FOOD & DRINK RECENT OPENINGS
SUPPORTED BY
CULTURED CLUB
This secretive corner of Royal Exchange Square, once the members- only Western Club, now has a restaurant open to all and sundry, as Jay Thundercliffe discovers
Opened by Alan Tomkins, a long-time player on Glasgow’s hospitality scene, this sophisticated restaurant is now his flagship venue, leap-frogging nearby Urban Bar & Brasserie. The view from the first-floor restaurant looks out across the square’s canopy of twinkling lights, framed by the classical proportions of the Gallery of Modern Art. It’s a majestic backdrop to a handsome dining room where classy tones, subdued lighting and cosy chairs facilitate unhurried and lavish lingering. From the compact menu, starters include scallops, well cooked, perhaps a little frugal for the price but they are hand-dived courtesy of Guy Grieve, and given a lively Far Eastern boost with saffron and stem ginger, while enjoyable risotto skillfully balances cauliflower and leek with a sprinkling of black truffle. A piece of Buccleuch beef is done a tad beyond medium-rare but not enough to diminish a top- quality piece of meat, accompanied by braised ox cheek and a perky white onion purée. For dessert, a classy crème brûlée exemplifies why it’s a timeless dish. The Western Club is a dining experience that speaks of sophisticated special occasions and romantic dates, offering plenty of atmospheric remnants of its one-time exclusivity.
THE WESTERN CLUB RESTAURANT 32 Royal Exchange Square, City Centre, Glasgow
0141 248 2214, theclubrestaurant.co.uk
Ave. price two-course meal: £15.95 (set lunch) / £28 (dinner)
the western suburbs of the city. Salads feature heavily in the starters, while mains tend to be meatier, though all courses feature the same ingenious combinations from the bold, sunny flavours of Sprague’s native California — for example a herb-marinated lamb uplifted with a drizzle of mint and coriander pesto. Homemade desserts include coconut and lemon curd sponge beautifully offset by passionfruit ice-cream.
REEKIE’S SMOKEHOUSE SCOTTISH BARBECUE
20 Holyrood Road, Old Town, reekiessmokehouse.co.uk, £10 (lunch/dinner) They say the channel can be wider than the Atlantic, and the husband and wife team behind Reekie’s Smokehouse certainly add gravitas to such a statement. This North American-inspired Scottish barbecue joint has a reassuringly simple menu, with favoured barbecue cuts such as beef brisket and pork ribs, all from local pigs and cattle, slow cooked on their American-built barbecue smoker, flavoured with a variety of in-house rubs. Even the baked beans are meaty, with tender, smoky chunks of beef adding depth of flavour. A playful take on condiments sees offerings of Irn Bru BBQ sauce and Buckie Broon Sauce, the latter giving a deliciously fruity tang to sweet, sticky ribs.
The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.
Glasgow
OLLIE’S BISTRO
122 Nithsdale Road, Southside, 0141 424 4600, olliesglasgow.co.uk, £10 (lunch) / £16 (dinner) Another new Alan Tomkins spot (see also Western Club, above), run with the help of daughter Emma, Ollie’s has an enticing neighbourhood-bistro feel, where leisurely breakfasts and brisk lunches are as popular as casual evening dinners. Pizzas and burgers sit alongside pork loin and pan-fried pollock on the menu, and it’s in these more restaurant-esque dishes that Ollie’s stands out with lovingly presented and well-balanced plates, such as a really good rump of lamb or light and delicate crab linguine. Produce is Scottish wherever possible, most notably in the fish from The Fish People, and the quality is high. Ollie’s is a confident and classy addition to an area that is becoming a dining destination.
FIVE GUYS BURGER BAR
51-61 St Vincent Street, City Centre, 0141 221 2186, fiveguys.co.uk, £16 (lunch / dinner) We’ve had Curry Alley (Gibson Street of old), now something akin to Burger Boulevard as the burger chains arrive on top of each other – seemingly a little late for Glasgow’s burger revolution. Five Guys is the most enticing of the newcomers, a US import that is bold, bright and brash. It’s all very red and white and poptastic (through a lo-fi sound system) – not a place to linger but one to wolf down their average burgers and very good fries, while trying not to read the quotes plastered everywhere about how ‘awesome’ it all is. While it may be a decent step up from bog-
standard fast-fooders, the prices are getting seriously ‘heavenly’.
AZUR BISTRO FRENCH
2nd Floor, Princes Square, City Centre, 0141 221 7044, azurbistro.co.uk, £11.95 (set lunch) / £18 (dinner)
From the people behind other venues in the upmarket shopping mall, Azur Bistro feels a little bit like French by Numbers. The group also do Spanish, US, and Scottish café under the same roof
and the new place ticks the French boxes – framed mirrors, flowers and boutique-chic knick-knacks give a suitably Gallic vibe to the décor. The menu is equally bordering on cliché (onion soup, pâté, crêpes, etc), yet the food from the kitchen is on the whole enjoyable, well presented and decent value, from creamy mushrooms on brioche toast to a good take on the classic steak frîtes with béarnaise sauce – it’s a supplement on set menus but still a bargain.
Edinburgh REDWOOD
NORTH AMERICAN
1 Meadow Place Road, Corstorphine, 0131 281 2576, redwoodbistro.com, £21 (dinner) It’s been a couple of years since chef-patron Annette Sprague closed the door on the much loved Stockbridge eatery that was Redwood Bistro, so Edinburgh diners will only be too happy to see the restaurant reincarnated, only this time on a larger scale, in a lightsome, converted residential property in
Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at food.list.co.uk 44 THE LIST 5 Feb–2 Apr 2015