bristol Archives - Page 15 of 16

January 12, 2017

Going back to itsu

I haven’t been to itsu for a while now, since I stopped working in Oxford, I made quite a few visits there for sushi and pots of noodles. I haven’t been to the branch in London (too many other choices) however in December a new branch opened in Bristol.

As on my previous visit, there was a lot of choice and within the different types of food on offer lots of variation. I found it difficult to decide on what to have.

There is a big choice of salad and sushi in the fridges and then there are the hot options, pots of soup, rice, noodles or dumplings.

In the end I went with the Vietnam beef salad. This was roasted beef, hard boiled egg, spicy sauce, sushi rice, greens & ginger, roasted seeds, chives, red ginger, `no lettuce´ salad and salad seasoning.

Vietnam beef (roasted), hard boiled egg (free range), spicy sauce, sushi rice, greens & ginger, roasted seeds, chives, red ginger, `no lettuce´ salad and salad seasoning

It looked really nice and was well presented. I found the beef tender and actually quite tasty. The salad and rice was also really nice. The overall combination was delicious and I really enjoyed the salad.

January 10, 2017

Well that was really tasty squid!

It was a Thursday and wanting lunch, well if you are in Bristol then the regular Temple Quay lunchtime market is really the place to be.

It was my intention to visit Low and Slow again after having a really nice lunch there a few months back. As I arrived (early) there was no queue, so I thought I would take the opportunity to check out what else was there at the market. There was a already a massive queue for the Thai stall, one day I might try it, but the queue always puts me off. The dumplings place had a queue and then I saw a new stall. It was called Crispy Squid!

Now, those of you who are regular readers of the blog will know that I have a soft spot for squid. It also one thing that when cooked well cane great, however my usual experience is that it is done badly.

So though I really liked the idea of the squid I was slightly sceptical that it might not be nice.

However I decided that it was worth the chance, so I looked over the menu, there were two choices, sweet chilli squid or salt and pepper squid. Both choices were served with potato, chorizo and salad.

I took the plunge and asked for a portion of chilli squid for £6. The lads at the stall got cooking and the dish was freshly cooked to order in front of me.

I have to say it looked fantastic.

It also tasted fantastic!

The batter was wonderful and crips and the squid was beautifully tender. I really liked the combination of squid, potato and chorizo, very Spanish and really tasty. I did feel that it was a probably a little too salty for my taste and I think if I was to order it again I would ask to “hold the salt”. The reason I chose the sweet chilli squid as I thought the salt and pepper squid would be too salty!

Update: have since realised the stall was called Audacious Squid.

December 21, 2016

Smoking the brisket…

A couple of weeks ago I passed the Low n Slow stand at the regular Temple Quay street food market, alas I was on my way to a three hour meeting and I didn’t think it would be fair to my colleagues to have what sounded like a delicious barbecue box filling the meeting room with food smells. So this week, not having a meeting, I checked the Twitter and saw that Low n Slow were going to be at the Temple Quay Market.

I went with the “ultimate combo” barbecue box, consisting of 12 hour pulled pork, 9 hour beef brisket, burnt ends, served with salad, coleslaw, pickles, a POW ball and homemade sauce. So what are POW balls? Well according to the menu by the stall they are tasty bacon wrapped meatballs with bbq glaze.

This was a wonderful combination of flavours and textures.

The beef brisket was beautifully tender and delicious. The smoke was subtle and didn’t overpower the dish. The crispiness of the burnt ends contrasted well with the tender brisket.

The pulled pork was very tasty and as for the POW ball, this was nice. Like a festive pigs in blanket but bigger, smokier with a subtle sweet taste.

This kind of meal starts to make me think if a proper smoker style barbecue would be a nice thing to have. Well until I make a decision about that, I will continue to visit the Low and Slow stall.

August 4, 2016

Time for a salad

If you are in Bristol looking for somewhere to lunch, there are lots of chains of restaurants and coffee shops across the city centre; however those looking for something different, tasty, individual and good value, need to look no further than St Nicholas Market. Within the narrow passages you can find all manner of foods and tasty treats. The range of smells, flavours and colours as you walk between the crowded stalls both stimulates and inspires, as well as making your mouth water. The choice is almost overwhelming, you can choose Portuguese, Chinese, Caribbean, Moorish, Italian, Vegetarian, Vegan, Modern, American BBQ, so much choice you often have no idea where to start. The place is usually packed and there are long queues for virtually all the stands, so I am sure they move quite quickly otherwise people wouldn’t join them.

