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Full independent write-ups on all the restaurants listed here can be found on our online Eating & Drinking Guide, list.co.uk/food-and-drink. Prices shown are for an average two- course meal for one.
First Sauchiehall Street, then the world, for Charan Gill’s upbeat new venture, Slumdog Bar & Kitchen Edinburgh
THE SCOTTISH CAFÉ AND RESTAURANT AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND The Mound, 0131 226 6524, thescottishcafeandrestaurant.com, £9 (café lunch) / £19 (restaurant lunch) Victor and Carina Contini of Centotre bring ‘Fresh, Simple, Scottish’ food to the modern café and restaurant overlooking Princes Street Gardens. With an interior of muted tweed fabrics and oak furniture by Scottish design company Anta, the new venture has gone to great lengths to source from dozens of small-scale local producers with a firm intent to offer a celebration of Scottish food alongside the country’s premier art collection. SPOON CAFÉ BISTRO 6a Nicolson Street, Old Town, 0131 557 4567, £8 (lunch) / £14 (dinner) Upgrading from Blackfriars Street to the former Nicolsons restaurant opposite the Festival Theatre, Spoon’s large first-floor venue has been fitted out with an eclectic range of retro furniture and chunky wooden bench tables, flexible enough to play its new role as day-time café, pre-theatre diner and friendly evening bistro, with unfussy but punchy modern British bistro food taking the lead.
of puffed rice, lentils and potato, which are fine as far as they go in the context of snack food alongside a specially formulated ‘Jai Ho’ cocktail or Slumdog Premium lager (brewed by WEST at Glasgow Green), but fairly quickly the menu takes on a familiar look with samosas, pakora, kebabs and tandoori curries, not to mention that old fail-safe, fish and chips. + Top billing for Bollywood-infused party action - Food lower down the list of credits
SLUMDOG BAR & KITCHEN 410 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
0141 333 9933 Mon–Sun noon–11pm
THE GATEWAY Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Arboretum Place, Inverleith, 0131 552 7171, gatewayrestaurant.net, £15 (lunch) The smart first-floor café-restaurant in the inspiring new John Hope Gateway visitor centre at the west gate of the Royal Botanic Garden. With its serious breakfast/brunch offer, full lunch menu and wine list, the airy, modern Gateway is geared towards a proper sit-down meal rather than coffee and cakes after an arboreal stroll.
Ave. price two-course evening meal £17 CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
H aving sold the Harlequin Group of restaurants four years ago for a cool £8 million, Charan Gill’s re-entry into the Glasgow scene was always going to stir up interest. From getting hold of the Slumdog name to tapping into the energetic zeitgeist of contemporary, cosmopolitan India, Gill’s ambition and populist seem unquenchable, and it’s not hard to envisage this restaurant and street-front bar rocking with Christmas parties over the next month. Slumdog, located in the old Sauchiehaugh bar not far from Charing Cross, seats over 150, its bare-brick walls, silk-backed chairs, antique carved doors and coloured pendant lights bringing a smart if studied Bollywood glamour. The menu promises Mumbai street food and is led out by kati rolls, a toasted paratha stuffed with meat or vegetables, and bhel puri, a ball
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10 THE LIST 19 Nov–3 Dec 2009