari last time, so decided to head over there for lunch. It was a short walk over Bristol Bridge to the St Nicholas Market
They had a much wider menu this time, but as I was in the mood for seafood I went for the calamari. I placed my order and took a seat. It wasn’t very long before my food arrived. The squid was served with “chipped” potatoes, salad and aioli.
The squid as before was freshly cooked, nice crisp batter, tender squid and was delicious, served with a slice of lemon.
Like last time, I really enjoyed the squid. The “chips” were also really good, they used fresh potatoes. They were more like thick crisps, as they had cut the potatoes into slices (and cut the bigger slices in half). The aioli was light with a good taste of garlic. As before the salad could have been better, but was fresh.
Overall I did enjoy the dish and I am already looking forward to my next visit to La Lola.
One of our regular haunts for meals out is Wagamama at The Mall at Cribbs Causeway. It was the last place we ate out at, before the March 2020 lockdown.
The restaurant environment is so different to other branches of Wagamama as it sits on a mezzanine at one of end of The Mall. Those with long memories will recall that the location was the home of the deli style eating establishment, Café Giardino. I quite liked the concept of Café Giardino and their sandwiches, but as I recall I didn’t eat there very much.
When we arrived the Wagamama, the place was full and there was a queue. We didn’t mind so much, so we waited patiently for our turn to get a table and eat some food.
It wasn’t long though before we were been shown to our table.
I looked over the menu, I did think about having a ramen, but in the end decided that I would have something that I wouldn’t usually choose, and went from a dish from the teppanyaki side of the menu.
I went with the yasai yaki soba. This was soba noodles with mushroom and vegetables, egg, peppers, beansprouts, white and spring onions. garnished with fried shallots, pickled ginger and sesame seeds.
It looked great. There was some great flavours in the dish and I really enjoyed eating it. I did feel though it could have done with a lot more mushroom. My son had the prawn and chicken maki soba and compared to my dish, he had a lot more prawns and chicken than I had mushrooms.
I think I will try and create this dish myself at home.
Back in at the beginning of December I was in London working and needing lunch, I was in the mood for a salad. Having not enjoyed my recent salad from Birley Sandwiches I thought I would give Olive + Squash a visit on the other side opposite Birleys.
As well as “choosing your own salad” they also have a menu of salads you can order as well.
I went with the Portobello Bowl.
This is a chicken, mushroom and lentil salad. It also included spinach and croutons. This was lovely and fresh. I did enjoy the salad, but I think next time I would have it without the chicken and have extra mushrooms.
At the beginning of May we went out for a birthday meal. Having had a nice meal at Zizzi in April we decided to visit them again. We once more sat outside, the weather was better in May than it was in April.
We had booked our table and though we had to wait for a while, well we had arrived early, but we were then shown to our table. I looked over the menu, and thought about what I would have.
I am never sure if I like the concept of the calzone or not. I have ordered them over the years, sometimes they have been great and other times not so much. This time I decided that I would go down the calzone route. There were a couple of choices on the menu, but I went for the Calzone Pollo Spinaci. This was a calzone stuffed with roasted chicken, speck, spinach & mushrooms, in a creamy mozzarella & Bechamel sauce, topped with coppa ham.
The food took a little time to arrive, but I was quite impressed with the presentation and size of the calzone.
I am not so sure this was a pizza, with the creamy filling it felt a bit large a really large pasty, but made with bread rather than pastry. Having said that, I did like the filling. I quite like mushrooms and spinach, and the creamy sauce was really nice.
The coppa ham on top seemed to be an afterthought, and it didn’t add too much to the dish in my opinion, but it did make the calzone look nicer.
Overall we had a nice meal.
It was a Monday and I was in Bristol looking for a place to eat. I had planned to visit The Real Greek, but they were full and had no free tables. I then decided to head over to the St Nicholas Market Glass Arcade, there would be plenty of choice there. I was thinking that Portuguese Tastes would be an option. As it was late I knew that Low and Slow would have virtually sold out (they had).
Alas Portuguese Tastes was closed, though on the other side of the market was the (new) Spanish place, La Lola
La Lola has taken over the stall, Pure Pasta, an Italian pasta place. Despite my many visits to St Nicholas Market Glass Arcade over the years, I never actually ever managed to get lunch from Pure Pasta. I had seen them fitting out the La Lola stall a few weeks back and liked the look of the menu, but had forgotten to check them out when they opened.
La Lola have quite a limited menu, which I actually think is a good thing. Two variations of paella, eggs with chorizo or ham, and what I liked the sound of, crispy squid.
Waiting to be served was a little slow, as the couple in front of me were having a long chat (in Spanish) with the member of staff. You know me I hate queuing. However it was getting late for lunch, I was hungry and I did like the sound of the menu. Eventually I was served, maybe I was a little inpatient, I asked for the squid and wanted to eat in.
They have a couple of tables and some benches. One of the tables was free so I took that one.
It wasn’t long before my food arrived.
In a cardboard carton.
I kind of expected and hoped that it would come on a plate. Portuguese Tastes, Caribbean Wrap and The Moorish Cafe all serve their “eating in” food on plates. I was a little disappointed, I think my expectations that there would be plates was based on the display at the front of the stall which showed the (actual) dishes available served on plates.
The squid was served with “chipped” potatoes, salad and aioli.
The squid was freshly cooked, nice crisp batter, tender squid and was delicious, served with a slice of lemon. I really enjoyed the squid and it was certainly what I was expecting. The “chips” were also really good, they used fresh potatoes, I saw them peeling and cutting them up. They were more like thick crisps, as they had cut the potatoes into slices (and cut the bigger slices in half). Again cooked to order. The aioli was light with a good taste of garlic. The only part of the dish I was disappointed with was the salad. Shredded iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato, grated carrot and sweetcorn. All nice and refreshing, however no flavour. I did think that this part of the dish let the rest of the plate (sorry carton) down. I think something like a Pipirrana salad would have been nice. Pipirrana is based on four ingredients: tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumber, dressed with olive oil, vinegar and garlic. Now that would have been a nice Spanish option.
Apart from the salad the dish was excellent. Service (well apart from the slow start) was great, warm, friendly. The chef checked I was happy with my meal for example.
Overall I really did enjoy the food and I look forward to returning to try out the paella, or the eggs. Hmmm choices.
There are a fair few places you can grab a coffee at when visiting the Mall at Cribbs Causeway. I have been to fair few of them (well would you expect anything less). Back in May we were shopping at the Mall and decided to stop for coffee. Bakers and Barista wasn’t busy so we went there and had a flat white and a muffin.
The muffin was just okay (not enough raspberries in it) and the coffee was nice.
There was a good range of food when we visited. Not a bad place to have a coffee and they have real china cups as well.