Tag: bristol

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Time for a rustica pizza

I was out in Bristol thinking about something for lunch. I had a voucher for free main course at Zizzi, so I headed over to their branch in Cabot Circus to get something for lunch. I  haven’t been to Zizzi for a while, so it was nice to look over the menu. There were some nice choices, but in the end I went with the  Rustica Pizza with Black Truffle Salami & Mushroom.

This was a white base with truffle salami, mushrooms, crispy prosciutto, Bufala mozzarella, riserva cheese, truffle-infused oil and crispy sage.

I do like a white base pizza, and this was a nice pizza, with generous toppings, but not over the top toppings. The fresh mozzarella was a nice touch. I liked the rustica base which was crisp. This was a nice pizza and I am glad I chose it from the menu.

Alongside I had the Courgetti Fritti which were crispy courgette chips.

These were interesting and I enjoyed them.

Came to pay the bill and there was an issue with the staff saying I could only have used the offer with the purchase of two main courses, it didn’t say that in the T&Cs, so in the end they did accept the voucher. 

Apart from the voucher issue, the service was excellent.

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Calamari

I fancied a snack and the Temple Quay market was running in Bristol, so headed down to see what was on offer.

I got a portion of calamari from King Fin. They (as usual) were cooked fresh to order.

This was a lovely generous portion of calamari. The batter was nice and crispy, but not too thick to overpower the squid. It was cooked just right, as well as light batter, the squid was nice and tender. Sometimes when I have squid it can be overcooked, so the batter is more crunchy than crispy, and the squid can be somewhat chewy. This squid though was cooked really nicely. Must remember next time to ask for less salt though.

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Flat White at Cafe Society

I have been meaning to visit Cafe Society in Bristol on Baldwin Street for a while now, but never really had the opportunity. When I have walked past it was usually as I was on my way to another place, or I had just had a coffee somewhere else.

So when in town one Saturday and walking past, I decided I would go in for a coffee. The place was busy but there were seats available. There was no queue, so I went to the counter and ordered my coffee, a flat white. Having said that I was drinking in, the barista said to take a seat and they would bring my coffee to me.

I took a seat. I noticed that for some of their seats they had a no laptop rule which was interesting. If you did want to use your laptop, there were shared tables available. The rule was enforced, as I did see someone being asked to move to a laptop table.

My flat white arrived. It looked fantastic.

I really enjoyed the coffee and I think I will certainly visit Cafe Society again.

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Time for a sandwich, well a nice sandwich

Portwall Tavern

Went out for a walk at lunchtime. I did consider Low N Slow at St Nick’s market, but the brisket wasn’t looking that good today, it looked excellent last week. I then went to the Finzel Reach street food market. I did consider getting lunch from She Sells Sushi, but I’ve had that quite a lot recently, so thought no. 

I had a look at La Panza next to the office, which has a £10 lunch deal. I was very tempted, but disappointed to find out that the deal had only one choice of pasta, which was a cheesy broccoli bucatini pasta, which I didn’t really fancy. I had hoped they would have a choice of pasta, but they only had a pasta of the day.

I then remembered I had enjoyed a sandwich dish from the Portwall Tavern, so went there and had the pulled lamb ciabatta with potato wedges. 

The last time I visited the Tavern I had swapped the wedges for skin-on fries, this time I didn’t. That was because last time the wedges had looked so good.

This was a substantial open sandwich. There was a slice of ciabatta with salad and a good sized portion of the slow cooked (pulled) lamb. The lamb was garnished with some mint yoghurt.

I don’t normally do sandwiches, but this wasn’t a sandwich, this was quite a substantial meal. The lamb was full of flavour, very tender, and tasty.

I enjoyed the sandwich. Generally I don’t do sandwiches.

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Kokodoo Korean Fried Chicken

Kokodoo Korean Fried Chicken Van

The Kokodoo van is always busy when I have seen it before at both the Finzel Street and Temple Quay street food markets. So much so, that I have usually gone somewhere else to get something to eat.

So when I arrived early one time and there wasn’t much of a queue I grabbed my chance to try out the chicken from Kokodoo.

The menu consists of fried chicken bites with a choice of four glazes. There is sweet & spicy, honey glazed, sticky soy, or fiery chilli. The chicken is served with a  choice of chips or rice and a side of coleslaw. There is a vegan option  with fried cauliflower.

I went with the chicken in a honey glaze with rice. I placed my order and paid, I was given a number.

As there wasn’t much of a queue, so it wasn’t too long before my food was ready.

Kokodoo Korean Fried Chicken

This was a good sized portion of crispy chicken, in a sweet honey glaze, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. There was some rice, and a rather disappointedly small portion of coleslaw.

I enjoyed the chicken, it was crisp and tasty. Though a nice dish, I am not sure if I would have it again. It was nice, but not inspiring or outstanding.

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What should I have?

I was in Bristol and looking for some lunch. As it was a Monday there was no Finzel Reach or Temple Quay street food markets. I headed off to the St Nicholas Market to see what was available. There is a wide choice of places to eat there, though not all are open on a Monday. As per usual there was a long queue for Matina for their excellent Kurdish wraps, even with the recent “dramatic” price increase. I remember the time they were less than a fiver, now they are over eight pounds each. Well I suspect costs have risen for them, they had to rise at some point, but they appears to be rising quite a lot over the last couple of years.

