Tag: bristol

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Bento Box Time

It’s been a while since I have had a Bento Box from See Sells Sushi, but as it was Friday, and the Finzle Reach market was on, I headed off in the heavy rain to see what was around, but thinking I would probably have the Bento Box.

It was raining quite heavily, I did think earlier in the day that the market might be cancelled because of the rain and wind. However, it was open, though the weather did mean it wasn’t very busy. There was though still a queue for the See Sells Sushi stall. I did have a look around to see what was around. In the end, I went back and queued up for my Bento Box.

I had my usual choice of been donburi and crispy chicken hirata bun. Service was quick and friendly.

The beef was as usual, excellent. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and spring onions.

I’ve always enjoyed the hirata buns from the stall, this crispy chicken hirata bun was tasty. It was a charcoal bao bun with two pieces of crispy chicken, lettuce, pickles and sauce.

Overall a delicious box of food, which I really enjoyed.

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Not my first choice

Heading to Finzel Reach street food market in Bristol for lunch, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to have. I did see that King Fin has their calamari, which I had enjoyed the other day. However first I walked down the market to see what was on offer. Decided I would go with the calamari, only to find when I got back to the King Fin stall they had sold out of the calamari.

Though I hadn’t been totally impressed with the soft shell crab burger when I had it before, I went with it this time.

The burger was a soft brioche bun with a deep fried soft shell crab, and a coleslaw. I added a side order of rosemary chips as well.

The twice cooked rosemary fries with sauce were very tasty, and crispy.

The burger was as I was expecting. The bun was lovely and soft, and the spicy coleslaw added heat and freshness. The deep fried soft shell crab was crispy, but didn’t have the crab taste intensity I would really like to see in this dish. I also felt the crab got lost in the spicy coleslaw as well. However, as I was expecting the food to be like this, I wasn’t really that disappointed.

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Time for some calamari

Castle View, Bristol

I was working in Bristol and went for a walk at lunchtime.

I wasn’t really thinking about getting some lunch, but knew that I was out that evening, so might be a good idea to have a bigger lunch. I had brought a packed lunch, but did think that I might get a portion of something to add to it.

I decided to head to the Finzel Reach. There I wasn’t sure if I wanted anything, or what to have. In the end I got some calamari from King Fin. I’ve had some lovely food from King Fin in the past.

This time I got it without fries, you can add fries for another three pounds to make it a more substantial dish.

This was a decent portion of calamari. It was served with a chunk of lemon, garlic aioli, and some slaw. 

calamari

It had been cooked to order, so was lovely and fresh. The coating was nice and crispy, the squid was tasty and tender. I liked the slaw, could have had more of that to be honest.

I think my only real criticism was that there was slightly too much added salt for my liking. I think in the future I will ask for no salt, and then add my own.

Overall I really enjoyed the food and it was excellent again.

 

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Chicken Schnitzel

We made our way to Bristol for a meal, and as we had enjoyed our last visit to the Coal Kitchen, we headed there again.

They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu again, but planned to have something different for my starter and my main course. This time for my starter I had the Beef Koftas. For my main course I looked over the menu. I had the minute steak, this time I wanted something different. I decided I didn’t want a wrap or a burger. I did think about the Caesar salad, but there was a £4.50 supplement to add halloumi. In the end I went with the Chicken Schnitzel. This was a chicken breast in golden crispy breadcrumbs, fried egg, and salad. I recently had a chicken schnitzel at Drayton Court which was a little dry, so was slightly hesitant, but in the end I did plump for the chicken.

The dish arrived, the chicken, was a chicken breast in golden crispy breadcrumbs. This was served on top of a salad which consisted of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and red onion. On top of the chicken was a fried egg.

chicken schnitzel

The chicken schnitzel was a lot better than the last one I had, the chicken was still moist and tender, the breadcrumb coating was crispy and golden. The salad was nice and fresh. The fried egg was a nice addition. I quite like having a freshly cooked egg with a salad. I remember once watching a cooking programme where the chef had placed a freshly poached duck egg on top of a salad.

I did enjoy this plate of food. The waiter had asked if I wanted fries with my food, I think if I was just having a main course, then you might want some fries with it. However having had a starter I decided not to have the fries. I don’t think it needed the fries.

The service was friendly and warm. 

We enjoyed our meal and it certainly was a place I would visit again.

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Beef Koftas

We made our way to Bristol for a meal, and as we had enjoyed our last visit to the Coal Kitchen, we headed there again.

They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu again, but planned to have something different for my starter and my main course.

This time for my starter I had the Beef Koftas – four beef koftas, spicy tomato and red pepper sauce, fresh mint, toasted ciabatta.

