GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
Bia mine tonight A bit of Irish, a bit of French, a bit of Spanish and a good dose of local Scottish. Carine Seitz visits a new restaurant that’s proof of the dynamic influences at work in Edinburgh’s dining scene
> RECENT OPENINGS The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh, reviewed in every issue by The List’s team of independent reviewers
Glasgow
CLARK & SONS 14 Busby Road, Clarkston Toll, Southside, 0141 638 3911, www.clark-and-sons.com, £9.95 (set lunch)/ £17 (dinner) Some ideas are so good you wonder why they took so long. Opening a sophisticated but affordable bar and restaurant in Clarkston is one – and it’s a gap just filled by Citation proprietor Ryan Barrie. Clark & Sons occupies a vast and comfy open plan area containing a bar, a restaurant and a function room and serving everything from breakfast eggs to rib eye steaks. Dishes are well presented and very tasty and before 7pm, the set menu – a tenner for two courses – even includes a glass of wine. See? How come it took so long?
THE DRAKE 1 Lynedoch Street, West End, 0141 332 7363, £14 (lunch/dinner) The appearance of another cultured bar in the Charing Cross area of the city gives hope to a stretch challenged by the rise of Argyle Street/Finnieston. For now it’s laid-back appeal of the bare-brick, leather and bare wood bar in a semi-sub-terranean slot on the corner of Woodlands Road that’s been gathering local cudos, with a beer garden, decent drinks and grown- up bar menu featuring the likes of homemade terrines and cottage pie. Soon to come is a more ambitious restaurant area (open Thu–Sat evenings) on the floor above the pub, serving mostly blackboard specials.
Edinburgh
CHOP CHOP 76 Commercial Street, Leith, 0131 553 1818, www.chop-chop.co.uk, £12 (lunch) / £20 (dinner) With a hugely successful restaurant, a wholesale operation and TV appearances with Gordon Ramsay under her belt, Jian Wang’s Chop Chop is already a success story. It stands to reason that expansion was on the cards, and a new Leith branch is now in place to meet that expectation. The menu is vast, so those unfamiliar with Chop Chop can choose an unlimited
R oisin and Matthias Llorente, the husband and wife team behind Bia Bistrot, have quite a culinary pedigree, having between them notched up time in the kitchens of Irish star chefs Niall McKenna and Derry Clarke, as well as a bloke called Gordon Ramsay. Their ethos of fresh- seasonal-local-sustainable-homemade may sound predictable, but done as well as this it’s clear they’re not just paying lip service to a gastronomic trend. Expect to see high calibre suppliers on the menu, with game from Braehead, seafood from Eddie’s in nearby Marchmont and an impressive wine list selected from Villeneuve.
A starter of roast beef bone marrow is served bubbling hot in the bone, while Gressingham duck liver melts in the mouth – and having one of the lead chefs bring the food to the table is a nice touch. For mains, a tasty rump of lamb is served with well-seasoned layered
10 THE LIST 9–23 Sep 2010
potatoes and spiced aubergine, and coley fillet comes with a generous amount of samphire grass. Desserts continue the good impressions: gooey chocolate cake is deeply cocoa flavoured, with grilled peach soup a lighter option. An excellent beginning for this new kid on the block – long may it continue. + Sound provenance and skilled cooking – Crampons and climbing ropes out for a visit to the toilets
BIA BISTROT
19 Colinton Road, Southside, Edinburgh,
0131 452 8453, www.biabistrot.co.uk, Tue–Sat noon–3pm, 5pm–10pm; Sun
11.30am–4pm. Closed Mon. Ave. price two- course meal: £9 (set lunch) / £30 (dinner)