Category: squid

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Calamari and Fries from King Fin

calamari

I was working in Bristol and popped out to the Finzel Reach street food market for some lunch. One of my favourites, King Fin was there, so I went for one of my regular dishes, the calamari and fries.

King Fin is a consistently excellent street food stall, a true highlight of the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach markets. Their unwavering commitment to freshness and quality is what keeps me coming back—they’re easily one of my favourite stalls.

The food here is prepared to order, so you know it’s fresh. The calamari is a standout—the squid is incredibly tender, while the batter is perfectly light and crisp. It’s a truly delicious dish. The fries are twice-cooked and seasoned with rosemary, served with a tasty sauce. A small portion of coleslaw accompanies the meal.

I find myself drawn back to this dish again and again. While I always promise to try new things, it’s no surprise when I return to one of my favourites.

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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!

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Wagamama at Nottingham

It was one of those times when I thought to myself, what do I want to eat, I will go with something I know and like, it’s getting late and all that. I was staying in Nottingham for a conference and having arrived the day before, I headed out to get something to eat. I chose Wagamama as I do like the food and the restaurant was relatively close to my hotel as well. I had looked on Google Maps before heading to Nottingham to see what was around, but the few places I looked at were not open on a Monday night.

Wagamama was heaving and I had to wait for a table, normally I prefer not to wait, but I did think all I probably would do would be walk around a bit and then end up back at Wagamama. I was a little surprised on how busy it was, this was the end of June on a Monday. All the students would have “gone home” and I would be surprised there would be that many visitors around compared to July or August.

After waiting for a short while I was shown to my table. I had missed out on lunch so was quite hungry, so I ordered the chilli squid, pork + panko apple bao buns, and yasai yaki soba. Despite the busyness or the place, it wasn’t too long before my food arrived.

The chilli squid, is Wagamama’s iconic crispy fried squid tossed in shichimi spice, and served with a chilli + coriander dipping sauce. 

squid

This was lovely generous portion of crispy squid. They’ve stopped doing the crispy chilli mushrooms which I may have ordered as an alternative. I did think about having the hot honey fried chicken, but went with the squid; I do like the squid and it was nice and tasty.

The next dish to arrive was the pork + panko apple bao buns, which was two buns, that contained slow-cooked pork belly with crispy panko-coated apple, sriracha and vegan mayo, topped with coriander.

I would usually have the mixed mushroom bao buns, I also thought about trying out the korean barbecue beef, but I liked the sound of the pork and apple buns. The pork was tender and soft, which contrasted well with the crispy apple.

My main dish was a regular choice of mine, the yasai yaki soba. This is mushrooms,  soba noodles cooked with egg, peppers, beansprouts, onion, pickled ginger, crispy fried onions and sesame seeds.

I think it needed more mushrooms. The amount of mushroom in this dish is rather inconsistent when I have this dish, which surprises me. Despite the lack of mushrooms, it was a very tasty dish and I enjoyed it.

Overall the food I had was very tasty and rather filling. I don’t think I really should have two side dishes with my main course, but it is hard then to choose just one. Maybe next time I will just have side dishes instead.

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Calamari and Fries

One of my favourite street food stalls is King Fin, who are a regular at the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach street food markets. I noted that they had missed a few markets when they were advertised to turn up. So, when I was in Bristol one Wednesday and visited the Finzel Reach street food market I was pleased to see that King Fin were there. So, I went with one of my regular orders, which is the calamari and fries.

Calamari and Fries

I love how they are cooked to order, you know these are fresh. The squid is so soft and tender, the batter is light and crispy. Delicious. The fries were twice cooked and seasoned with rosemary and a tasty sauce. Alongside was a small portion of slaw.

I really like this dish, and even though I promise myself to try new places and dishes, I am not too surprised when I I revert to one of my favourite dishes.

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Sitting on the dock of the bay

One of the regular street food markets in Bristol is the Temple Quay market. I was working in Bristol, and over lunchtime, I went to the Temple Quay street food market. After looking around at the various stalls, I went with calamari and chips from King Fin. This like the bento box from She Sells Sushi is one of my regular favourite dishes from the Bristol street food scene.

After ordering my food, it was cooked fresh to order. Usually I would take it back to the office, but this time, I ate my food on the steps by the river.

This was a nice box of food. You can’t beat freshly cooked calamari, and I do wonder considering how easy King Fin makes it look, why more “traditional” restaurants don’t cook it fresh, rather than re-cooking already cooked calamari.

It was as before delicious. I liked the freshness of the calamari and the flavour of the fries was very tasty.

I really enjoyed this box form King Fin, it was a delight.

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Time for Tapas from Reinata

Dickens Yard reflection

Across Ealing there are various places to go out and eat. As well as chains, there are a range of independent places to eat. One of the nice things is that as a result there are lots of choices when you’re hungry. I often choose the independent places and one such place was in the (relatively) new Dickens Yard complex. I first went to Reinata back in June 2023 where I had a nice meal. However it wasn’t really a place to go out and eat on your own, as the tapas portions are quite substantial. Having said that and feeling quite hungry I headed over to Reinata for dinner. I went with two tapas dishes and some bread. These were large “small” plates of food.

I had the Octopus, Galician style, potatoes, paprika. 

I had this dish before, but this was different to the dish I had back then.  The last time I had this dish at Reinata it looked like this. This was a very different dish to one I had this time.

