Tag: king fin

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Calamari and Fries from King Fin

calamari

I was working in Bristol and popped out to the Finzel Reach street food market for some lunch. One of my favourites, King Fin was there, so I went for one of my regular dishes, the calamari and fries.

King Fin is a consistently excellent street food stall, a true highlight of the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach markets. Their unwavering commitment to freshness and quality is what keeps me coming back—they’re easily one of my favourite stalls.

The food here is prepared to order, so you know it’s fresh. The calamari is a standout—the squid is incredibly tender, while the batter is perfectly light and crisp. It’s a truly delicious dish. The fries are twice-cooked and seasoned with rosemary, served with a tasty sauce. A small portion of coleslaw accompanies the meal.

I find myself drawn back to this dish again and again. While I always promise to try new things, it’s no surprise when I return to one of my favourites.

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King Fin Calamari and Fries

King Fin, a consistently excellent street food stall, is a highlight of both the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach markets. Their commitment to freshness and quality makes them one of my absolute favourites.

I nearly always go for my usual order: the calamari and fries.

It’s a dish that perfectly showcases their dedication to preparing everything to order. You can tell the moment you receive it that it’s incredibly fresh. The squid itself is remarkably soft and tender, encased in a light, crispy batter that’s never greasy – simply delicious.

The fries are equally impressive. They’re twice-cooked, resulting in a perfect balance of crispy exterior and fluffy interior, and beautifully seasoned with rosemary. A delicious sauce accompanies them, adding another layer of flavour. To cut through the richness, there’s also a small, refreshing portion of slaw on the side.

Every element comes together to create a truly delicious and satisfying meal. If you ever spot King Fin, I highly recommend giving them a try!

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Calamari and Fries

One of my favourite street food stalls is King Fin, who are a regular at the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach street food markets. I noted that they had missed a few markets when they were advertised to turn up. So, when I was in Bristol one Wednesday and visited the Finzel Reach street food market I was pleased to see that King Fin were there. So, I went with one of my regular orders, which is the calamari and fries.

Calamari and Fries

I love how they are cooked to order, you know these are fresh. The squid is so soft and tender, the batter is light and crispy. Delicious. The fries were twice cooked and seasoned with rosemary and a tasty sauce. Alongside was a small portion of slaw.

I really like this dish, and even though I promise myself to try new places and dishes, I am not too surprised when I I revert to one of my favourite dishes.

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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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Haddock Goujons

It was a grey Wednesday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Finzel Reach street food market to get some lunch. It wasn’t as busy as it can be, so the queues were shorter.

Across the Bristol street food market, one stall stands out as being slightly different and that is King Fin, which sells freshly cooked seafood.

street food stall

Over my many visits to King Fin I have enjoyed many different kinds of fish dishes. My usual and my favourite has to be the calamari. I also enjoyed the monkfish tempura when I had that last year. The soft shell crab burger was a great concept, but I do feel it lacked the intense crab flavour I would like from it. I was though less impressed with the fritto misto I had back in 2022.

One of their offerings I have never tried is their fish wrap with fries. This week it was haddock goujons with pea puree, tartare sauce, lettuce, in a wrap with double cooked fries and house sauce. Other times they have had cod goujons on the board.

As they messed up someone else’s order (who didn’t want tartare sauce) I got my food quite quickly.

wrap and chips

As the fish was wrapped the photographs doesn’t really do the food justice. The haddock was cooked well, and I liked the crispy coating. The pea puree was quite rough, but I liked that it added texture and taste. The double cooked fries were a little limp, with double cooking fries, I like them to be crisp on the outside and fluffy in the inside.

Overall though it was a delicious dish, which I really enjoyed,  and would certainly have again.

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Calamari and Fries

I was in Bristol and on my lunchtime walk I headed off to the Finzel Reach street food market. There were lots of stalls to choose from, I got a portion of calamari from King Fin along with some rosemary fries. The calamari (as usual) was cooked fresh to order.

calamari

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. The fries were tasty as well.

Last time I said “Must remember next time to ask for less salt though.”  This time I did remember to ask for less salt, they did say that the batter for the calamari has salt in, but it was only the extra salt I wanted to avoid. I was pleased I did, as the calamari was well seasoned and didn’t really need extra salt.

I enjoyed my food and would certainly get it again in the future.

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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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Monkfish Tempura

I was in Bristol and went for a walk at lunchtime. Went to the Finzel Reach market intending to have something from Big Nath’s BBQ stall, but they weren’t there, so went to King Fin instead. 

Was torn between the calamari and the new monkfish tempura. Whatever I chose I was going to have chips anyhow. In the end I went without the chips and went with both the monkfish and the calamari.

The calamari was excellent as usual (maybe a little too salty), but they were cooked to order, so the squid was nice and tender, and the coating was nice and crispy. The and cider vinegar slaw was a nice accompaniment.

The special, monkfish tempura was new to me. 

The pieces of monkfish were deep fried in a tempura batter, and served with a lime and coriander yoghurt, tamarind, crispy sweet shallots and curry leaves.

The monkfish was cooked perfectly, and the batter (on top) was nice and crisp. Alas by the time I got back from the market to the office, the batter on the underside of the fish had got a little soggy from the yoghurt. I think if I had eaten the dish as soon as I was served it, it would have been fine. If I was to offer one piece of advice, I would probably say serve the yoghurt on the side, rather than on the bottom of the box. Or have something to separate the crispy fish from the yoghurt. Even so I liked the lime and coriander yoghurt which added a sharpness to the fish. I also enjoyed the tamarind, crispy sweet shallots and curry leaves.

Overall it was a little extravagant to have two mains, and no fries, however I really enjoyed having the calamari instead of fries.

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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.