Beef Koftas

This was a nice sized starter. The tomato sauce was rich and complimented the beef. The beef koftas were nice, not as tender as I think they could have been. The toasted ciabatta added some nice texture to the dish, I probably could have done with a third piece.

I liked the dish. 

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Chicken Souvlaki Wrap

I was working in Bristol and headed to the Temple Quay Market. I spent time procrastinating about what to have. It was a Tuesday so there was less stalls than there is on the Thursdays. I did think about Korean fried chicken. I then thought about a Vietnamese rice bowl. In the end I went to The Street Taverna and had a chicken souvlaki wrap.

They had barbecued chicken thighs served in a Greek flat bread, with red onion, yoghurt, and chips.

chicken wrap

The chicken was tasty and tender, the chips were nice and crispy. I also enjoyed the flat bread as well. Not sure if the chips added anything to the wrap.

Having said that though I liked the wrap, I think if I wanted a chicken wrap in the future I would head to Matina at the St Nicholas Market. Though they don’t have chips in their wraps, they have a better range of salads.

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Time for Tau Yew Bak 

I was in Bristol and popped down to the Finzel Reach street food market. Though I do visit other street food markets, the Bristol scene as one of my favourites. My personal challenge though when visiting is that I usually default to stalls I’ve been to before, and don’t necessarily try something new. So on this visit, I was going to go to King Fin, however they had sold out of their calamari, even so I was tempted by their soft shell crab burger. I then thought, there are lots of stalls that I’ve not tried before, so lets try something new. 

So I looked around and I decided to try out the Fat Rice stall which sells Malaysian comfort food.

Fat Rice stall

There were three choices on the menu, a beef rendang, kunyit chicken, and tau yew bak. I went with the tau yew bak. This was pork belly slow-cooked in soy sauce and spices. Served with basmati rice, fried onions and pickled salad.

pork belly slow-cooked in soy sauce and spices. Served with basmati rice, fried onions and pickled salad

This was a good sized meal and there was a decent portion of the main part of the dish, the pork belly. Sometimes I have found that you order a dish and the amount of the *star* of the dish makes you feel like you’ve been short-changed. 

The pork itself was nice and tender and full of flavour. I liked the chilli sauce that was served with the pork. The salad added zing to the dish and the rice was nice. Overall a delicious bowl of food.

The service was efficient and friendly. Thought it was interesting there was no vegetarian (or vegan) options. I certainly think I would visit the stall again and try out some of their other options.

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Minute Steak and Fries

We headed to Cabot Circus to have a celebration meal. The place that was chosen was the Coal Kitchen.

Though it took me a while to work it out, the last time I had been to Coal, was over ten years ago, in January 2013, when it was called Coal Bar and Grill and I had a burger.

It is now called the Coal Kitchen. We had booked, but were still given a choice of tables. They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu and started with the chicken tacos.

This was followed by the Steak Frites from the set menu.

Minute Steak and Fries

A 5oz minute steak served pink, garlic butter, with skin on fries.

The steak was cooked well and was pink. The garlic butter was quite strong, but complemented the steak. The fries were nice and crispy.

I finished the meal off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and an espresso. The ice cream was nice, the coffee, not so much.

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These weren’t the tacos I was expecting

We headed to Cabot Circus to have a celebration meal. The place that was chosen was the Coal Kitchen.

Though it took me a while to work it out, the last time I had been to Coal, was over ten years ago, in January 2013, when it was called Coal Bar and Grill and I had a burger.

It is now called the Coal Kitchen. We had booked, but were still given a choice of tables. They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu and started with the chicken tacos.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

This description from the set menu shows what it was supposed to be, two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt.

However not sure where the tomato, chilli and yoghurt went, I certainly didn’t have any on my tacos.

As a result they were a little dry, but I did still quite enjoy them. 

Obviously they took the menu away after we ordered, so didn’t realise until I was posting a photograph of my food to the Instagram and copying the description, that I realised three components of the dish were missing. If I had known I would have probably asked about it.

Checking the Coal Chicken Instagram feed they actually had a photograph of the dish from the (new) set menu.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

Well mine certainly did not look like that!

I do find it frustrating when restaurants (usually) chains, don’t follow the recipe for their dishes, resulting in this kind of experience. Had a similar experience with a hotel in Salford.

The real result is that it puts me off going back to the restaurant again. It had been ten years since I last went to Coal, it might be sometime before I head there again for something to eat.

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Illy Cortado

I had enjoyed the Capo Triestino I had had at the Illy Cafe up in Clifton. So on a recent visit to the area, I visited the Illy Cafe and this time I ordered a Cortado.

It probably wasn’t a Cortado, as this is a Spanish drink, and it wasn’t on the menu, when I looked. However the staff said they could make a Cortado. I took a seat and they brought the coffee over to my table.

Cortado

It was a very nice coffee.