I still have to try the MOMO bar, but decided that wasn’t going to be today. I did consider going for the Low and Slow barbecue box, but in the end headed to La Lola.

The last time I ate at La Lola I had the crispy squid, but wasn’t too enamoured with their chipped potatoes, which were like thick crisps.

This time I went for their seafood paella. I was served quickly, and this a good looking paella with a nice amount of seafood, which included prawns, squid, and mussels.

paella

This was a delicious paella, lots of flavour. 

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Pretentious Cortado

I went out for a walk and decided to try the new coffee place on Victoria Street, in Bristol. It is called Origin. I wanted to try it, partly as it was new, and partly as that as I was using their app, I could get a free coffee.

Inside the clean, bright minimalist space, there was the serving counter and some tables and chairs. Not so sure about the environment. I think it needs some more tables and chairs. 

The choice of pastries was limited but the barista did say that would expand at a later date.

I ordered a Cortado. I wasn’t hungry, so didn’t order anything to eat. I took a seat and they bought my coffee over.

It was a beautifully made Cortado, in a lovely ceramic cup. It was a little pretentious, but I kind of expected this kind of coffee when I walked in.

It was a nice coffee, not my favourite flavour of coffee, but I enjoyed it. I certainly would consider going again.

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Not quite my usual bento box

It was a Friday, the sun was shining, it wasn’t raining, there was no wind, which meant that the Finzel Reach street food market was running. They had cancelled Wednesday’s market due to the weather.

My usual choice when having a bento box from the She Sells Sushi stall is to have the beef donburi and a crispy chicken hirata bao bun. I decided I would still go for the beef donburi, but I would have the sweet potato hirata bun instead of my usual chicken one.

The beef was delicious as usual. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and crispy onion.

This a street food dish I have had many times, as this was as good as I’ve had on previous visits. The beef was full of flavour and the garnishes added to the dish.

The hirata bun was nice, but to be honest the sweet potato was just slices of cooked sweet potato. These were inside a charcoal bao bun with some lettuce, pickles and sauce. Not sure that added much, I think I would have preferred the crunchy texture of the chicken.

Overall though, I did like my lunch and it was very tasty.

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cha han shichimi tofu

The Wagamama at Cribbs Causeway has been extended and expanded since I last went there. It is now much bigger, but it is just as popular.

With no system for booking a table, we queued, waiting for table to be free. The queue moved quite quickly.

We were shown to a table and I looked over the menu. I have had yasai yaki soba quite a few times recently so decided to go with something different. I had the cha han shichimi tofu. This was  stir fried brown rice cooked in a sweet and sticky sauce with shichimi tofu, mushrooms, red onion, red pepper, cucumber, sweetcorn and edamame beans. topped with coriander cress, crispy fried onions and Japanese pickles.

I really enjoyed the dish. This was a vegan dish, and over the last few years when eating at Wagamama I have usually picked the vegan dishes. I think part of the reason is that the “meat” option is not very inspiring, usually chicken, but in the main the vegan options are really tasty, and cheaper! You could have had this dish with chicken, but the tofu option was £1.50 cheaper, and in my opinion the shichimi tofu was really good. The crisp outside was nice and crunchy with some spice, the soft tofu was a lovely contrasting texture. The rice and sauce was delicious, and actually the tofu in this case was more of a garnish than a core component of the dish. I would like to have had more mushrooms, actually I think their new crispy mushrooms would be a great option on this dish.

I was a little disappointed that our food didn’t arrive at the same time, I know that is the operating model for Wagamama, but even so the delay between our dishes was quite lengthy. My son had his dish for quite a while before my food arrived, and then there was a further delay before the final three dishes arrived. Not as bad as another table, where their side dish arrived well after they had finished their main courses. So much so they had to take it home.

I think part of the issue was that the restaurant had a lot of Deliveroo type orders so was busy cooking those. Similar experience I guess to when we went to Edinburgh.

Overall we had a nice meal, the place was busy, but the service was attentive. It was noticeable though how the number of takeaway and delivery orders were impacting on the service to the customers who were actually sitting down in the restaurant. We know that there has been a huge growth in the demand for these services during the pandemic, but I am not so sure that restaurants have worked out how to manage the whole process, especially now that there are more people going out to eat in the actual restaurant.

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Open Steak Sandwich

Joined some colleagues for lunch. Went to the Portwall Tavern. Though close to the office, I had never actually been there before. We ordered at the bar and took a table outside. I went with the open steak sandwich.

Open Steak Sandwich

This was a slice of toasted ciabatta, sliced grilled steak, served with field mushroom, roasted red peppers, Stilton, Dijon mustard sauce and wedges. I asked for the wedges to be replaced with fries. Not sure if that was the best decision once the plates of food arrived, the wedges did look good.

The steak was cooked well, and the sauce was quite intense, the Stilton and mustard sauce was strong in flavour (and a little salty). However I did enjoy the food

A colleague of mine went with the California Veggie. This was (in her case) a gluten free ciabatta with avocado, goat’s cheese and vegetable pickles, served with potato wedges.

She said it was excellent.