Tag: bristol

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Gurt Wings on the Harbourside

Went out for a walk at lunchtime. I was hungry, but wasn’t quite sure what to have. Walking down Baldwin Street I saw the lunch menu for Rosa Thai, decided quite liked the sound of that, however when I sat down inside, the lunch menu was completely different from what was displayed on the window. Didn’t fancy what was there, I had it in my mind what I was going to order from the lunch menu in the window, but as the actual menu was very different, I decided to give it a miss.

Eventually I headed to Whapping Wharf and went to Gurt Wings. I’ve had them before from the Finzel Reach street food market.

Gurt Wings have been a regular on the Bristol street food scene for many years now. Normally I miss out as they always have a huge queue at their street food stalls. They now, however, have a more permanent home in Cargo at Whapping Wharf.

I went with the wing meal deal, which was five wings and tater tots. I went with the Gurt sweet and smoky BBQ sauce and baconnaise drizzle, topped with crispy onions and bacon crumb.

Enjoyed my chicken wings but realised that eating them was quite a messy affair. I normally eat chicken wings with a knife and fork, however this time I had to delve in with my hands.

They are tasty wings and the sauce was quite intense, in the sense it was quite sweet. I did enjoy them and would go again.

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Rigatoni Carbonara from the Grano Pasta Bar

The other day when I was visiting the Bristol Harbour Festival I saw that there was a new food stall in St Nick’s market. It was a pasta stall; it replaced the Chilli Daddy stall. I thought to myself I wouldn’t mind trying that. I use to avoid pasta in restaurants as more often than not it was overcooked and too soft. However more recently I have had better experiences.

So, needing lunch a few days later I headed off to the Grano Pasta Bar to try out their pasta. I don’t think I have ever had pasta from a street food stall before, so this was a new experience for me. In the back of the stall, you could see them making and forming the fresh rigatoni pasta.

All the pasta was cooked to order and they had about six choices. I went with the carbonara, other choices included pesto and ragu.

You could watch them cook the food. After a short while my box of pasta was ready and I took a seat to eat it.

This was not a huge portion, but perfect for a light lunch. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and I have to say that the carbonara sauce looked and tasted authentic, no cream here.

My only criticism was that I thought it was a little too salty. I realise that the guanciale is cured and salty, but I think overall the dish was little over seasoned for me. However, would I go again, I think I probably will.

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Fillet Steak and Fries

The other day when I was visiting the Bristol Harbour Festival I was wondering if there were going to be some interesting food stalls. I have noticed at previous festivals that sometimes the food stalls can be a pile them high, sell them cheap type of festival food stall, and often local Bristol stalls can’t be seen.

If you take paella, on previous occasions there have been stalls with massive paella pans selling paella by the box, but compared to the paella from Riceminster, the festival stalls are selling a much inferior product and at a more expensive price. Having said that in the past, there have been some gems within the food stalls in the festival. This year it felt like there were a lot less food stalls at the festival. I did have a look around and one that did stick out for me and was tempting was the Flying Fillet stall in the heart of Queen’s Square.

They are Malvern based so not local, but they looked like they were selling a quality product. After wandering around the festival and seeing what else was available, I headed over to Queen’s Square and looked over the menu, as well as the fillet steak they also sold chicken wings as well. Though the beef fillet loaded fries sounded tasty, and I also quite liked the idea of some chicken wings, I went with the beef fillet and fries.

It as a popular stand so I had to wait a while for my food. What I got was a tin foil tray of seasoned fries topped with slices of medium rare fillet steak. The loaded version would have included asian slaw, chimichurri and chipotle mayo, but it was also another £3 on top.

The steak was very tender and easy to eat, which is ideal for street food where you only have a wooden fork. The chips were well seasoned, probably a little too well seasoned for me. The whole dish was quite salty and I think I would have preferred it to be made with less salt.

At £15 this was usually a lot more then I would normally pay for street food. The prices had been inflated by around £2 for this event, I suspect to pay for the high cost of the pitch. So, this was a dish I was happy with whilst attending the festival, I don’t think this would be something I would have for a lunch within the week.

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Rigatoni Pasta

Close to my office in Bristol is La Panza, now an Italian restaurant, which use to be Chatterton’s Cafe.

They have a £10 lunch deal which consists of pasta, focaccia, and a drink. I liked the idea of this, so decided I would try them out. I have been meaning to try out for a while, but I quite like a walk at lunchtime, so as it’s practically next door to the office, I often give it a miss. However this time, I went there after my walk.

Upon arrival, I wasn’t really given any kind of welcome, I had to wait a while before being seated. There is no seating downstairs, all the tables are upstairs. There is outside seating, but it was quite chilly for that, even with table heaters. The place was busy, which is probably why I had to wait a while to get my table sorted.

With the lunch deal, you have no choice about the pasta, they serve the pasta of the day. This time they had a rigatoni pasta dish with tomato, ham, and chilli. I am not sure what they would do if you were vegetarian, but there are some nice sounding pasta dishes on the main menu (but they’re not as cheap as the lunch deal).

Though I had to wait for the table, it wasn’t too long before my meal arrived.

