A Thursday Evening at Be in Bristol

Well I have been officially married two weeks now, it was such a beautiful day. I shall be blogging on wedding and minimoon food at some point, but first  before the big day Jane and I decided to catch up over dinner and picked Be in Bristol on Whiteladies Road to try.  Be in Bristol used to be a bar called The Ranch, which closed a long time before someone decided to re-open it as the aforementioned. Be in Bristol had a huge floor space to fill which is no mean feat, they have decided to entice people in with live music, jumble sales and a very reasonable food menu. 

The menu is fairly small but large enough to give you a bit of choice standard burgers, the ubiquitous pulled pork but also mussels and local fish dishes. They pride themselves on locally sourced food, which is mentioned in the menu where possible, which is a nice touch. I scanned the menu and my eye was caught by the roasted butternut squash and goat's cheese pancake stack with dressed salad leaves, whilst Jane went for the fish of the day, which was coley served with samphire, new potatoes and leaves. I also decided to order us a side order of onion rings to share.

pancakes with butternut squash and goats cheese

coley with buttered samphire

so many onion rings

Firstly the portions here are very generous, no main exceeds £8 which is great value. Jane was clearly the winner with her choice, the fish was perfectly cooked with a nice crispy skin and the samphire was actually her favourite part, the saltiness of the capers worked very well. Mine I felt a bit mixed about. The seasoning and flavour of the butternut squash and goats cheese was really nice as were the crispy new potatoes and vegetables. The main gripe was the thickness of the pancakes it certainly wasn't a stack as I had imagined and definitely needed to embrace the French style crepe because this way was too stodgy.

Despite my slight disappointment I was spurred on by how great the onion rings were, seriously some of the best I've ever had. A really well seasoned batter and plenty of them. The only thing I would change is the sweet chili dip that comes with them, it is too thick and too sweet to go with onion rings of such superbness. I definitely will be returning to Be in Bristol because it did shine on a number of things, especially value for money, I would definitely recommend them changing the pancake dish I had though as it was a shame that the texture outweighed the flavours.

Luckily Be in Bristol are also putting on a lot of live music nights, most nights you can find jazz, blues or funk styles floating out of their doors which is a nice extra. If you want to find out more about the events they are putting on or just a look at the menu check out their website.

A Tuesday Catch Up Lunch at Bagel Boy

My first foray into Bagel Boy, came about two weeks ago with Jayne, one of my regular lunch dates, but I also went with Rich last week, as he is a fan of all things bagel. Firstly Bagel Boy, on St Nicholas Street, has a lot of choice, which means fussy people won't be left hungry but indecisive ones might have a breakdown at having so much to choose from.  I had been strongly recommended by several Twitter followers that I go for the salt beef bagel so on my first visit I ordered the Big Apple Boy, pastrami, salt beef, Swiss cheese, gherkins, rocket and mustard. Jayne chose the Turbo Boy, roasted butternut squash, feta, tomato, leaves and chili mayonnaise. 

just some of the menu

Turbo Boy

Big Apple Boy

Big bite out of the Big Apple

My oh my the actual bagels were probably the best I've tasted, doughy without being dry or heavy.  I think the trick to ordering here is to get the right filling, as not all fillings are created equal it would seem. Jayne's Turbo Boy suffered from under cooked butternut squash slices but the chili mayonnaise was delicious.  I however lucked out with my Big Apple Boy. Generously filled with salt beef and pastrami the richness was perfectly complimented by the sharp but sweet mustard and pickles, having sampled the Caesar Boy the week after I can definitely recommend you sticking with the classic New York combinations that were born to grace bagels. Caesar was really nice but it wasn't as stunning as the salt beef, Twitter followers you were not wrong.

Caesar Boy

Rich also sampled some fries to go with his Big Apple Boy when we went and these also need work as they were a little anemic and limp. All in all I was pretty impressed with Bagel Boy, when they get it right it is stupendous, a carby hug in a sandwich, they just need to work on a few elements so everything is as good as everything else. I personally am looking forward to my next hit of salt beef.  To find out a little more about Bagel Boy visit their website.