FOOD & DRINK RECENT OPENINGS
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SEA AND BE SCENE Broughton boutique hotel Twelve Picardy Place now has a second restaurant among its suite of rooms, restaurants, bar and secret garden. As Donald Reid reports, the approach is as singular as before
Among seafood restaurants, there are two classic models. One is creels in the rafters; the other stainless-steel oyster bar. In opening Fish Eatery alongside his red-in-tooth-and-claw 2011 opening Steak, former Ondine chef Jason Wright has ignored both, placing gingham napkins, bottles of Sansom’s vinegar and even servings of homemade chippy sauce in a stylish setting of sharp grey tweeds and modernist art. Among 20 starter and main options, there are no oysters or langoustines, barely a spoot or clam, and you won’t find smoked salmon, gravadlax or seafood platters. A kelp and samphire risotto and steak frites are the tokenist offerings if you’re dining in Fish Eatery and dodging seafood. The firm emphasis is on crowd-pleasing favourites, mainstream varieties of fish and plenty of work for the deep-fat frier. Classic crispy battered fish is a headliner, not surprisingly, but breaded halibut kiev with crab-laced baked beans is a head-turner, while a rich fish stew and complex seabass, not to mention smart presentation, elegant wines and the soaring New Town cornices, indicate that there’s more to the place than fish suppers showing off.
FISH EATERY
12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3JT, 0131 556 9908, fisheatery.co.uk Ave. price teatime menu (until 6.30pm) £10 / two-course meal £22
The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.
skull wallpaper, colourful tiles and sombreros being donned. Eschewing the affordable family-friendliness underpinning the Di Maggio’s brand, there are no lunch deals nor kids menu – this place is more a bar-diner for nightlifers. burgers with spiced wings and / or coleslaw on the side. The ingredients and the dining experience in the restaurant’s sleek main room are all quality, although whether the city has quite the same enthusiasm for specialist burgers as Glasgow remains to be seen.
Glasgow
EL GUSTO TAPAS CAFE
31 Gibson Street, West End, 0141 334 7139, tapaselgusto.com, £5.95 (set lunch) / £15 (dinner) This latest tapas spot, owned by Andalusian chef Guillermo de la Orden, is imbued with the Iberian sense of informal dining and drinking (BYOB at present until licensed). Pinchos and tapas are commendably cooked up in the compact kitchen – from the familiar, crispy patatas bravas and authentic jamon, to the fiery-fresh Don Coyote meatballs, rabbit in almond sauce, and lovely tender lamb with ginger and mango. Good value becomes great value at lunchtimes and early evening, ensuring students will be kept as happy as those looking for Spanish flair on the plate.
USHA’S VEGETARIAN INDIAN
SERRANO MANCHEGO SPANISH
2 Byres Road, West End, 0844 884 9399, ushas. co.uk, £15 (lunch / dinner) It’s almost a running joke when someone new sets up at this jinxed venue at the bottom of Byres Road. Nothing ever lasts – even the clout of Tony Macaroni couldn’t survive. Now nearby Tribeca’s newish owners are giving it a go, spotting an animal-free gap in the Indian offerings around the city. Vegetarian and vegan curryhouses are common in other spice-loving cities but Glaswegians have a taste for gnawing on bones with their masala. The quality and diversity on Usha’s menu may just do the trick, offering classics such as pakora, samosas and dosas while elevating puris, dhals and paneer to levels that should convince many locals to ditch the meat. 297 Leith Walk, Leith, 0131 554 0955, facebook. com/serranomanchego, £11 (platter) / £2.80 (per dish) A new flavour comes to Leith Walk with this relaxed but elegant pinchos-style bar. A lunchtime or after-work favourite in Spain, pinchos are a less formal variety of tapas usually served across the bar to drinkers to keep them going while the bar tab mounts, but while informality is certainly the key here – the wine is good quality and reasonably-priced, and the floor to ceiling concertina windows offer a great view of the Walk – the food isn’t an afterthought. Small tapas-style dishes include croquetas, patatas bravas and a daily tortilla, while larger sharing platters of quality Spanish meats and cheeses also appear.
Edinburgh
BURGER MEATS BUN BURGER DINER
TOPOLABAMBA MEXICAN
89 St Vincent Street, City Centre, 0141 248 9359, topolabamba.com, £18 (lunch / dinner) This latest brand from the Di Maggio’s group, after Tex-Mex success with the three Pintos nearby, offers Mexican small plates. With full-blown branding, it’s a franchise in waiting, with familiar pros and cons. Reliable, decent food and service occasionally falters – spicy shredded beef tacos and short-stack ribs are good, but meat-less dishes struggle. A large bar serves up tequila cocktails and West’s El Barracho, while hackneyed decorations include cactus motifs,
1 Forth Street, New Town, 0131 556 7023, burger- meats-bun.co.uk, £12 (lunch /dinner) Taking over from the well-liked Broughton branch of Urban Angel, Glasgow’s Burger Meats Bun has opened its first outpost outside its home city. Run by two friends who met at the Michelin- starred Peat Inn in Fife, BMB has a modest menu compared to some other burger venues, serving up beef, chicken and mushroom
FILAMENT COFFEE CAFE
5 India Buildings, Old Town, filamentcoffee.com, £3.50 (snack) Thrown up in days to be ready before the Festival, Filament Coffee’s sense of achingly hipster hangout front is more than welcome in Edinburgh. Sited in a building at the top of Victoria Street which has been derelict for many years, there’s still an artfully distressed element to the large and bustling walk-through seating area, with concrete floors and a boxy wooden serving area bisecting the room. Drinks are easily divided on the bold menu into ‘coffee’ (black, white, filters, ‘extras’) and ‘not coffee’ (locally connected tea, hot chocolate, beer, wine and soft drinks), while limited snacks are mainly toast-based and quirky, including avocado and vegemite or banana and honey options.
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 36 THE LIST 21 Aug–18 Sep 2014