Friday Evening Small Plates at Chin! Chin!

Chin! Chin! has been a fixture on St Michael's Hill for some time. Neighbours with Beerd, it offers up small plates of modern British cuisine. I am not the biggest fan of small plates, I often find them slightly underwhelming and unsatisfying. Spanish food is rich enough to warrant a tapas sized portion, when it comes to British cuisine small plates of veg or meat or fish often leave you wanting more. Not to mention the often lack of value for money for meat or fish most places offering up dishes at the £7-8 mark. 

The evening we went to Chin! Chin! last month was a cold one, I was glad to be welcomed in from the cold to a cosy restaurant with vintage decor and lots of twinkly lights. Jo turned up to join me at the table a few minutes later. I personally would remove a couple more of the tables as it did feel a little cramped on our table for two that was right in front of the toilet. The menu has some tasty sounding dishes on it separated out into 'from the farm' for meat dishes and 'from the sea' for fish ones. We went for some olives and nuts to go with our bottle of tempranillo whilst we decided what to choose. The wine was really wonderful went nicely with the toasted nuts, I personally found the olives a bit mushy for my taste.

After much deliberating we decided to opt for the slow roasted pork belly with rhubarb relish, spinach and chickpea falafels with harissa and yoghut, pheasant with pea shoots, roasted cauliflower, squash, spinach and toasted almond salad, salt and pepper squid, beetroot and goat cheese salad, and finally roast potatoes.

slow roasted pork belly

salt and pepper squid

beetroot and goat's cheese

roast potatoes

spinach and chickpea falafels

The menus are seasonal so they might differ to what I had on this particular visit. We were brought an amuse bouche of watercress and potato soup which was very smooth nothing mind blowing but it was tasty enough. The small plates started arriving not long after and soon our table was crammed with dishes. To start with the good points. The slow cooked pork belly was really great, it fell apart and the crackling was crunchy, possibly my favourite dish. The pheasant likewise was well seasoned and juicy, they know how to cook meat here. My squid was pretty tasty I particularly liked the dip it came with it was a little different. The roast potatoes were crunchy on the outside and nice and fluffy on the inside, which is what you want from roasties.

The hot vegetable salad dishes of roasted cauliflower, squash and spinach plus the beetroot and goat's cheese were fine. Not overly memorable but not bad either. My least favourite dish came in the form of the chickpea and spinach falafels. They were tasteless. The yoghurt and harissa couldn't do much to save them either, disappointing. We decided to share dessert of spiced plum crumble with cinnamon ice cream.

crumble

The crumble was pretty light and not too sweet. But I missed the stodgy proper crumble element, crumbles need that gooey, chewy bit between the fruit and the crunchy top. I left feeling a little underwhelmed by Chin! Chin! some of the dishes were tasty but mostly I found the menu a touch uninspiring. It certainly didn't change my perceptions on small plates. I know that Chin! Chin! is a favourite of many in Bristol I just personally didn't find it as good as I wanted it to be. To find out more about Chin! Chin! visit their website.

Chinese Roasties from Fresh

The other week Jamie and Boz had heartily recommended Fresh on St Michael's Hill especially for their Cantonese style roast meats. My curiosity was piqued and so last week Rich and I browsed the menu for possible order choices. Jamie had recommended the honey roast pork so that was immediately on our list, along with sweet and sour Cantonese style chicken, roast duck, beef and fresh ginger fried rice. I will point out now that this place is very popular so have some back up dishes in mind when you order because we originally wanted to try the crispy chili beef but this was either sold out or not being cooked on this particular day. After placing our order over the phone we waited ten or so minutes before heading off on the short walk to St Michael's Hill for collection, as no delivery option is available and we lived pretty close.

A tiny door way housing two little bench areas where you can eat in greeted us when we entered, this was pretty busy, full of students stocking up on tastes of home, plus they know a good deal when they see one. You can order the daily special and rice combo from £4 and the portions here are pretty generous you'd be crazy not to take them up on it, mind you it's not exactly expensive on the whole, no dish goes about £5.80.   Also Fresh is cash only but there is a cash point by the Co-Op on St Michael's Hill if you forget. Anyway we headed home with our delicious bag of food and salivated all the way there.

beef and ginger fried rice

honey roast pork slices on egg fried rice

My oh my, sweet heaven. This place knows good Chinese food, everything was superbly cooked and tasted amazing. The beef and ginger fried rice had huge chunks of tasty beef in it and the sweet and sour was easily the best I've ever had, you could detect fresh little hints of zingy orange flavour in it and it really emphasised the home made quality of this dish.  The honey roasted pork was probably my favourite although with the sweet and sour it was a tough battle between the two. The pork was juicy with an incredible flavour I should have just ordered double amounts.

So should you try Fresh? Absolutely, prices are great, food is even better, a great little discovery that I am rather excited about trying again. Probably my new favourite Chinese takeaway, even though you can quickly refuel inside if you are in a need of a fix,  in Bristol, although if you need more choice, head to Aroma, my other top pick.  To check out what Fresh has to offer check out their website. 

A Trip to Cyprus with Cyprus Kebab House

The other week Rich and I discovered a secret little gem of a restaurant and in some ways I am loathed to tell you anything about it because I want it to remain a secret to those in the know. However because I am not an unkind being I have selfishly decided to share my findings with you.  So Rich has been going through a bit of a Greek food phase and after a little searching we tracked down the Cyprus Kebab House at the bottom of St Michael's Hill.  A kebab house? I hear you cry, yes that's right, a kebab house, well kind of. As you walk through the door you are greeted by the standard kebab house set up, however at the end of the counter there are a set of velvet curtains and if you walk through those you find yourselves in a little cosy restaurant. 

It is pretty dark inside with lots of candles dotted about and a love letter to Cyprus in the paintings on the wall. It may look a little rough round the edges in terms of decor but I felt that it only added to the restaurant's allure and we both started to feel as if we were miles away from Bristol having a meal out whilst on holiday. 

Greek wine

We decided to share two small starters of halloumi and hummus to begin with whilst opting for the classic kleftiko and the mixed kebab for our mains.  A lovely older couple run the restaurant and the service was friendly yet quiet, all in all really rather charmingly old school I liked it.  The starters didn't take too long to make an appearance and in tandem with a rather large basket of warm pitta breads. A tasty hummus and some perfectly grilled halloumi, not massive portions but enough to wet our appetite for the main courses.

kleftiko

mixed kebab

salad to share

As you can see from the photos the mains were gigantic. If you do not have a big appetite then there isn't much point in coming here my kleftiko was a whole juicy lamb shank which fell off the bone beautifully and was very well seasoned.  I gave it my best shot but even I had a potato and a bit of lamb left over by the end it was a monster of a main. Rich's mixed kebab was also glorious the home made spicy sausage and minced pork kebabs being the highlights but again he was beaten by his main.  All mains are around the £10 mark which I think is astounding value for money. Stupidly we decided to go for a pudding as well,  despite being stuffed we picked the baklava and a rum cake. The desserts were alright but nothing astounding so if you feel tempted but are too full you're not missing the best dessert on the planet.

The Cyprus Kebab House was a genuine delight it was such surprisingly good food that we can't wait to return, although it did take us two days to recover from all that food. There was only one other occupied table when we went on a Thursday evening but I have heard that the weekends get pretty busy. So now that I have shared that secret check it out, but try not to tell everyone all at once!