Bisq – No.15
November 5, 2019
No.16 has closed down, so we’re moving onto No.15. Â Bisq is a wine bar and small plates venue, which is our favourite style of dining as we get to sample a variety of (hopefully) delicious dishes. Â We opted to sit at the counter, meaning we could view the chef orchestrating the kitchen, and have a chat at the same time. Â It’s always good to have a bit of entertainment while you eat.
The restaurant, although not full, had a friendly atmosphere which felt really relaxed. Â We certainly made ourselves feel at home, ordering a couple of glasses of wine to peruse the menu.
Something jumped out at me straight away on the menu – House made ricotta. Â Anytime I see something is house made, I’m tempted. Â On top of that, I have fond memories of buying fresh ricotta from a farm while hiking in the Italian Pre-Alps. Â It had been freshly made that day from the cows we passed on the path and it was really really fresh; my hopes were high. Â In Bisq, those crazy Americans have done it again. Â They’ve served their ricotta on a slice of soft brioche with honey putting sweet and savoury together, which once again is genius. Â The ricotta, although not made from the milk of – grass fed, free roaming mountain cows which had been milked that morning – was indeed a fresh and creamy ricotta. Â Blimey I’m hungry. Â Roll on dinner time.
We are creatures of habit, and where there’s octopus, we often feel obliged to sample it. Â The offering here was Spanish style with Kohlrabi, Harissa and peanuts. Â It was perfectly cooked and was a good chunky tentacle with suckers still attached (my favourite bit). Â Our other ‘nibble’ was the Anticuchos, a Peruvian meat skewer (anti – meaning Andes) of beef hearts. Â We’ve never tried beef hearts, and I can’t help it when I see something I haven’t tried before – beef heart me. Â Actually they were really good, kind of like an offal taste, but more of a meaty texture. Â I would definitely order them again.
I had read that Bisq were known for their fried chicken, so we decided on this for our final dish. Â The batter they used was really crispy, crunchy and not greasy; a great batter. Â However, we had a little trouble finding the chicken in the batter. Â I think the ‘batter monster’ had consumed some of the chicken during the fry. Â It was a lot of batter.
This was a fairly quick visit, as after 4 plates and 2 glasses of wine we were pretty full. It was fun watching and conversing with the chefs from our perch and we really enjoyed the food, atmosphere (the restaurant was by now pretty full), and service. The fried chicken was clearly a popular choice as it was flying out of the kitchen, but I would recommend going for more of the smaller dishes, especially the ricotta and octopus as they had us reminiscing about the beautiful food in Italy, all be it with a twist.
