For more food and drink visit www.list.co.uk/food-and-drink Food&Drink Recent Openings

The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh Glasgow PERSIA 665 Great Western Road, 0141 237 4471, www.persiaglasgow.com, £6.50 (set lunch)/£15 (dinner) The corner of Great Western Road and Cecil Street seemed destined to be forever occupied by unremarkable takeaways, but after Grillicious disappeared the premises were given a smart makeover, a mezzanine was added and Persia opened its gleaming doors. They’ve been winning over diners with a blend of fresh, authentic Iranian cuisine; a smart, modern and comfortable interior; and friendly service. Mains include various grills of lamb or chicken, stews and polos (rice dishes), and a big handful of seafood and vegetarian options.

THE CORINTHIAN CLUB 191 Ingram Street, Merchant City, 0141 552 1101, www.thecorinthianclub.co.uk, £10.95 (set lunch)/£18 (dinner)

FOOD & DRINK EVENTS

GLASGOW Mansfield Park Farmers' Market FREE Sat 9 Oct, 10am–2pm. Mansfield Park, Partick.

Cookery Classes at Heart Buchanan Tue 12 Oct & Tue 19 Oct, 7pm–9pm. £45 per session. Heart Buchanan, 380 Byres Road, 334 7626, heart buchanan.co.uk Learn to make a variety of seasonal dishes. Apple Mania Food and Films FREE Wed 13 Oct, 2pm. Geoff Shaw Centre, 25 Kerrylamont Avenue, Toryglen, abi@urbanroots.co.uk Enjoy local food from community orchards in Toryglen, plus apple- themed arts and crafts. Part of the Take One Action Film Festival 2010

Queen's Park Farmers' Market Sat 16 Oct, 10am–2pm. Queen's Park, 520 Langside Road.

Oxfam's Fairtrade Wine Tasting Thu 21 Oct, 6pm–9pm. £15 minimum donation. Peckhams, 61–65 Glassford St, 357 1567. Taste some terribly ethical tipples, and soak them up with some canapés.

EDINBURGH Edinburgh Farmers' Market FREE Sat 9 Oct & Sat 16 Oct, 9am–2pm. Castle Terrace, edinburghfarmers market.co.uk Apple Day FREE Sat 9 & Sun 10 Oct, Sun 17 Oct, 10am–4pm. Royal Botanic Garden, 20a Inverleith Row, 552 7171. Try some Scottish varieties that aren't available in the shops.

Bruncheon! Featuring The Sound of Muesli Sat 9 Oct, 11.30am–3pm. Out of the Blue Drill Hall,

30–36 Dalmeny Street, Leith, 555 7100. Free live music plus your choice of breakfast, traditional or continental. Carrotmob Buycott FREE Sun 10 Oct, 6.30pm. The Mercat Bar, 28 West Maitland Street, 225 8716. A ‘carrotmob’ graces a business with their custom as a reward for ethical practice, and a ‘buycott’ is the opposite of a boycott. Part of the Take One Action Film Festival 2010.

OUTSIDE THE CITIES Trossachs Mushroom Festival FREE Thu 21–Sun 24 Oct, Various venues, the Trossachs, 01877 382276. A Hong Kong- themed Mushroom Festival this year, with performances from the Hong Lok Dragon and Lion Dance Troupe and Chinese cookery demonstrations.

BIRDCAGE BAR & RESTAURANT Stuart House, Eskmills, Station Road, Musselburgh, 0131 273 5240, www.birdcageeskmills.com, £9.95 (set lunch)/£18 (dinner) Set in the middle of a converted cotton mill, a simple glass box forms the main dining space while the buzzy bar sits in what was the accountant’s office. Outside there’s plenty of seating, plus a water feature: it’s all pretty much picture perfect. The menu leans towards approachable, classic bistro cooking

With five floors and countless rooms to play with, G1’s interior designers have gone to town. There are cocktail bars with a bourbon theme, a pink and sparkly theme and a Holywood jazz theme, private rooms with a hunting lodge theme and a library theme, a night club and a gaming room. The main Tellers Bar and Brasserie on the ground floor is the most attractive of the dining options, set in the ornate, glass-domed former banking hall of the Glasgow and Ship Bank, though the menu offers few extremes of styling and sticks for the most part to familiar upmarket pub staples such as smoked salmon, steaks, burgers, veggie pasta, garlic bread and sticky toffee pudding. LONG WAY HOME 2 Byres Road, West End, 0141 337 1145, www.thelongwayhome.co.uk, £10 (lunch)/£15 (dinner) Gin may not spring to mind when one thinks of the American singer- songwriter Tom Waits but that didn’t stop this gin bar on Byres Road being named after one of his songs. Waits would surely approve of the bar’s ambience, from its wood floors and brickwork walls with splashes of floral

designs to the old doors cleverly recycled into low tables. The 27 gins here range from malty Dutch genevers to Scottish gins such as Hendrick’s and Caorunn, and they can be enjoyed straight up or in various cocktails or take advantage of the regular tasting nights with food, which feature burgers and other standard bar fare along with some home-made specials. Edinburgh MISO & SUSHI 46a Haymarket Terrace, West End, 0131 337 7466, www.sushi- edinburgh.com, £13 (lunch/dinner) Don’t let appearances put you off: despite maintaining the same décor and easy listening soundtrack it used during a long previous life as a fairly standard Chinese restaurant, this venue has had a real shot in the arm lately. Although it’s still serving Chinese food (and some Thai dishes too) with unspectacular results, the presence of owner and chef Yong Shi formerly of the nearby Sushiya means that the Japanese menu is very well worth checking out. In fact it’s not hyperbole to suggest that the sushi here is probably the best in Edinburgh. If the location is a little off the beaten track, evening delivery is also available.

fish and chips, mussels and gnocchi are all present and correct but there’s also an ox cheek pie, and light, delicate lemon sole studded with tiny morsels of salty capers and prawns. With an impressive cocktail list as well as live music planned for the weekends, it’s well worth a trip out of town. GUCHHI INDIAN SEAFOOD BAR 9/10 Commercial Street, Leith, 0131 555 5604, www.guchhi.com, £15 (lunch)/£20 (dinner) This new venture from ex-Loch Fyne head chef Vishant Das and partner Sachin Dhanola specialises in Indian seafood cookery. The lunch menu is tapas-inspired, with clam Koshimbir prepared in aromatic coconut and green masala, while shellfish stew is a little like an Indian bouillabaisse, with fresh shellfish nestled in a mildly spiced and delicate stock. The dinner menu offers larger dishes, utilising ingredients such scallops, mackerel, lobster and Scottish sole. If its early standard of cooking is maintained, Guchhi is set to become another one of Leith’s culinary gems.

Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at list.co.uk/food-and-drink Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.

7–21 Oct 2010 THE LIST 21