Down in the St Nicholas market there is the Kofta Bar, well I think it’s the Kofta Bar, the aprons of the staff say the Olive Company. Well whatever they are called, if you do know please let me know in the comments, they do offer some lovely food, including freshly made wraps.

The salad boxes are my favourite. You get to make four choices from a wide variety of salads and what they call tapas choices.

They include cous-cous, mixed pulses, butterbeans in harissa dressing, Greek style salad, dolmas, sun dried tomatoes, pesto pasta salad, pecorino salad, falafel and a wide choice of olives.

On top of this you can choose between hummus, focaccia or flat bread as an extra.

There is also a choice of dressings, including pesto, yoghurt and harrisa. What this means is that it makes very easy never to have the same salad twice.

You can have extras added to the salad, a choice of lamb kofta, grilled chicken or halloumi.

The cost of a salad box is £4.50 and with the addition of 50p you can choose from a choice of cans of San Pellegrino or a bottle of water. Lamb and chicken salad boxes are a reasonable £5.50.

Though I’ve not tried them, the wraps look equally tasty.

So if you are looking for a nice salad for lunch then I would recommend the salad bar in St Nick’s market.

July 30, 2016January 16, 2024

Time for some dumplings

I did think that I might miss the Temple Quay market this week because of the rain, however it stopped so off I went.

There were fewer stalls this week, and fewer regulars, but even so there was a great choice of food. I thought the rain might have put people off, but the queues were already really long. The queue for the Thai stall was already across the square!

I did start queuing at the Scoff and Relish stall as the salad and grilled chicken sounded great and looked fantastic too, being chargrilled on their tiny portable barbecues. I also liked the idea of the accompanying scoff balls, savoury scones. Alas they were struggling with the demand and the queue wasn’t moving and the food wasn’t quite ready. Maybe next time…

In the end I went with Ah Ma’s Dumplings. There was a slow moving queue here too. The stall has these huge towers of bamboo steamers laden with freshly steamed dumplings containing a choice of fillings. There was no tiger prawn, scallop and leek (probably sold out) today, so the choice was pork and ginger, beef and spinach, chicken and coriander or vegetarian.

I went with the veggie shitake and cashew pan fried dumplings along with the pork belly with hoisin bao.

I was impressed and tempted with the dumpling pots complete with vegetables, noodles and broth, likewise the sides of Asian salads sounded very interesting. That day they had carrot & courgette ribbons with a tahini, honey, lemon dressing; the other choice was sweet chilli pickled cucumber with toasted black sesame seeds.

The dumplings were really impressive, beautiful steamed dough that because of the pan frying. Inside was a filling that was deep, tasty and even a little meaty, but they were vegetarian (well ‘ish they are pan fried in the same pan as the pork and chicken ones, so if you are vegetarian you might want to have them steamed instead).

The bao was delicious, the slow roasted pork belly was both sour and sweet, full of interesting deep flavours and very tender. The steamed dough made is substantive. I have seen neater and tidier bao buns before, but the flavour of the filling made up for this.

Ah Ma has a growing reputation, having been mentioned as one of the top sixteen street food stalls in the UK in both the Metro and Olive magazine. In my mind that is a well deserved reputation, delicious food, beautifully made and presented and lots of interesting choices of flavours and textures. I hope to visit them again.

June 22, 2016

A taste of Peru

So how often do you get a chance to sample some authentic looking and tasting Peruvian food?

One of my favourite features of Bristol is the weekly street food market that takes place every Thursday at the square in the newly redeveloped Temple Quay. It is open between 12 and 2, but I suggest you get there early, as there are large queues and many times dishes sell out (especially the vegetarian ones).

There are a range of regular and guest stalls, and when I went there was a real choice. I did like the idea of Greek, the halloumi pitta sounded and looked delicious. There was also a pulled lamb sub, that also looked very nice. After looking around, I went with Uchu Perú, as stall selling Peruvian food, my choice dictated slightly by the shortness of the queue and the interesting sounding menu.

In the end looking over the menu I decided that I would go with the sample menu, so I could have a bit of everything. The sample plate has smaller portions of all the dishes from the menu.

If you stay at the market the stall provides a nice plate, but as it was starting to rain I got my meal to go and they split it between two boxes for me to take away.

