Nomu Bristol Review

11/03/2014 - Nomu

Delicious food, a great atmosphere and host to a wide choice of drinks you will be hard pressed to find another Japanese restaurant of this calibre in the area. This self-styled Japanese Kitchen & Cocktail Bar is well presented with a host of orient-inspired art adorning the walls, my personal highlight being the Godzilla themed city-scape silhouetted above the door! Every table is laid with chopsticks and plenty of cushions for that authentic-yet-cosy feel.

A cherry blossom tree ordains the walls (from the Nomu website)

Why I don't mind if I do....

I have been to Nomu at least 3 times in 2014 so far, it's one of my favourite restaurants in Bristol and when my friend's birthday came around I couldn't help but suggest we celebrate at Nomu. There were 6 of us in total, and we ordered a lot of starters so we could taste a variety of the menu's offerings.

A selection of the starter dishes on offer.

Amongst the dishes we ordered to start were the following:

Spicy Tofu Fries in Japanese Mayo

Yakitori Chicken - Cubes of tender grilled chicken skewered and glazed with a sweet tangy sauce. (middle left on the picture above)

Spicy Tofu Fries -  Strips of tofu marinated in a spicy seasoning then deep fried until golden brown and dusted with some unknown Japanese herb. Hints of ginger, garlic and chilli permeated each bite. A pleasure to eat! (left)

Avocado Fritters

Ebi Bites - HUGE prawns in a light, crispy tempura batter served with a healthy dollop of miso mayonaisse. 
Definitely one of the top starters. (top left and middle right on the selection picture above)


Avocado Fritters - Crispy, breadcrumbed slices of smooth avocado. The crunchy bite complements the texture and taste of the avocado perfectly. Not your average starter, and certainly a unique taste but my favourite of the ones we ordered( right).

Prawn Korokke

Prawn Korokke - Sounded better on the menu but essentially these were potato and prawn croquettes. (left)


Dynamite Rolls - Standard salmon and avocado sushi with added wasabi. Battered and deep fried to give the seaweed wrap that extra crunch! Highly recommended. (below)

Dynamite Rolls

The main meals were equally as interesting and delicious as the starters, normally I would only review my own food when eating out but seeing as I have eaten both dishes listed below (on separate occasions) I will be telling you about both... aren't you guys lucky!

Kai Sen Udon - Essentially the stir fry equivalent of seafood heaven. Massive prawns, squid and Japanese fish cakes tossed through udon noodles, oriental greens and stir fried with a homemade sauce. I love udon noodles, and this dish was no exception. 

The thick noodles had just the right amount of "bite" and the squid and prawns were plentiful and well-cooked. The fish cakes were a bit bizarre (they sort of looked like cocktail sausages) but I enjoyed them nonetheless. The sauce gave an authentic taste, tangy yet not overpowering.

Teriyaki Salmon - Pan seared salmon glazed in a sweet sticky teriyaki sauce. Served with slices of pickle and rice. This was delicious!

The salmon was flaky and full of flavour and the skin was well crisped. This created a great combination  of textures when eaten.

I loved the deep flavour of the teriyaki and the rice was perfectly cooked. The sweet pickle was a surprising yet welcome addition, balancing well against the Salmon. This is my standout dish on the menu and I would highly recommend it. 

Apart from the food, Nomu also offers a strong compliment of alcoholic cocktails but for me the strongest item on the drinks menu was the Bubble Tea. A fruit tea brewed by the barman, cooled over ice in a cocktail shaker then poured over "bubbles". These bubbles were little pockets of fruit concentrate which you sucked up through the jumbo straw.

Mango, Lychee and Passionfruit bubbles were on offer to drink with a variety of fruit teas. Mine was Lychee tea with Lychee bubbles and I couldn't get enough of it!

Score card:

Food: 9/10

As I said, I rate this restaurant amongst my favourites, and this is primarily because of the food.  A highlight of the local area.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Well decorated with some interesting artwork. Maybe feels a touch too formal but suits the cocktail bar look they are going for. 

Service: 7.5/10

On this occasion we were left waiting quite a long time between courses, and unfortunately the main dishes were brought out before the waitress had cleared the starters away. On other occasions service has been excellent. 

Value for Money: 8/10

Not the cheapest Japanese restaurant but worth the money.

The conclusion to this review is simple, you have to go to Nomu! If you do, let me know what you think about it in the comments below.

Over and out
- the EnFoodiast

Zen Harbourside Bristol - Mini review

Hot Pot - one of the most traditional Chinese dining experiences available in Bristol, a few places do it but I doubt they're as nice as Zen. The restaurant is located in the harbourside on Millennium Square, well decorated and with a slightly classier feel that your average Chinese restaurant, it ticks a lot of boxes. 

The whole premise was that you cooked as much as you could eat, the list of ingredients was staggering: Rashers of lamb and beef, pork luncheon meat, fillets of fresh white fish, raw shell-on king prawns,  two types of tofu, bread-balls, crab sticks, crab balls, mussels, delicious pak-choi, cabbage, cubes of potatoes, Chinese mushrooms, glass noodles and I am sure I am forgetting some! 

The chilli sauce was FULL of chillis, when running the little scoop (pictured) you came up with a bunch of fresh, dried and flaked chillis. It was also extremely well balanced in terms of seasoning, having an almost peppery taste to it with the spice being a natural addition and not too over powering. The stock was plain but simple vegetable stock but I found cooking the meats in the plain stock then dipping them in the chilli sauce for flavour was the best way to cook them.

Soup options happily bubbling away on a camp stove

Fish and vegetable options!

This was AFTER we'd finished an hour and half's worth of food!

The whole experience was so much fun, we spent an hour and half in the restaurant cooking and tasting everything and didn't even notice the time! It was a little daunting though, I was a bit uneasy about the mix of raw food on the table and not having separate utensils to use to place it in the soup – I decided to hold the chopsticks in the stock to boil them off between rounds. 

Overall this was one of my favourite dining experiences of 2014, I would heartily recommend the hot-pot concept for everyone to try. Having been to Zen before I know the normal menu is very good, next time I’m back I’ll be sure to give it a proper review!

Please note that this was a Groupon offer so is not 100% reflective of Zen's usual offering but it was such a great evening that I couldn't help but break my study hiatus to blog about it! 

Anyway... back to work :( 

Over and out
- the EnFoodiast<

Hiatus - Exam times!

Study study study! It's exam time for me at the moment, which means no meals out, no hour long lunches and no time for posh nosh cooking, these have all been replaced with this....

When I resurface I'll be sure to let you all know.

Over and out
- the EnFoodiast