GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
Vuvu Voom Andrea Pearson visits Horn of Africa, another of Glasgow’s new crop of low-price African restaurants
T he Horn of Africa – named, not after the vuvuzela, but Somalia’s coastline – has been set up to provide low-cost, healthy and familiar food to the growing Somali population in Glasgow. There is not yet a menu so you take pot luck and eat what’s available – and if you don’t make the lunchtime serving all the food may have gone by the evening. Staples include a fragrant rice with vegetables and dried fruit served with either chicken, fish or lamb and lettuce on the side. The lamb is slow-cooked and marvelously tender, and a green chilli and lemon sauce adds an unusual piquancy that brings the parts together well. Other dishes combine Italian (southern Somalia was an Italian colony) and north African influences so spaghetti or canjeera, large savoury pancakes similar to the Ethopian injera
10 THE LIST 8–22 Jul 2010
bread, may be on offer. There is sweet halva or fresh fruit but the experience is best rounded off with a cup of Liptons tea served Somali style with warm milk – there is no alcohol in this Muslim-run establishment. With all meals £5 it is most definitely worth a look-see. + Generous attitude all round - Not much else on the doorstep
HORN OF AFRICA 672 Eglinton Street, Southside, Glasgow
0141 429 4285 Mon–Sun 10am–11pm
Ave. price two-course meal £6 (lunch/dinner)
> 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 PIONEER
140 Elderslie Street, West End 0141 332 1830, £12 (lunch/dinner) Now under new management and boasting an all-new menu, The Pioneer is part of the burgeoning bar and restaurant district around the Mitchell Library that manages to straddle both the City Centre and West End – appealing to those in both camps who refuse to stray too far from their favoured patch. Sunday brunch is a big draw with the morning papers and Bloody Marys and alongside a full fry up. Bar meals are all under a tenner and offer a surprisingly diverse range of options – rabbit and fries anyone?
HUGH’S CHAMPAGNE BAR First floor, House of Fraser, 45 Buchanan Street, City Centre, 0141 221 3880 ext 2101, www.champagnebars.net, £15 (lunch) Hugh’s brings a little extra glamour to Frasers for those who feel the need to indulge in cocktails or champagne to toast successful purchases in style. Champers is available from £8 to £895, but a lighter wallet will suffice for teas, coffees and light snacks such as an omelette or fish and chips, which are on the menu for about £5. It’s only open shop hours, but a full three-course lunch – with mains such as steak, salmon or sea bass – is available.
BO’VINE Hilton Grosvenor Hotel, 385 Byres Road, West End, 0141 341 6540, www.bovinerestaurant.com, £24 (dinner) The too-clever-by-half name lets you know what’s going on at this new steakhouse tucked into the Byres Road gable end of the Grosvenor Hotel: bó is Gaelic for cow, you see, and beau is French for beautiful. And vine gives you wine and bovine gets you back to the cow. So, meat and wine. The menu selection process – steak plus plus a choice of side sauces and vegetables – makes choosing with a partner quite enjoyable as all the sides are served to be shared. Staff are pleasant and helpful and the smooth tempranillo by the glass goes down very well, and while there are some decent dishes to be had the steaks themselves can prove a bit of a work-out for both arms and jaws. Not so clever, really.
Edinburgh PUNJAB’N DE RASOI
122-124 Leith Walk, Leith, 07865895022, www.sikhsanjog.com, £7.50 (lunch) Translating as the Punjabi Women’s Kitchen, this weekday, lunchtime-only café is part of a project set
Y E N O H A C N N A J :
I O T O H P