Food&Drink Recent Openings
The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh Glasgow
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SIEMPRE BICYCLE CAFÉ CAFÉ AND SHOP 62 Dumbarton Road, West End, G11 6XE, 0141 334 2385, siemprebicyclecafe.com, £10 (lunch) Glasgow’s health-consciousness is getting a shot in the arm from this new café and bicycle shop. Siempre is cleverly set out – shop and tables in front leading to more seating, open kitchen and handy takeaway hatch. It’s all minimal and modern with cool designs and brand-conscious, cultured- youth(ish) leanings. Rigorous local sourcing (much within ‘cycling distance’) sees Glasgow’s best suppliers lending undoubted quality to a menu of fry-free breakfasts; enticing sandwiches – on slate, big and well-filled with continental meats and cheeses; various platters, with nifty takeaway ‘bistro boxes’; home-made cakes; and great coffee. Staff are enthusiastic and considerate, as if all believe in the admirable community and commuting ethos.
LOUISIANA’S NORTH AMERICAN Gala Riverboat Casino, 61 Broomielaw, City Centre, G1 4RJ, 0141 226 6000, £24 (dinner) The Gala Casino restaurant has gone Deep South. Large comfy booths overlooking the Clyde, grand chandeliers and the clitter-clatter of the roulette ball from below give the place a certain amount of Southern charm. The burgers, nachos and Cajun chicken common in US-themed restaurants are replaced by creole- inspired dishes: European-style food with a spicy Southern twist, such as a haggis starter wrapped in crunchy Cajun-spiced filo. Mains include plenty of steaks, jambalaya, creole fajitas and a whopping-great braised loin of slow- cooked beef, plus wood-smoked slow- broiled ribs that are meltingly delicious. Portions will make your eyes pop out as they arrive and your overly satisfied stomach pop out as you leave.
LYCHEE ORIENTAL CHINESE
59 Mitchell Street, City Centre, G1 3LN, 0141 248 2240, lycheeoriental. co.uk, £9.80 (set lunch) / £22 (dinner) 34 THE LIST 18 Oct–15 Nov 2012
Reforestation Collectively run arts, eating, meeting and performance space The Forest Café is now back on the map in Edinburgh. Hannah Ewan paid a visit
T he Forest is back. After reluctantly vacating its cavernous Bistro Place premises a year ago, a period of fundraising and regrouping has won them a corner of Tollcross in a long empty ex-newsagents. New home, same ‘art is free’ clarion call: the old mix of reclaimed furniture, fairy lights, gig board and recycling buckets is joined by new murals from local artist Hailey Beavis. Food, similarly, will settle into the familiar, accessibly priced mix of toasties, hummus and pitta, nachos and falafel, all vegetarian or vegan. The aim is for suppliers to be within walking distance; and while toasties would benefit from better bread, cakes are handmade, and the ‘Mighty Sombrero’, a refried bean-filled pitta or burrito, is pretty compelling. Food is served until it runs out, though the menu and stock levels seem more geared towards lunchtime. Almost everyone involved is a volunteer, which can mean service is friendly but green on details such as working the till. If practicalities like that do bother you, then laid-back, bohemian, feistily alternative, committedly communal Forest is probably not your kinda place.
THE FOREST CAFÉ
141 Lauriston Place, Tollcross, Edinburgh EH3 9JN,
0131 229 4922, blog.theforest.org.uk Ave. price two-course meal: £6 (lunch) / £8 (dinner)
As it is stuck next to the ugly NCP and even uglier lap dancing club, you may think you’ve strayed off grid when approaching Lychee Oriental. But inside it is comfy, stylish, and safe – reassuringly safe. The fixed menu features kung po prawns, roast duck and beef satay; nothing too challenging, but everything is beautifully presented, with some delicate flourishes – accompanying vegetables pickled in rice wine are a delight, and the light and spicy Thai fish cakes could be Glasgow’s best. Beyond a good, satisfying budget meal, the à la carte menu offers higher-end dishes such as sizzling scallops and monkfish with XO sauce.
Edinburgh YUMMYTORI JAPANESE 90–92 Lothian Road, West End, EH3 9BE, 0131 229 2206, yummytori.com, £15 (lunch/dinner) Popping up in the heart of the cinema and theatre district, YummyTori draws inspiration from Japan’s izakaya bars – popular haunts for casual post-work drinks and snacks. Various shochu or sake cocktails are offered along with familiar imported beers and a steady stream of yakitori meaty skewers and tapas-style plates to share, as well as ramen noodles and miso soup. A bar counter runs the length of an open
kitchen and grill offering a front-row view of the chefs at work, with long runs of tables encouraging convivial get- togethers.
SPICE LOUNGE KITCHEN INDIAN 1 Craigmount View, Corstorphine, EH12 8HG, 0131 476 9999, spiceloungekitchen.co.uk, £8.95 (set lunch) / £22.50 Neither the neighbourhood (suburban Corstorphine is hardly renowned as hotbed of culinary excellence) nor the exterior (a former Beefeater ‘big box’ style restaurant) promise much, but the Spice Lounge Kitchen seems destined to confound expectation. Set near the crest of a hill, Edinburgh drops out of sight allowing the large picture windows at one end to show off sunsets over the Pentland Hills. The visual fireworks continue with the food which eschews commonplace British-Indian dishes for regionally focused dishes. Beautifully presented Tawa scallops pair up great Scottish produce with fragrant south Indian spices while the fiery Punjabi lamb palak is a hearty taste of the north.
REAL RAJPUT INDIAN CUISINE INDIAN 213 High Street, Old Town, EH1 1PE, 0131 220 2335, £15 (lunch) / £19 (dinner) This Royal Mile basement space has been carefully decorated with screens and prints to create an intimate but not over-crowded dining area. The focus on service is perhaps a little too overstated (it is mentioned several times in the menu alone and constant checking that all is well can interrupt the flow of the meal), but it does allow staff time to explain the more exotic dishes on an extensive menu. Some may find the pickle flavour slightly overpowering in the North Indian speciality achari chicken tikka, but it is a refreshingly different addition to the menu. More traditional dishes like lamb saag are well executed and presented.
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.