food, reviews and of course coffee
One of our regular haunts, Zizzi at Cabot Circus has been closed for refurbishment. I got an e-mail this morning that they have finished their refurbishment and have re-opened.
When I was in Bristol last week I looked in and the main difference was the addition of booths and changes in furniture. The layout wasn’t too different.
We will probably now visit again in 2022, once restrictions have eased.
It was a Monday and I was in Bristol looking for a place to eat. I had planned to visit The Real Greek, but they were full and had no free tables. I then decided to head over to the St Nicholas Market Glass Arcade, there would be plenty of choice there. I was thinking that Portuguese Tastes would be an option. As it was late I knew that Low and Slow would have virtually sold out (they had).
Alas Portuguese Tastes was closed, though on the other side of the market was the (new) Spanish place, La Lola
La Lola has taken over the stall, Pure Pasta, an Italian pasta place. Despite my many visits to St Nicholas Market Glass Arcade over the years, I never actually ever managed to get lunch from Pure Pasta. I had seen them fitting out the La Lola stall a few weeks back and liked the look of the menu, but had forgotten to check them out when they opened.
La Lola have quite a limited menu, which I actually think is a good thing. Two variations of paella, eggs with chorizo or ham, and what I liked the sound of, crispy squid.
Waiting to be served was a little slow, as the couple in front of me were having a long chat (in Spanish) with the member of staff. You know me I hate queuing. However it was getting late for lunch, I was hungry and I did like the sound of the menu. Eventually I was served, maybe I was a little inpatient, I asked for the squid and wanted to eat in.
They have a couple of tables and some benches. One of the tables was free so I took that one.
It wasn’t long before my food arrived.
In a cardboard carton.
I kind of expected and hoped that it would come on a plate. Portuguese Tastes, Caribbean Wrap and The Moorish Cafe all serve their “eating in” food on plates. I was a little disappointed, I think my expectations that there would be plates was based on the display at the front of the stall which showed the (actual) dishes available served on plates.
The squid was served with “chipped” potatoes, salad and aioli.
The squid was freshly cooked, nice crisp batter, tender squid and was delicious, served with a slice of lemon. I really enjoyed the squid and it was certainly what I was expecting. The “chips” were also really good, they used fresh potatoes, I saw them peeling and cutting them up. They were more like thick crisps, as they had cut the potatoes into slices (and cut the bigger slices in half). Again cooked to order. The aioli was light with a good taste of garlic. The only part of the dish I was disappointed with was the salad. Shredded iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato, grated carrot and sweetcorn. All nice and refreshing, however no flavour. I did think that this part of the dish let the rest of the plate (sorry carton) down. I think something like a Pipirrana salad would have been nice. Pipirrana is based on four ingredients: tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumber, dressed with olive oil, vinegar and garlic. Now that would have been a nice Spanish option.
Apart from the salad the dish was excellent. Service (well apart from the slow start) was great, warm, friendly. The chef checked I was happy with my meal for example.
Overall I really did enjoy the food and I look forward to returning to try out the paella, or the eggs. Hmmm choices.
There are a fair few places you can grab a coffee at when visiting the Mall at Cribbs Causeway. I have been to fair few of them (well would you expect anything less). Back in May we were shopping at the Mall and decided to stop for coffee. Bakers and Barista wasn’t busy so we went there and had a flat white and a muffin.
The muffin was just okay (not enough raspberries in it) and the coffee was nice.
There was a good range of food when we visited. Not a bad place to have a coffee and they have real china cups as well.
…but I don’t always blog about them, nor do they always go on Instagram!
Usually it’s time, but sometimes it’s because the food wasn’t very good.
Back in July I went to Taka Taka. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was hungry and the concept did seem interesting. I do like Greek food and have enjoyed the meals I have had from The Real Greek chain.
I looked at the menu and went with the Mix Meat Meze.
A freshly grilled mix of gyros, pork, lamb, chicken souvlaki, and sausage. Served with fries, pita bread, tzatziki, and authentic Greek Salad.
I went to Queens Square to eat, I opened the box. There were fries, three skewers of meat, sausage, tubs of tzatziki, and Greek Salad, as well as some warm pita bread. I was a little disappointed that there was no mix of gyros, I did consider going back and complaining, but was running out of time, and I was hungry.
It wasn’t very good. The meat was dry and chewy. I think it had been cooked and then stored. There is a (big) difference between freshly grilled kebabs and those that have been done and then stored in a warmer. There wasn’t really enough salad and the lack of gyros, was disappointing.
I haven’t been back!
Back in July we went out to eat for a family celebration. We went to Bella Italia at Cribbs Causeway, having quite enjoyed our last visit there in June. The fact they do some good gluten free dishes was also a factor in us choosing it.
We had a lovely warm welcome from the staff and they showed us to our table. We had a good look over the menu.
I had a starter, it was the Tomino con Parma. This was soft Italian cheese wrapped with prosciutto ham and fresh sage, baked in the oven and served with pasta fritti. I hadn’t seen a picture and was a little surprised by what I got.
Having said that, it was an interesting starter, but I really didn’t think much of it, and I wouldn’t have it again.
For my main course I went with the Salsiccia Broccoli Pizza, this was pizza with Basilicata sausage, tenderstem broccoli, red chilli & garlic topped with mozzarella and pecorino cheese on a creamy mascarpone base with a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
What I liked about the pizza was that this was quite different to regular pizza, the addition of broccoli and a white base was really nice. I liked the different cheeses as well. It was tasty, but for me there was a little too much chilli on the pizza.
