Matina review in St Nicholas Market - Bristol
Posted on: 2015-04-30
Our rating:
The food is first-rate, there's lots of it, and at under a fiver is excellent value for money - this isn't just any old chargrilled chicken wrap, this is a Matina chargrilled chicken wrap. Definitely worth checking out.
St Nicholas Market in Bristol is one of my favourite places in the city. It's a potent, pulsating melting pot of stalls and shops, ranging from an old fashioned sweet shops to a charming bookshop and an indie-bohemian cross-section of smoking paraphernalia, risque Goth corsets and independent record outlets.
It particularly comes alive during lunchtimes, when the office workers lumber en masse to St Nick's to one of the many food stalls that have become a permanent fixture to keep those hungry bellies filled.
After a particularly busy day I was absolutely famished so needed to make an emergency pit-stop to galvanize my rapidly weakening limbs. As luck would have it my stomach made a particularly angry and demanding growl just as I was making my way past St Nicholas Market - right next to Matina, in the glass arcade.
Matina specialises in Middle Eastern fare with homemade Kurdish naan breads. It had just gone 2pm and there was a considerably lengthy queue still lining up, but it looked and smelled so good and people seemed so enthusiastic I had to join them to see what all the fuss was about.
The menu is simplicity itself, offering a choice of chicken, lamb or halloumi skewers, served with a salad and naan on the side or packed and wrapped in the actual naan. There's nothing particularly spectacular about the operation itself, which is a small galley kitchen, but the way the food is prepared, cooked and presented is pure, enthralling theatre. Three chefs work like a spectacularly well oiled gastronomic machine, the epitome of culinary synchronicity. One whips the dough into shape before cooking it in a tandoor-style oven, the other slathers on the salads and dips, and the last one cooks and turns the chicken, lamb and vegetables on the tantalizingly sizzling chargrill.
I went for the chargrilled chicken in flatbread with salad and chilli sauce (£4.50). From the very first bite it fired off a series of unrelenting mouthgasms that didn't cease until I'd finished the very final mouthful. The chicken was smokey and perfectly chargrilled, tender and moist, while the salad added a sensationally contrasting and delicious crunch. The chilli was breathtakingly fiery, occasionally eye-wateringly hot, although in all fairness I do have the constitution and palate of a 10-year old. And the flatbread was truly out of this world, thin and like a pancake, still warm and slightly blistered from the oven, it's perhaps this element of all the elements combined that sets it a million miles apart from similar wraps.
It's easy to see why there was such a queue. Many of the punters had clearly eaten there before and were loyal devotees. The food is first-rate, there's lots of it, and at under a fiver is excellent value for money. To paraphrase a well-known advert: this isn't just any old chargrilled chicken wrap, this is a Matina chargrilled chicken wrap. Definitely worth checking out.
4/5
Review and photos by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol - the website for recommendations for Bristol
Article by:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.