Ceviche, which was sea bass cooked in lime with prawns, chilli, coriander, red onion, sweet potato and Peruvian corn. This was fresh and sharp and really tasty. I wasn’t so enamoured with the Peruvian corn, but it was something that I can see other people liking.

The Quinoa Salad was made from black and white quinoa with carrot, radish, coriander, broad beans, feta cheese and Peruvian yellow chilli sauce. I really liked how the team put this together, and was like the Ceviche was delicious. The ingredients were fresh, tasty and worked really well together.

The final dish in my trio was Causa, which was freshly piped potato puree with Peruvian yellow chilli paste, served cold with tomato, avocado puree, purple corn mayonnaise, sweet potato crisp, pulled chicken, topped with togaroshi mayonnaise. As I was eating I did wonder what the pink stuff was, but re-reading the menu, I realised this was the purple corn mayonnaise. Delicious components that worked really well together.

I really liked how the dishes were constructed to order and they looked beautiful. I’ve not eaten Peruvian dishes before, these were delicious and I would certainly go back to Uchu Perú.

May 23, 2016

A little piece of France in Bristol

Down on Baldwin Street in the heart of Bristol is a little piece of France. La Buvette is a characterful little wine bar which also serves some really nice food.

La Buvette is owned and run by the Riverstation’s Peter Taylor. Peter runs a hotel in rural France called Auberge de Chassignolles and when it closed for the winter months, Peter came back to Bristol in December and he opened Bar Buvette a pop-up Parisian-style natural wine bar. It seems to have been a success and has become more of a permanent feature.

I found out about La Buvette from an article in the Evening Post weekend supplement. So the following Tuesday thinking that this would be a nice place for a quick lunch I popped down to find it closed. Alas they only open for lunch on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, so I had to find somewhere else…

Last week I was in Bristol on a Friday, so I thought, hmm, this could be a good time to try out La Buvette. I arrived at quarter past twelve, it was open and only one other table was taken, well it was quite early for lunch. The staff were welcoming and friendly and as they were still writing the menu out on the blackboard.

Listening carefully I decided to go with the boudin with duck egg. When it arrived I was a little surprised to find that it was black pudding, or boudin noir! Maybe I should have listened a little more carefully. The waiting staff did say that this was a small dish, so I ordered a beetroot salad alongside the boudin noir.

The environment was really atmospheric, it felt very French, the wooden furniture, the bottles on the wall and the pictures on the wall.

The boudin noir was cooked to perfection, it was soft and full of lovely flavours, and the richness of the duck egg complemented it well.

The beetroot salad was made from different dressed roasted beetroot complemented with goat’s cheese curds. This was sharp and tasty.

Upon reflection I think I might have ordered just one dish along with some bread. This would have been better value for lunch, but I did really enjoy both dishes. The total cost was £12.50 as I basically had two dishes, with bread the cost would have been around £7.50 which is better, but still quite expensive for lunch. However the food was great, the staff friendly and excellent service, it will be a place I would like to visit again.

November 10, 2015

Quick Chimichanga

Looking for a relatively quick lunch, but also wanting to sit down I was intrigued by the recently new branch of Chimichanga in Cabot Circus. Initially I was put off by the prices on the menu, well this was supposed to be lunch and I didn’t want to spend too much money. It looked like they didn’t have a special lunch menu, but then I noticed a board standing outside advertising 40% of mains by downloading a code. So a quick browse on the phone I had a voucher code so in I went.

Inside there was a modern clean feel to the place. There was a choice of booths or tables. There wasn’t much of a Mexican feel to the place, some browns and oranges, but not much else really. It reminded me somewhat of Giraffe or Coal, nothing distinctive that made it feel different or that you were eating food inspired by Mexico and the Deep South.

It was quite empty, but was greeted on arrival by friendly waiting staff. I was given the choice of sitting where I wanted to. This was a nice option, all too often when visiting restaurants you are rarely given the choice of where to sit. Sitting down I looked over the menu. Yes I was tempted by the Calamares, well I really enjoy squid, but I had decided that I probably didn’t have the time for a starter so straight into looking at the mains. The menu is split into Tex Grill and Mex Kitchen choices, as you might imagine with a place such as this, there were the usual choices. In the Tex Grill you found the ubiquitous burgers, ribs and steaks. The Mex Kitchen had burritos, enchiladas, quesadilla sandwiches and the signature chimichanga. There are quite a few vegetarian options within the Mex Kitchen menu, based around beans or portobello mushrooms. In the end I went with a fajita dish.

