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.

Time for some Gurt Wings

Gurt Wings have been a regular on the Bristol street food scene for many years now. However until now I’ve never had a chance to try their food out. Normally I miss out as they always have a huge queue. However on this day it was a little shorter than usual, so I joined the queue. You can choose between wings, chicken strips, or squeaky cheese.

For a street food stall they have quite an extensive menu and variations. 

I went for a large Satay Wings Meal with Tater Tots. You order your food and then wait until your number is called.

This was quite a substantial box of food. I got five wings, a portion of tater tots, and sauces. It looked great.

The chicken was moist with a crispy coating. The sauce was nice and I liked the addition of chopped peanuts. These were tasty wings and sauces. Lush.

Time for some Tapas at the Brunello

We were out and about in Weston last April. Feeling peckish, we decided to head to the Brunello Lounge for a bite to eat. I did the tapas deal for three tapas dishes. They have a nice range of tapas dishes, I think they would work well if you spending an evening in the Lounge drinking (and chatting). They also work well for a light lunch.

I went with the hummus, crispy squid, and some chicken wings. The hummus was my favourite of the three little plates of food.

plate of hummus

This was a nicely presented dish, the garnishes enhancing the hummus. I liked the flavours and there was enough flatbread to go with it.

The crispy squid was a little overcooked for my liking. 

crispy squid with a wedge of lemon

The coating was a little too crispy, more like crunchy.

I liked the chicken wings, but I wanted more of them.

chicken wings

Overall I enjoyed the three dishes, it was a nice snack for lunch.

Time for some wings

I was looking through some photographs of food, and realised that in April when I was up in Leeds I had a few meals which I hadn’t blogged about.

Sometimes I write up the dining experiences I have on the same day, in the same week, or quite soon after that. Now and then I have food and then never get around to writing a blog post about it.

In April I was at a conference and was staying in the heart of Leeds. The previous night I had visited Rosa’s Thai and was looking for something different.

I had back in 2020 an excellent experience at Reds in Leeds, though that was further out than I wanted to walk, I wondered if there was a similar place in the heart of Leeds. I was pleased to see that there was a branch of Reds. I looked at the menu online and saw they had some deals. You had to book though. After booking I headed out to the branch.

I arrived and took my place at the table and looked over the menu. I went with the Wednesday Wings deal. I believe it may have changed since I was there in April, but this was ten wings for £3.  I was told I needed to have pre-booked. I had, so I said I had, so I was  allowed to have it. I had a drink and waited for my food.

I was expecting whole wings, mine weren’t whole wings.

The wings were nothing special, and for the main part of my meal I was a little disappointed. As they were small, there was very little meat on them. Flavour wise they were okay.

Alongside I had some sides of burnt ends, mac and cheese and onion rings.

The onion rings were supplemented with some fries.

The mac and cheese was nice, whilst the burnt ends were very tasty.

I had quite high expectations about this meal, but the reality of what I had meant that I was a little disappointed, even though the food itself was just okay.

Tapas at Brunello

We went for lunch in Weston and decided to head to the Brunello Lounge.

We weren’t really that hungry, so decided against a full size main course, and we ordered three tapas dishes, some fries and onion rings. Service was quick and efficient, which is always nice when you don’t have a huge amount of time for lunch.

We had some chicken wings, the salt & pepper squid, and the hummus.

The chicken wings were fried crispy chicken wings, which had been coated in a sticky sauce and dressed with sesame seeds.

For me the chicken was overcooked. Probably a result of being cooked twice more than anything else. I do like chicken wings, but these weren’t my favourite.

The squid was nice and crispy and there was a large dollop of aioli in the middle.

My favourite of the trio of dishes was the hummus. This was beautifully presented little dish of hummus with fried chickpeas, chilli and parsley. This was served with some flatbread.

The fries were nice and crispy, as was the batter on the onion rings.

Overall a nice snack for a quick lunch.

Well, what can I say?

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had had some excellent meals, delicious food, well presented and very tasty.

So when I ordered a starter of Sweet Vietnamese Chicken Wings I had quite high expectations.

The bowl arrived promptly and I did think they looked good.

These were crunchy coated chicken wings in a sweet chilli sauce dressed with sesame seeds.

However, I was in the end quite disappointed. They weren’t quite what I was expecting. They tasted overcooked and as you might expect the sweet chilli sauce was a little overpowering. There wasn’t too much of a crunch either. Whereas with most meals I’ve at Drayton Court Hotel I would order them again, the chicken wings, I wouldn’t.