Overall I have been impressed with my most recent visits to Bella Italia. The food has been more interesting, better quality and the service we have had, has been excellent. Well impressed.
I was working in Bristol on a Thursday again, which meant that for lunch I could visit the Temple Quay Market. Having been off work for a while it was nice to be back in Bristol and having the opportunity to get some tasty street food.
My introduction to King Fin was back in the summer of 2019 on a visit to the Finzel Reach Market.
King Fin who sell fish wraps and chips, they also do specials, and the one they were selling this time was calamari once more. I did think about getting the mackerel wrap, but in the end defaulted as one does to the calamari.
The squid rings were coated in a flour mix and then deep fried. They were served with aioli, some salad and rosemary fries.
This was quite a substantial meal not just a snack. I really like this dish and I found it just as tasty as on previous occasions. There was quite a decent portion of squid. It was quite tasty, you could certainly taste the difference with the fact they cooked the squid from fresh, rather than heating up or second cooking pre-cooked squid.
The food was absolutely delicious.
The title of this blog post really doesn’t do justice to the plate of food I bought from Kabylia at the Finzel Street Food market.
I was going to our office in Bristol more over the summer and one Wednesday in August I once more found myself in Bristol.
I popped out for a walk at lunchtime and it was nice to see the St Nicholas market bustling with people after seeing it a few months ago quite empty.
There were huge queues for Matina, Low & Slow, and the felafel place. I didn’t feel like queuing so I left the market and I popped to Finzel Reach market to see what was on sale.
There weren’t as many stalls as there was pre-pandemic and it isn’t as busy as it was on Fridays/
I decided to try Kabylia, the Algerian street food stand.
Kabylia is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria. The Kabyle people are indigenous to Kabylia and speak the language known as Amazigh.
I had some Merguez sausages with a feta and pepper pickle, salad and flat bread. The sausages were reheated to order, placed on flat bread and then the salads were added.
Took it back to the office it was rather nice. The pickle was tasty, the salad was lovely and I enjoyed the flat bread. The Merguez sausages were a little soft, I prefer a meatier sausage and these weren’t quite to my liking, though they did taste right. Overall though it was a lovely plate of food which I did enjoy eating.
Overall I did enjoy something I wouldn’t have normally chosen.
As a child I would often eat cheese on toast, these days not so much. Back then we even had a Breville sandwich toaster, which was a bit of a fad in the 1980s, but you can still buy them today.
I remember when a panini was something you would only find in Italy, then they were available everywhere.
These days I will avoid having sandwiches for lunch, and I can’t remember the last time I had a panini. One thing I have had a few times are toasted sandwiches, usually cheese and mushroom.
The other day we were up at the Mall and I needed a break to rest, so we decided to get some coffee and a quick snack. We eventually decided on the Soho Coffee Company, not one of my first choices for coffee, but it wasn’t too crowded. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to eat, I didn’t really want a cake, nor did I want a sandwich, so in the end I chose the mushroom & swiss cheese sourdough toastie. This was described as roasted mushrooms with garlic & black pepper. Swiss cheese & SOHO toastie sauce. Topped with even more Swiss cheese for extra ooziness! Though when it arrived I think the topping of Swiss cheese had been missed off. Still it was rather nice, crunchy bread, melted cheese and nice mushrooms.
So at home and wanting some lunch, I did think about what I wanted and I thought to myself I might create my own grilled cheese toastie.
I had some M&S San Francisco sourdough bread, which I added some butter to the inside, a slice of Gouda (I had no Swiss cheese), some grated cheddar cheese and a slice of Serrano ham.
In a frying pan I added some olive oil and some butter and once the butter was melted I added the (what was then) sourdough sandwich. I put a lid on the frying pan, so that the heat would be retained and melt the cheese. I then removed the lid so that the final part of cooking would crisp up the bread.
This was then put on a plate and served. The bread was lovely and crunchy on the outside, but still soft on the inside. The cheese had melted and was oozing out of the sandwich and the ham added an element of saltiness.
It was really nice, so much so I did think about making myself another one, but I resisted temptation.
It was September and we had spent the day in Bristol and having missed lunch we went to Zizzi in Cabot Circus, one of our regular haunts as they do a really nice gluten free pizza.
Though the place looked empty, they initially said that they were full (well all the tables were reserved). However as we arrived in mid-afternoon, if we were there for just an hour then we could have a table. We only wanted a main course, so decided that was okay.
I am guessing that though there were plenty of free tables, the challenge was more of a staffing issue than a seating problem.
We looked over the menu and I did quite fancy a pizza. I wasn’t sure what kind of pizza I wanted and there were a fair few choices.
In the end I chose the simple Rustica Margherita.
Sometimes I quite like simplistic dishes. In this case I really enjoyed the pizza, it was cooked well, the base was nice, crispy with some doughy parts. The tomato sauce was nice as was the mozzarella.
The service was efficient and we all enjoyed our food.
It was a warm sunny day in August when I found myself with some colleagues at the Harbour House for a leaving do.
I was a little later than planned as I was trying to find somewhere to park. The party I was with were sitting outside on the decking in the sun.
Having looked online for the menu, I did quite fancy the Barnsley Chop, but this was not on the paper menu we had been given.
So in the end I decided against the steak or fish and went with the pork chop.
The grilled pork chop was served with French fries and a light green salad.
The chop was cooked well and was full of flavour and very tender.
For my second course I went with the cheese, I do like cheese and biscuits.
Personally I would have liked more cheese and less grapes. There were only oatcakes and these are my least favourite biscuits when it comes to cheese and biscuits. I did however enjoy the chutney that came alongside.
Overall it was a very nice meal and I enjoyed eating outside.