A sizzling skillet of sautéed peppers and onions with marinated fajita steak. With fresh guacamole, jack cheese, sour cream and fresh salsa. Served with warm tortillas.

It wasn’t quite sizzling, I remember having a fajita dish at TGI Fridays back in 1999 and that sizzled. There was a good lot of peppers and onions, topped with a sliced grill steak. Personally I would have preferred if the steak had been cooked with the peppers and onions, but even so this was very tasty. Alongside the skillet, came four small warm tortillas along with some really nice fresh tasting salsa, proper chunky guacamole, as well as grated jack cheese and some sour cream. I did feel the torrillas were a little small making it difficult to wrap around a filling, so despite the fact this was finger food, I ate it with a knife and fork, otherwise I could see it going all over my shirt!

Overall I really did enjoy the dish, and with the 40% off, thought it was quite good value for lunch. I didn’t think it was as good as the tacos (with soft flour tortillas) I have had at Mission Burrito or at Barburrito in Paddington, however they were takeaway and one of the key issues for me was finding a place to sit down. There is a van selling those kinds of tacos and burritos by Bristol Bridge which I may try on another occasion.

July 22, 2015

A tiny corner of Kurdish tastiness

A tiny corner of Kurdish joy

If you are in Bristol looking for lunch, there are lots of chains of restaurants and coffee shops, across the city centre, however those looking for something different, tasty, individual and good value, need to look no further than St Nicholas Market. Within the narrow passages you can find all manner of foods and tasty treats. The range of smells, flavours and colours as you walk between the crowded stalls both stimulates and inspires, as well as making your mouth water. The choice is almost overwhelming, you can choose Caribbean, Moorish, Italian, Vegetarian, Vegan, Modern, BBQ, so much choice you often have no idea where to start. The place is usually packed and there are long queues for virtually all the stands, so I am sure they move quite quickly. Oh on Thursdays the choice gets even more difficult, as there are loads of new food stalls in the weekly food market.

One stall which seems to have a permanently long queue at lunchtimes is Matina right by the magnificent Georgian entrance to St Nicholas market on the High Street. Matina is a Kurdish takeaway selling delicious wraps and boxes. Keeping it simple you choose a freshly made Kurdish wrap (more like a naan bread than a wrap) or a box with rice (or cous cous). This is then filled with fresh salads, humus, sauces and topped with a choice of grilled marinated chicken, lamb kofta or hallumi and vegetables.

The bread is made in front of you to order in hot oven. They take fresh balls of dough, flatten them out into a circle on a mould, before sticking it to the side of their hot oven. These are then, once cooked, taken out and covered in your choice of salads, sauces, humus and chilli, before the addition of the main filling. Wrapped for you and ready to eat, though sometimes too hot too handle with the freshly cooked bread.

The bread is amazing, this is down to the freshness, you have warm bread, that is still a little doughy as you bite into it, and unlike a wrap, quite happily soaks up the juices from the salad and meat.

I went with the marinated chicken, which had been freshly cooked, so was hot, crisp on the outside, moist inside and full of middle eastern flavours. The salads are fresh, seasoned and full of taste. It was a joy to eat. The combination of textures, flavours and colour, makes this an incredible tasty lunchtime treat, and you understand why there is always a large queue. These are also very good value, all under £5.

January 13, 2015

In the Birdcage

Walking up Corn Street in Bristol over the festive break and wanting a coffee, we decided to pop into the Birdcage. There are quite a few cafés and restaurants in this area of Bristol, so you have quite a bit of choice.

It looks like the building use to be a bank or similar, however once inside, the interior decor is very quirky, retro and quite refreshing if you are use to the decor you find in the main coffee chains such as Costa or Starbucks.

In the Birdcage

The lighting for example comprised a series of non-matching lampshades hanging together form the ceiling.

Shades

The furniture was mis-matched wooden chairs and tables, combined with leather sofas. Across the walls and in the windows were signs, old bicycles, even mannequins wearing old fashion.

In the Birdcage

This is very much a coffee shop, and though there were cakes available, the main attraction is the coffee. The coffee was certainly made well and quite nice.

In the Birdcage

I liked how after asking for coffee at the counter, we could sit down and they bought the coffee over. That is a much more relaxed experience than the busy somewhat hectic experience you can find, and I have certainly found in the chain coffee shops.