Food&Drink Recent Openings
For more food and drink visit list.co.uk/food-and-drink cheerful blue walls, jazzy chairs and bright cushions attract a young crowd, and serving some lovely Pekoe teas and Artisan Roast coffee shows a clear effort to showcasing the best of Edinburgh beverages. The menu is light with good ingredients on the whole.
The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh
Glasgow AVENUE G CAFES 291 Byres Road, West End, G12 8TL, 0141 339 5336, avenue-g.com, £10 (lunch/dinner) The latest café to join the hustle of Byres Road, Avenue G's huge window means it’s great for seeing and being seen – a common pastime in this part of town. It has a crisp and clean ambience thanks to pale colours and tiny spotlights twinkling, with white tables and chairs plus a stool bar with a few personal TVs complete with headphones. Food, from breakfast to lunch and into teatime, is mainly light-bites showing a dedication to local produce with enticing sandwiches featuring Dunlop cheese, Rannoch venison and Scottish seafood. Meat, fish and veggie platters and salads offer more substantial meals, while there’s some excellent coffee on offer – including a filter cup of single-origin beans.
SURF 'N' TURF AT MERRYLEE ROAD BAR & KITCHEN SCOTTISH
128 Merrylee Road, Southside, G44 3DL, 0141 6377 5774, merryleeroad.com, £29 (dinner) This new addition to Gordon Yuill’s Merrylee Road Bar and Kitchen aims to add a special occasion element to the Southside brasserie. Just off the main restaurant, a private room and conservatory has been dressed up with luxuriously large tables draped in white linen, along with a homage to Scottish ‘turf’ in the shape of an enormous Gerard Burns painting of a docile bull beside a young girl holding the saltire. Starters are mainly ‘surf’, while mains are typically ‘turf’ – MacDuff’s beef, venison or lamb with a few fish dishes too. Serving staff, dressed in black, add a graceful touch of professionalism to the experience.
THE PAKISTANI CAFÉ PAKISTANI 2 Byres Road, West End, G11 5JY, 0141 337 1145, £5.90 (set lunch) / £15.50 (set dinner) The newly opened sister to the original Pakistani Café on the Southside may not only be bigger but better too. Welcoming and colourful owner Jimshaed Sharif has opted for burnt reds and oranges with
50 THE LIST 26 May–23 June 2011
Square go
The latest big-hitter to arrive on George Square is national chain Browns. Andrea Pearson paid a visit
T he first Browns opened in 1973 and there are now 20 outlets across the UK, including a well-established restaurant in Edinburgh. It has come to central Glasgow, where the steady-as-she-goes growth of the steady-as-she-goes chain rubs shoulders with next-door neighbour Jamie’s Italian, whose proprietor was not even born in 1973. The Browns package is an assured, reasonably priced one with some admirable touches. A delicious Gloucestershire smoked beef with parmesan shavings is accompanied by fried capers – an unusual and successful change from horseradish. Mains look appealing on the menu with such options as wild boar and chorizo burger and slow-cooked shoulder of roast lamb with minted broad beans and sweet potato. It’s a shame to to see little or no evidence of locally-sourced produce or even local beers, and on a busy night both the house special shepherd’s pie and the fish of the day appear rather overcooked and salty. Puddings perk things up, though, with both the lemon and mandarin tart and the superbly light apple and strawberry galette rounding the meal off extremely favourably. Sure, there are more glamorous, charming and exciting options elsewhere in the centre of town, but many will take comfort in Browns’ assured approach. In addition, the ‘British’ aspects such as traditional Sunday lunch (with a free children’s meal), breakfasts and afternoon teas, along with very reasonable prices, will help it to find its market.
BROWNS BAR & BRASSERIE
1 George Square, Glasgow 0141 221 7828, brownsglasgow.co.uk Mon–Thu 8am–10pm; Fri 8am–11pm; Sat 9am–11pm; Sun 10am–10pm.
Ave. price £15 (lunch)/£18 (dinner)
some seriously dimmed candlelight at night. Fans of the original will be glad to see no eclecticism has been lost in the journey over the river: where else can one hear Ani DiFranco, Radiohead and Mozart on the stereo? There are five or six premium beers on tap and some great touches on the menu, from the simple chilli-and-lime naan through to a delicate haddock massala and chicken koftas that explode with cumin. As a whole, the combination of homeliness, kookiness and big flavours is a cracker.
Edinburgh FREDERICK'S COFFEE HOUSE CAFES 30 Frederick Street, New Town, EH2 2JR, 0131 260 9997, £8 (lunch) The town centre has an odd dearth of individual cafés, so recently opened Frederick’s is a very welcome addition. Located one floor up, it’s a great perch from which to enjoy the New Town views and take a shopping tea break. The
LOUDONS CAFÉ & BAKERY CAFES Lochrin Square, 94b Fountainbridge, EH3 9QA, 0131 228 9774, loudons- cafe.co.uk, £10 (lunch) It usually takes a month or two to hit your stride, but this big, bold newcomer seems to be a crowd-pleaser right from the off. And what’s not to like? Chris Loudon’s new baby has oodles of space at tables and sofas far and wide for all comers. Business meetings, mums with kids, and students all find their place without disturbing their neighbours. Thanks to the bakery downstairs (check out its inner workings through a cleverly sited window), there is a big, help- yourself table spread with cakes, brownies, scones and slices. Among it all there’s a high level of gluten-free and other diet-conscious options.
THAI PAD THAI/TAKEAWAY & DELIVERY 20 Leopold Place, London Road, EH7 5LB, 0131 652 3987, thaipadthaipodedinburgh.co.uk, £16 (dinner) Quicker than you can say ‘tablet computer’, there's a grimly punning new restaurant, Thai Pad, on the scene. It is, in fact, a new incarnation of Love You Long Thai restaurant in the basement of the Richmond House Hotel on London Road, while the takeaway arm of the operation, an evolution of the former Spicebox, also has a new name, Thai Pod. Those familiar with the former ventures will see similar menus from the same set of chefs, with specialities of the house including finger-sized spring rolls, goong fong beer prawns with a mango chilli sauce, and mains such as Thai fish dumplings. Try their Tuesday night taster sessions: all-you can eat for £25 a head for a minimum group booking of four.
Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at list.co.uk/food-and-drink Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.