Alongside the pasta was a slice of focaccia. I have to admit I was expecting a chunk of focaccia, but that’s on me, not the restaurant. The pasta was excellent, cooked to perfection and a delicious sauce. The bread was fresh, light and fluffy. As part of the deal you get a drink, and you have the choice of a coffee, a soft drink, or a glass of house wine.

I will take a little annoyance with the 10% service charge, I don’t mind paying for service, but for a lunch deal, couldn’t you just include the service charge in the price? To be honest the service wasn’t that good, however I paid the service charge. I much prefer it when the prices you see on the menu actually reflect the price you pay. It’s much worse in London where everywhere feels they can charge 12.5% or higher service charge. I am not sure what they’re thinking, yes pay for service, but make it part of the price of the food on the menu. It feels a little fraudulent to have “lower” prices on the menu, but these aren’t the prices you are going to pay. 

The key question, despite that 10% surcharge, will I go again for pasta? Yes I will. 

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Pistachio Danish

Pistachio Danish

One of the things I like about getting a Too Good To Go (TGTG) bag is trying out new places which isn’t going to break the bank. New places open all the time, and sometimes you think, should I try it out, or should I go to my usual haunts. For me the TGTG bag gives me a way to try out their food and not spend loads of money. 

For instance I got a TGTG bag from DoubleShot Coffee – Barbers in Bristol. This is an independent, well I want to write cafe, but they also cut hair. 

My TGTG bag was valued at £9.00 and cost £2.99.

In my bag I got

Two pistachio danish pastries
A maple pecan danish pastry
A croissant

By my reckoning that was worth £9.

Have to say the pistachio danish was rather tasty.

I will certainly try and get future bags from them, but I think I might also visit them for a coffee another time (probably won’t get a haircut though).

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Dirty Fries

food stall

One of the regular stalls at the Bristol Street Food scene is Big Nath’s BBQ. I haven’t had food from them before, in the main as their menu consists of rolls filled with BBQ meat, brisket or pulled pork. I think if they did a BBQ box then I probably would have tried them out. I usually avoid what I would call sandwich meals, as I generally don’t do sandwiches, and burgers are a kind of sandwich, well I think they are.

However this time, while I was at the Finale Reach street food market, I thought I would give it a go, and I went for the dirty fries.

These are fries with mac and cheese, pulled pork, BBQ sauce, pickles and mustard.

They do a regular size and a large, having seen them produce a large portion, I went with the regular size (which is still huge).

It looked great. It was very tasty, never sure about pasta and fries in a single dish, but this is an American thing, and this was a very American plate of food. There were some tasty seasoned fries, the aforementioned mac and cheese, tender and delicious pulled pork, with a really nice BBQ sauce. I liked the addition of the mustard and pickles as well. Overall a really fun and delicious box of food, also very filling.

Now the only thing that I would say is that I thought there would be some brisket on there as well, as the chalk board said “yes, it has everything on it”. Well there was no brisket, but not to worry, the fries were still delicious.

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A different Bento Box

When I buy a bento box from She Sells Sushi in Bristol I usually go for the beef donburi and a chicken hirata bun. On a recent visit to the Finale Reach Street food market I went with the bento box, but this time I went with the beef donburi and for a change the chicken katsu.

The chicken katsu was tasty. There was crispy chicken with katsu sauce on top of rice with pickles and crispy onions.

The chicken freshly cooked had a crisp coating. The katsu sauce was nice, not too spicy, but with a hint of fruitiness.

The beef donburi was slow cooked teriyaki beef rib on a bed of rice, topped with crispy onions and pickles.

This was delicious as usual, with tender beef and great flavour.

Overall I think there was too much rice for a light lunch,  but the rest of the box was delicious.

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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 paella

I have always enjoyed the paella from Riceminster, though I don’t have it very often.

On a recent visit to the Temple Quay Market I initially didn’t know what I wanted, but the paella on the Riceminster stall did look tempting. So I went with a portion of the Valencia paella.

This paella came with chicken and green beans. It was really tasty and I enjoyed it, I do think though next time I will go for the vegan or the vegetarian paella (which is a little cheaper) as I am not sure if the chicken added anything to the dish. It was nice, but I think I would have enjoyed the paella without it.

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Hot Dog and Loaded Fries

I was on the look out for some lunch from the Finzel Reach street food market. The Fontmell BBQ Smokehouse were there, in their converted horse box.

Their usual items are pulled meat buns and loaded fries. They also have jackfruit on the menu as well. This time they had an XL wild boar hot dog special. I went all out and not only ordered the hot dog, but also got a side of loaded fries with it. I went with the pulled beef loaded fries.

I took my ticket, but it wasn’t long before my food arrived. The service was efficient and friendly. This was one big dog and though it was a half portion of loaded fries, it was a large half. I also thought the food was well presented.

The hot dog was excellent, it was meaty and had a smoke flavour. It was a good sausage, but not sure if the wild boar came through as much as I thought it would. It was really tasty and I enjoyed it. I have to say though, I did use a knife and fork to eat it!

I am really on the fence when it comes to loaded fries. I do like eating fries, and usually have mayonnaise. However these were another level, the fries were literally loaded with cheese, pulled barbecue beef, jalapeños, sauces, and crispy onions. As I am on the fence, I am not sure if I enjoyed them or not. They were certainly tasty and I might order them again in the future. Overall a substantial tasty lunch.