Eatchu – St Nicks Market, Bristol

I don't think I'll ever get sick of Japanese food. Some people have Chinese or Indian as their takeaway of choice, but Japanese will always be my favourite. I could honestly eat ramen and dumplings at any time of day – even for breakfast.

Bristol is not short of Asian eateries, but I'm always going to welcome any new ones with open arms. And so, I was super excited to try the newest addition to St Nicks Market, Eatchu, on my lunch break last week. Gyoza are their thing – a Japanese-type dumpling that I love so much.

Eatchu's process is simple; you choose your filling, sauce and any toppings you want (and you can have as many as you like). I went for chicken (free-range, from Ruby and White butchers!), tonkatsu sauce and added rice and pickles. The gyoza were so delicately uniform and identical, and the filling was compact and flavoursome. The rice was sticky and fragrant, but the pickles were my favourite – I'm not sure what kind they were, though. (I seriously need more pickles in my life).

My colleagues were impressed, too, and we all agreed we could have eaten the same again, right there and then. But, alas, work was calling.

Have you been to Eatchu yet? Guy and Vic are at St Nicks Market at lunchtimes from Monday to Saturdays serving up their incredibly tasty gyoza. A box of six dumplings will set you back as little as £5 and I think that's a great price for what you get. 

Find out more about Eatchu here!

Sticks & Broth – Bristol

Ramen in Bristol – it's a thing. I'm not sure how long Sticks & Broth has been around but I sure wish I'd found it sooner. It is my absolute favourite place to go out for lunch in the city centre and for the price (£6.50 menu between 12 and 4!) it is unbeatable for authentic Japanese food.

My good friend Elly came to visit me agggges ago and I knew she'd love Sticks & Broth as much as I do – we both lost our ramen virginities when we visited Bone Daddies last year.

The house ramen is my favourite, but recently I've been loving their curry don; japanese curry sauce, rice & salad with either katsu chicken or grilled tofu. I had the katsu chicken and it came with a generous helping of my favourite pickled ginger. If you love that stuff as much as I do there's a bowl of it on the table for you to go crazy over, as well as your very own garlic and crusher,

I also had a Fentiman's rose lemonade – this is the best soft drink in the world IMO and it pairs especially well with Japanese food.

Sticks & Broth takes the top spot for best katsu curry in Bristol, too – and I've tried a lot of katsu curries. The chicken was crispy, the rice sticky and the sauce perfect in flavour and spice. Every time I finish a bowl of curry don I want another one, but then the afternoon slump hits me and I'm ready for a nap :)

It's easy to get lured in by the plethora of chains in Bristol city centre, but there are so many hidden gems among these streets and Sticks & Broth is one you should seek out. You'll pay less, eat more and enjoy a much more authentic experience – I think, anyway.

Small plates & Sushi at Yume Kitchen – Cotham, Bristol

Reflecting on my new year's resolutions for 2015, I saw that I'd written 'try new things' (duh) and underneath that: 'ie sushi', I guess I always forget about these things, but sushi has been on my mind for a while now. I can't really call myself a foodie until I've tried it, right? Well, now I have, and I did the absolutely unheard of thing and ticked off one of my resolutions. Which means I can now officially declare myself a foodie. I hate that word.

I have a friend at work who loves Japanese food about as much as I do. She recommended Yume Kitchen for dinner so I went along with Beth for an evening of small plates and rose lemonade (the most delicious soft drink ever to be invented).

Yume means dream, according to the website, and a dream it was. We were greeted by a very friendly waitress who seated at a beautifully laid table, complete with gorgeous mahogany chopsticks and navy detailed crockery.

As total sushi novices, it took us a while to choose what we wanted, but once we had, our dishes came out in steady succession. First up was the tuna nigiri. It arrived pink, chilling on a little dome of rice. It was quite difficult to eat, but, overall, bloomin' delicious. Dipped in soy sauce the sweetness of the tuna and rice was offset perfectly. It was the best start to one of my favourite Japanese meals, ever.

 

Next came the chicken karaage – japanese style deep fried chicken marinated in garlic, ginger and soy sauce. This reminded me a lot of Bone Daddies' fried chicken and it was just as delicious, but the portion so tiny!

The penultimate dish was the homemade gyoza – pork with a garlic and ginger kick. These soft and squidgy dumplings were worth the waitress' recommendation. The crisp skin on the outside made them easy to dunk in the soy sauce (a must for gyozas) and the flavour, well, you could just tell it was homemade, and homemade well.

The main event and overall winner, however, was this: Tonpeiyaki. Thinly sliced pork and vegetables with omelette on top with katsu sauce and japanese mayo. Served sizzling on the plate, this dish was packed with an incredible barbecue flavour. The sauce was rich but so moreish. I think about it quite a lot. The tonpeiyaki was bigger than our other dishes, and Yume Kitchen did well to bring out our dishes in an appropriate order. 

I really wanted the macha ice cream to finish but we were stuffed. So, next time. And there most definitely will be a next time. Find out more about Yume Kitchen here.