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Time for some seafood paella

I was thinking about some lunch so I made my way to St Nicholas Market in the heart of Bristol. I did consider getting some barbecue from Low and Slow, but they had a really big queue. In the end I headed to La Lola with a plan to try their paella. When I got there I was nearly swayed by the calamari, but said to myself that I was going to have the paella, so I ordered the seafood paella.

The staff were friendly and welcoming, and I took a seat by the window and waited for my food.

It arrived just a few minutes later, it looked great and was a decent sized portion as well. I only wish when eating in that La Lola would serve their food on plates (or in bowls).

seafood paella

At first, I did think there wasn’t much seafood, but as I dug into the rice there were prawns, mussels and squid. I did like the taste of the paella, which was delicious, though I did think it could have had less salt. There was a whole prawn in the dish which needed to be shelled, but they did provide a lemon wipe which meant it was less messy than it could have been.

As I ate three Spanish women came and sat down on the chairs next to me and started talking to each other in Spanish. I did think if Spanish people were eating here then the food must be pretty authentic. I know the staff are Spanish, but with Spanish clientele as well, they must be doing something right.

Will I visit again, of course.

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Creamy Pizza

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.

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Time for a Cassoulet

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.

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.

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Fritto Misto

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.

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Time for a Raisukare

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.

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Decent Coffee

Last week I attended an event, this was a real in-person event in central London. I have not done one of those for a while. I think my last in-person event was back at the beginning of March 2020. One thing I hadn’t missed was the conference coffee which was dire. I wonder sometimes why I even bother drinking it, as it was terrible.

However the venue, The Business Design Centre, did have a cafe on site and they served Illy coffee. So during the afternoon break rather than have a conference coffee, I headed to the cafe and ordered a flat white.

This was a well made coffee and it was delicious.

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Tim Hortons now open

An artist's impression of the drive-thru. - Credit: Tim Hortons
An artist’s impression of the drive-thru – Credit: Tim Hortons

The new Tim Hortons has opened in Weston-super-Mare. The Canadian chain which took over the old Pizza Hut restaurant and added a drive through.

When I discovered that there was to be a Tim Hortons, howeverI had no idea what a Tim Hortons was.  I was quite intrigued. Was this going to be a sophisticated coffee place? They have a number of outlets already in the UK, so I checked out the website. Yes they sell coffee, yes they sell doughnuts, but it looks much more like a burger chain than a coffee chain.

As I said before I probably won’t be visiting.

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Slow Coffee

I was driving down the M4 one evening, when I decided I needed a break and I stopped off at Starbucks at Membury Services. Rather than go into the main services, I headed off to the Starbucks, which though a drive through, also has a large seating area. I prefer these to the coffee places in the main services building.

I was the only person at the counter, but it took a while for me to be served and then it took a while for my coffee to arrive. I guess they were busy with drive though orders, but even so, I wonder why one member of staff focuses on drive through orders and the other member of staff on the wall ups.

I had a flat white in a cardboard cup. It was, like a lot of Starbucks coffee rather bitter. However I had a nice break and then it was back in the car and time to continue the journey.

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Time again for La Lola

Bristol Bridge

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.

calamari

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.