Friska

Wednesday 20th January 2010

This is a Crackerjack review of Friska. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.

Food and drink: 8 / 10.
Service: 8 / 10.
Atmosphere: 8 / 10.
Value for money: 7 / 10.

What’s in a name? Friska might sound like a dodgy Soho nightclub or a pill for sexual enhancement but it’s a lot more wholesome than that.

It actually means ‘healthy, vibrant and full of life’ in Swedish and the menu at this new café/takeaway is certainly enough to make you groan with pleasure, especially if you are still on post-Christmas diets and detoxes.

Friska is the idea of former Bath University economics graduates Ed Brown and Griff Holland, who have boundless enthusiasm when it comes to their first business.

When I interviewed them last year – on the day Friska opened its doors – they were already talking about the next one they wanted to open. By the end of the conversation, they were telling me they wanted to roll out the concept and their long-term goal was to have 50 Friskas all over the country.

So far, people seem to like their concept and business has been good, with many of the local office workers in Victoria Street using it as their place of choice at lunchtime.

Although it’s a fairly anonymous building in the shadows of large trees, people can’t help but notice it, but that’s often because there are pretty young Friska girls walking around with leaflets or handing out free samples of soup. Who could resist?

Inside, Friska is buzzy, contemporary and open plan with two long communal tables running down the centre of the room and an open kitchen at the far end. It looks very London and the closest comparison I can make is the excellent Leon chain of healthy fast food restaurants.

At Friska, there is an emphasis on regionality, seasonality and ethically produced ingredients and the company slogan is ‘feel good food’.

Open from 7am every day for breakfasts – hot Scotch porridge (£1.75), Greek yogurt and fruit pots (£1.95), West Country bacon ciabatta (£2.25) – it is also attracting a great deal of business from the hundreds of commuters passing the door to and from Temple Meads.

From 11.30am, the hot and cold main meals are served and the new winter menu features some very tempting dishes: Moroccan tagine with cous cous (£4.50), three bean Mexican burrito with lime rice (£4.50), spicy sausage and borlotti soup (£3.25), chicken and pomegranate salad (£3.95) – proper meals for about the same price as your average M&S sandwich.

I went for the hearty beef and winter vegetable stew (£4.75) which, like all the dishes, was served in a large white cardboard box with disposable cutlery and a paper napkin.

I carried it over to one of the long tables and carefully opened it to be greeted with a plume of steam. Impressively, none of the contents had leaked and it was piping hot.

The stew was very good – a simple, honest, old-fashioned stew with half a dozen bite-size chunks of tender meat supplied by Devon Rose, from the organic Gatcombe Farm at Seaton in Devon.

There were also large pieces of carrot and parsnip in the thick, rich, herby sauce.

It was accompanied by a doorstep of seeded bread and a portion of ‘slaw’ (finely chopped red cabbage, red onion, carrot and beetroot dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice and drizzled with a yoghurt dressing).

In fact, most dishes at Friska come with ‘slaw’ so even if you aren’t trying to be especially healthy, you’ll probably get your ‘5-a-day’ by default.

To drink, a bottle of Fentimans Ginger Beer (£2) from a selection of premium brand soft drinks in a chill cabinet boasting cheery signs such as ‘chefs happily at work making today’s lunches’.

Desserts are confined to cakes and treats such as carrot cake (£1.95), the Friska granola bar (£1.50) and the very good homemade chocolate brownie (£1.50) that was rich, dense and chewy. The pudding choice is a bit predictable at the moment and it would be nice to see a few more desserts, perhaps some exotic fruit salads or a cake of the day to keep things interesting.

But, then Friska is all about serving fresh and healthy fast food to image-conscious and slim city slickers, rather than corpulent food writers so perhaps I’m out of my depth here.

Either way, Friska is a cut above the usual sandwich joint (it doesn’t do sarnies and that’s a major point of difference) and it’s a very welcome new addition to the overcrowded breakfast and lunch market.

Give it a couple of years and I can see a branch of Friska on every high street in Britain and good luck to them.

Mark Taylor
 
 
Wheelchair access: Yes
Prices: Salads from £3.50; soups from £2.95; hot main meals from £4.50; cakes from £1.50

This is a Crackerjack review of Friska. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.