GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
How now Steakhouses might be a bit passé, but a ‘bar and grill’ in touch with its sourcing side offers a much more contemporary interpretation. Andrea Person visited Butchershop in Glasgow’s West End
> RECENT OPENINGS The best of the new restaurants, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh from the last four weeks, reviewed in every issue
Glasgow
Brasserie Gerard 20 Royal Exchange Square, City Centre, 0141 221 7727, www.brasseriegerard.co.uk, £10.50 (set lunch) / £18.50 (dinner) This first Scottish outlet of the national chain declares its motto as ‘Simple French Food’ and it is; this is hardly fine Parisian cuisine, but straightforward fare for business lunchers and after-work couples, in a handy city-centre location opposite the Gallery of Modern Art. The décor is in neutral colours and all a bit generic, while the menu is meat-heavy (there’s not much for vegetarians) including a variety of steaks and a rich, smoky flavoured boeuf bourguignon.
Elià 24 George Square, City Centre, 0141 221 9988, £6.95 (set lunch) / £14 (dinner) Well-established local restaurateur Georgios Leronmidis has brought the Greek dining experience to George Square and now occupies the ground floor of a grand city centre building a few metres from Glasgow Queen Street station. The menu at Elià – meaning olive – contains helpful introductory information, not just on Greek food, but on the language and culture as well. Decorated inside with exposed stone and windows, to resemble a Greek square, you could believe you were by the Med if it weren’t for the impressive vista of George Square. With a lunchtime starter and main at only £6.95 Elià could make an enjoyable city centre stopover.
Edinburgh
I n case you can’t guess from the name, the Butchershop is decorated with clues that steaks and burgers are the main attraction. A large diagram on the wall helps if you want to know the difference between the rib eye, sirloin, fillet and T-bone steaks on offer. All steaks are 28-day dry-aged Angus beef and the quality of this sourcing is clear in a medium- rare sirloin. It is perfectly grilled so the outside chars and the inside is pink and tender – a steak knife is hardly necessary. For non-meat eaters there is a seasonal veg risotto and some fish dishes. A generous whole sea bass cooked with garlic, lemon and thyme is moist and, again, beautifully cooked so the flesh falls off the bone easily. Blink and you’ll miss the short dessert menu, but there is a seasonal special, and the coffees are excellent. Priced from £15, the steaks, served with chips or mash, are good
10 THE LIST 13–27 May 2010
value, but vegetables and extras can mount up. The view from the terrace of Kelvingrove and Glasgow University makes it an ideal spot for a sundowner, with an extensive choice of cocktails for pre-club action in the early evening. + Quality in both service and cooking - £3.95 for a bottle of water
THE BUTCHERSHOP BAR & GRILL The Glasshouse off the Mile
1055 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow,
0141 339 2999, www.butchershopglasgow.com,
Food served: Sun–Thu noon–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–10.30pm. Avg. price two-course meal
£12 (lunch) / £20 (dinner)
12-26 St Giles Street, Old Town, 0131 225 4564, www.theglasshouseoffthemile.com, £14 (lunch) / £20 (dinner) Executive chef Steven Adair has transplanted much of the team from his previous restaurant in Musselburgh to this stylish new venture, which means that this place has really hit the ground running. The contemporary restaurant space adjoins