Monday Lunch at The Christmas Steps

Last Monday, in between hospital appointments, Rich and I decided to grab a long lunch and meet up with Bud.  I thought that the newly opened Christmas Steps pub, formerly The Three Sugar Loaves, might be a great place to try out as it was pretty close by.  We walked in just after 1pm and it was deserted I wondered if I had made a mistake thinking it was open on a Monday, but after walking up to the second bar I spotted a lone barmaid. 

They really have done a number on this pub, much lighter, smarter interior with more exposed brick work makes it the place a lot more welcoming.  As all the tables were empty we chose one near the bar and peeped at the menu, which gives the impression that it changes daily which is somewhat uncommon but pleasing for a pub.

Rich and I decided to go for one of their enticing sounding sandwiches, who can resist Mark's Bread? I chose the roasted pork loin whilst Rich picked the roast beef rib and Bud, the lamb burger.  We also ordered a portion of chips each because no one really wants to share chips do they? Like I said previously there was no one else in the pub, yet we waited over half an hour for our food to arrive which was very strange. Once it arrived however we were ravenous so dived on it immediately. I have to say I was pretty impressed.

pork loin sour dough stack

pork loin

huge bowl of chips

My sandwich was pretty delicious the pork had a nice flavour and it was good to have some crackling in there to add an extra porky hit. My only gripe was that I don't think it needed apple sauce and raw slices of apple as it made it a little too overpowering but over all it was a tasty sandwich, excellent quality for £5. The side salad was however a bit slimy and needs work to make it a bit fresher.  Chips were chunky and triple cooked, as is the in vogue way, I couldn't quite finish all mine, luckily there were willing recipients of the leftovers.  Rich was rather pleased with the beef as it was fairly pink still and there was plenty over it, plus can you really go wrong with the marriage of beef and mustard?

In conclusion The Christmas Steps does some pretty tasty food for the money, just needed a little attention to detail with the atmosphere, we heard the same Radiohead playlist three times for example, and service, but it was a Monday lunch time so this could have been a time we caught them off guard. I would recommend the food though because for the price you would get a good quality and tasty lunch.  If you fancy trying somewhere different check out what The Christmas Steps has to offer on 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. 

Tapas at The Tipis for Eat Drink Bristol Fashion

On the penultimate day of Eat Drink Bristol Fashion, I headed down to the tipis to check out some of their tapas. Before doing so I had canvassed Twitter for some of the best dishes to order, ribs and scotch eggs rated highly.  Our group arrived around 7pm Saturday and boy was it busy, almost all of Queen Square had been turned into a mini festival, there was dancing, long queues for portaloos, extremely drunk people and lots of music.  After taking a bench outside we decided after being harassed by a group of drunk guys that we would head on inside the tipis.

The tapas menu, is pretty extensive, more British inspired twist on a tapas than traditional Spanish fare, the prices weren't too expensive, although £5 for grilled asparagus and £4.50 for a mini burger I did think was a touch steep. Anyway we sent the boys to the bar to get us some cider whilst we pawed over what to order. We decided a mix of dishes, including the smoked sticky ribs, to share between the 6 of us and sent Jo off to order. 

field meets disco

asparagus and roast garlic lemon mayo

smoked sticky ribs

deep fried macaroni cheese

garlic and spelt risotto, battered sausage and a scotch egg

If I am honest I found the food a little bit hit and miss, the mess of the queues aside, there was a lot that was sold out and the seasoning for some of the dishes was lacking.  I was expecting a proper sticky barbecue rib but this was more like a slow cooked rib stew, although the meat did fall off the bone rather nicely.  I found the risotto astoundingly bland as was the deep fried macaroni cheese. The cheese plate was served with Carr's water biscuits which was a bit of a cop out, classic as they are I was expecting something more local, also the chutney was far too sweet an accompaniment for the cheese.

As for the good elements, the Butcombe and English truffle rarebit was marvellous, hugely indulgent and flavour packed. I also rather liked the battered sausage, a very light a crispy batter that came with a delicious grain mustard dip and the asparagus was perfectly grilled and fresh tasting.  So there were good elements but I felt that maybe it was lacking somewhat plus it was pretty chaotic in that tent, maybe I expected too much for a Saturday night. The atmosphere outside completely jarred for me with the inside however there is no doubting the popularity of the tipis and I expect they will be even more so next year. Did you get to sample any of the tapas? Or get to go to any of the Eat Drink Bristol Fashion events, although they were too rich for my pocket I know from the first year the food you get is pretty good.

To explore more of what Eat Drink Bristol is about check out the website and wait for next year to see what events they are planning and what chefs they have caught in their net. 

Wedding and Mini-moon Eats

So this post has been a long time coming. But last month Rich and I waltzed down the aisle surrounded by friends and family, it was a beautiful day then sun really was working for us.  We headed to my home city of Bath and then on to London for a mini-moon, so from our wedding day we basically ate solidly for 5 days. This post will mainly be photos of highlights of our eats, all of which were excellent I don't think we ate anything I didn't love, which is quite an achievement. London has far too many distracting food delights and I am glad I don't live there it would be too dangerous. We were staying around South Kensington and we didn't stray much from that apart from a trip to Soho, the Viking exhibit at the British Museum and Westminster. So without further ado here is a little photoblog of some of what we ate and a few from the day itself.

breakfast at the salon (which was G Hair Artist Thanks Sam!)

vanilla panna cotta, spiced cherries and spiced shortbread

cutting the cake/macaron tower (thanks Absolutely Cakes)

Dress perfection thanks to Vintage inspired designer Alexandra King (genius)

First breakfast of married life, Coombe Lodge treating us well

super marbling rib eye from Hudson's Steakhouse

refreshing mango, berries and granola thanks to Villa Magdala

breakfast bacon and waffles

Villa Magdala do the best hotel breakfast I've ever had

addictive cheese and wine from The Sampler, you must go for the wine vending machines

Keiko Sushi, no frills, amazing value and tasty

this temaki was huge

potato hash with chorizo sausages and feta from The Breakfast Club in Soho

American style breakfast from The Breakfast Club

beautiful cocktail menu at The Ampersand hotel

Ampersand Cocktails

Caxton Grill for dinner by Masterchef The Professionals finalist Adam Handling

warm freshly made bread with heavenly chicken butter

lamb with aubergine puree at Caxton Grill

palate cleanser of apple and cucumber with gin and ginger gels (at Caxton Grill)

a work of art in the form of a chocolate fondant with hazelnut praline (at Caxton Grill)

I will take a moment from the photos to urge you strongly to have dinner or lunch at the Caxton Grill, Adam has designed a beautiful menu and the food was some of the best I have ever eaten. The restaurant itself had a really relaxed and calm vibe but the service was extremely attentive, plus we had a wonderful bottle of Carmenere which really topped off the evening. Go, if only for the chicken butter alone, it was like spreading the lightest chicken mousse on bread, basically angels dancing on your tongue level of good. You know when people tell you not to fill up on bread, I say in this case, go for broke. 

brunch ciabatta of scrambled egg and crispy pancetta thanks to Fernandez and Wells

chorizo and manchego grill with home made piccalilli (great charcuterie)

Banana pancake stack from The Diner

Corn dawgs

Hawaiian classic Loco Moco

Crispy wings

our last drink of the mini-moon

Thanks to all these wonderful places and our families who made our day and our week so wonderful, you are all lovely and we really appreciate it.