This time the dish was sliced potatoes cooked in the oven and on top was slices of grilled octopus. The octopus was tender and full of flavour.

The other dish I has was the  Andalusian Fritters, sherry marinated white fish and squid. 

This was breaded fish and squid. It was nice and fresh. I think it needed something more than lime though.

Both were large dishes and would be ideal to share, on my own it felt a little greedy. I do feel that the quality and presentation of the food was not as good as it was on my previous visit.

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Crispy Calamari with Asian Salad

For a number of years, I’ve been staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. It’s a budget-friendly alternative to pricier central London options. Plus, the Elizabeth Line makes getting downtown a breeze. West Ealing Station, just a short walk away, whisks you to central London in under 20 minutes by train.

I was eating in the restaurant and for my starter I went with the crispy calamari with asian salad and miso mayonnaise. I have found that how a restaurant cooks calamari is a good indicator of how they approach their menu and their cooking.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, so what I got was quite a surprise.

I wasn’t really expecting the asian salad to be so dominant on the plate. I was expecting a little more calamari than what was on the dish. I am not sure how well the batter worked, it was certainly crispy, but I do feel that it overpowered the squid.

I think the best way to describe this plate of food was “interesting”. I don’t think I would order it again if it was back on the menu. However it was a very different interpretation of crispy calamari and I would applaud Drayton Court for putting this kind of starter on their menu.

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Time to visit the Pelican State

When visiting London earlier this year I had gone for a walk around Bloomsbury before heading back to my hotel for steak and chips. On that walk I had noticed the brand of Pelican State and added it to places I thought I might like to try.

So on a more recent visit to London I decided I would head to the Pelican State and try out their food. I went with the Crispy Seafood Lunch Deal. This was prawns, green-lipped mussels, squid rings, red potatoes, large portion of fish and a sauce of my choice. I went with the aioli. 

It was served very quickly.

plate of crispy seafood

It was quite a substantial plate of food. I found the crispy coating more crunchy than crispy. It was a nice selection of seafood. I liked the prawns and squid, the mussels could have been better, as the crunchy coating made the mussels difficult to shell and eat. There was a large portion of fish. I think I should have had a side of coleslaw with it.

Overall I did enjoy the dish. They also do a Prawn Boil lunch deal, but I did think that it might be a bit messy to eat.

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Time for some Tapas at the Brunello

We were out and about in Weston last April. Feeling peckish, we decided to head to the Brunello Lounge for a bite to eat. I did the tapas deal for three tapas dishes. They have a nice range of tapas dishes, I think they would work well if you spending an evening in the Lounge drinking (and chatting). They also work well for a light lunch.

I went with the hummus, crispy squid, and some chicken wings. The hummus was my favourite of the three little plates of food.

plate of hummus

This was a nicely presented dish, the garnishes enhancing the hummus. I liked the flavours and there was enough flatbread to go with it.

The crispy squid was a little overcooked for my liking. 

crispy squid with a wedge of lemon

The coating was a little too crispy, more like crunchy.

I liked the chicken wings, but I wanted more of them.

chicken wings

Overall I enjoyed the three dishes, it was a nice snack for lunch.

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An Oxfordian blast from the past

When I am in Oxford for visits and meetings, I do like to take the time to revisit old haunts from my days working there ten years ago. Of course, some places have closed or changed hands. One place I would visit regularly for lunch back in the day was Sasi’s Thai in the Oxford Covered Market. One of the ways in which you could describe it, was imagine a market cafe, however this one served excellent Thai food rather than a full English breakfast! There is a counter with all the available dishes to see. You place your order, it is served up on a plate, and then you pay. Within there are numerous tightly packed tables and chairs. They even have a few chairs outside as well. Sometimes you will need to share your table, but as well as sharing the space you are also sharing the experience. I always had this impression that the informality and feel of the place was what it could have been like eating in a similar eating establishment in Thailand. They served this delicious Thai food. I have no idea how authentic the food was, as I have never been to Thailand. However it was extremely popular. I remember having some delicious meals there, but most times I would choose the chicken cashew, crispy pork belly, or when it was on the menu, the squid. It was always quite spicy, but alway tasty.

I was looking through some photographs of food, and realised that in April when I was travelling around, there were some meals which I hadn’t blogged about. Sometimes I write up the dining experiences I have on the same day, in the same week, or quite soon after that. Now and then I have food and then never get around to writing a blog post about it. In April I had been quite busy travelling across the UK to attend meetings and conferences.

I had been at a meeting and had time for lunch and I was quite close to Oxford, so I headed to Sasi’s Thai in the Oxford Covered Market for some great food. I was lucky in that though it was busy, there wasn’t a huge queue and they had spare tables.

I ordered the two dishes with rice, and had the chicken and cashew nuts, and the squid.

Thai food on rice

These were nice and generous portions. The chicken was nice and tasty, and the squid was tender and full of flavour. There was plenty of onions and peppers in the servings as well. You could taste the vegetables, chicken, and squid through the spicy sauce, and the rice was a nice accompaniment.  My only note of criticism was that the dish was really lacking cashew nuts, I think I had two. These though were delicious fresh dishes; you can often see them replenish their counter with pots being brought down from the upstairs kitchen. Sasi’s Thai is one of those places where though full after eating, you always feel tempted to go for a second round and try two other dishes. I did resist temptation.