GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
The cookie rumbles Donald Reid heads to the Southside of Glasgow, where new café- bistro Cookie is bringing funky contemporary design, traditional cooking skills and local food together in an imaginative venture
> RECENT OPENINGS The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh, covered in every issue by The List’s team of independent reviewers
Glasgow
THE RESTAURANT AT BLYTHSWOOD SQUARE 11 Blythswood Square, City Centre, 0141 248 8888, www.blythswoodsquare.com, £15 (set lunch) / £28 (dinner) The £25 million renovation of the venerable former Royal Scottish Automobile Club on Blythswood Square by the Town House Hotel group has brought some seriously upmarket style to the centre of Glasgow. Bedecked in purple and charcoal tweeds, the bar and restaurant, run by head chef Daniel Hall, goes for continentally styled local produce, the various menus (including tapas snacks and a mid- priced ‘market menu’) filled with luxury ingredients and fancy wording.
LUCKY 7 CANTEEN 166 Bath Street, City Centre, 0131 331 6227, www.lucky7canteen.co.uk, £7 (lunch) / £12 (dinner) The branding claims ‘No Frills, No Fuss’, which you might imagine is a euphemism for a lack in service, quality or quantity, but nothing could be further from the truth. In the space previously occupied by Catch 22, Lucky 7 Canteen has a hip, considered bohemian fee. What they’re doing is quality bistro food at crazy prices: no starter over £4, all mains £7, nothing over £4 at lunch.
Edinburgh
MY BIG FAT GREEK KITCHEN 6 Brougham Street, Tollcross, 0131 228 1030, £6.90 (set lunch) / £14 (dinner) Champion of a national style otherwise (and strangely) lacking in Edinburgh, this plainly decorated but friendly Tollcross diner offers up a range of two dozen dishes including large dishes of moussaka and pastitso (a ‘Greek lasagne’), keftedes (small home-made meatballs in tomato sauce), tirokafteri (a rich dip made from ground feta) and plates of fried whitebait and calamari, as well as a selection of hot and cold meze dishes.
F ormerly a butchers and a garage, the shop at 72 Nithsdale Road, between Shawlands and Pollokshields, is now a quirky café-bistro, Cookie. Even in this new guise the venue has further identities to pull out of the wardrobe, from coffee roaster to community cooking classroom. With its busy windows, funky furniture and well-displayed food, the friendly and enlightened approach of the place is clear from the start. Owners Domenico del Priore and Melanie McCallum bring a range of influences and interests to the project, from modern European architecture to community health. They’ve employed young Glasgow chef Iain Walker to run the kitchen and put on a show in the deliberately open and busy prep area, while stools from London- based designer Ryan Frank and artwork by local street artist Conzo add extra visual impact. The simplicity of the food is born out
10 THE LIST 17 Dec 2009–7 Jan 2010
of the owners’ confidence in good ingredients, some of which (the olive oil, ham and wine) come from small farms in Umbria, while soups, salads and richer evening mains draw on local organic sources and range from bowls of slow cooked beans to roast lamb served with bubble and squeak. + Confident in its food and individuality. - Finding enough room to fit it all in – including the customers.
COOKIE
72 Nithsdale Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow 0141 423 1411, www.cookiescotland.com, Mon–Thu
9am–10pm; Fri & Sat 9am–11pm; Sun 11am–6pm.
Ave. two-course meal £8 (lunch) / £17 (dinner)