FOOD & DRINK RECENT OPENINGS
SUPPORTED BY
RARER THAN MEDIUM Cutting into this stylishly presented new steakhouse (using the Laguiole steak knife offered), Donald Reid finds quality running all the way through
I n a purposeful commitment to a backwater of Leith, the team behind Sygn, Monteiths and The WestRoom have opened up a hipsterishly on-trend destination restaurant that’s reassuringly local in feel yet
flag-bearing in its attention to sourcing, cooking and service. The term ‘chop house’ is knowingly modest, for serious Scottish steaks are the centrepiece here, matured in an in-house dry-ageing fridge and cooked on a bespoke open-flamed grill. A chalkboard advertises some gut and wallet-busting sharing dishes – T-bone, Porterhouse or Prime Rib, while a one-sheet menu has familiar steak cuts (albeit including a rarer-spotted Perthshire Wagyu rump) along with sides ranging from eggs fried in beef dripping to a fiery kimchi slaw. Weekend brunch includes come again-and-again options such as ox cheek mac’n’cheese and house-smoked salmon scrambled eggs. The embracing design utilises an elemental mix of iron and steel, leather, wood and glass across the 40-cover dining room and a small but distinct adjoining bar that showcases a house pale ale, some crafty cocktails and a wine list with spine sufficient to back up the meaty mainstays.
LEITH CHOP HOUSE
102 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6AW
0131 629 1919, leithchophouse.co.uk Ave. price two-course meal: £15 (lunch) / £30 (dinner)
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.
Glasgow BO KANTINA
KOREAN & MEXICAN
48 West Regent Street, City Centre, 0141 353 6712, bokantina.co.uk, £18 (lunch/dinner) Mexican and Korean cuisine have shacked up together to make beautiful love in a city centre spot, where hand-painted murals and corrugated iron give off a raw-yet-cute vibe reflecting the marriage of street food and Far Eastern flavours. For owners Ben Dantzic and James Forrest of Burger Meats Bun (the Glasgow branch of which this replaces), Mexican is the ‘carrier’ for the exotic Korean flavours, coming in street food-style starters such as kimchi fried chicken wings or mains such as pork with burnt onions, honey and mustard – or combine elements yourself in a burrito, rice or salad bowl. The delicious chocolate peanut butter-crunch Bo bar is like an untamed fiery Korean Snickers.
PAESANO PIZZA ITALIAN
94 Miller Street, Merchant City, 0141 258 5565, paesanopizza.co.uk, £12 (lunch/dinner) Another Italian operation from Paul Stevenson, owner of nearby Italian Caffè, Paesano Pizza’s red neon sign entices, and the pitch appeals – proper Neapolitan sourdough pizza, blasted for 90 seconds at 500 degrees in ovens imported from Italy, with simple, elegant toppings such as prosciutto and mushrooms, or peppers, spinach and ricotta. It all tastes great –
even the base sauce of crushed Strianese tomatoes with mozzarella and fresh basil is a simple, savoury delight – on a pleasingly chewy and soft super-thin base. It’s an informal affair – bench seating, tumblers for (Venetian) wine, and no bookings – but well worth popping into at any time.
LEBOWSKIS POP-UP BAR-DINER
69 Nithsdale Road, Southside, 0141 423 3332, lebowskis.co.uk, £9–14 (lunch/dinner) Samuel Dow’s takeover by Kained Holdings adds another enticing food and drink option in this burgeoning street. Operating as a pop-up means the incomers have time to win over existing customers – Sammy Dow’s has been a feature since 1931 and has a loyal if dwindling clientele – before the promised refit. Trademark Lebowski cocktails – variations on the White Russian – are already in evidence, and the food from the existing tiny kitchen is limited but playfully changes to suit festivities, opening with quality pub grub, into bratwurst and goulash for Oktoberfest, while Mexican food will feature for the Day of the Dead (Hallowe’en). One to watch with interest.
Edinburgh
SMITH & GERTRUDE WINE BAR
26 Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, 0131 629 6280, smithandgertrude.com, £18 (dinner) A mix of comfy and communal seating, an elegant white-and-blue colour scheme and sleek stripped wood and metal fixtures give this carefully assembled newcomer the trendy, informal vibe of café-style enotecas springing up across Italy, Australia and the US. With the middle-man cut out, many of the 100 bottles of wine available – including 20 or so by the glass – are more affordable than expected, and wine flights are a blessing for ditherers and discoverers alike. There’s plenty of care taken with the food too, in cheese and charcuterie platters featuring a fine Brie
de Meaux and an impressively marbled Coppa.
BARNACLES & BONES PERMANENT STREET FOOD STALL
Cathedral Lane, Picardy Place, New Town, 07736 281893, fb.com/barnaclesnbones It’s perhaps more at home in a seaside shack on the Cornwall coast rather than a converted police box by Paolozzi’s Foot on a walkway beside John Lewis, but let’s be happy it isn’t. Two daily choices: one fish (the barnacles), one meat (the bones), are each accompanied by slaw and available on a bun (from nearby favourite the Manna House), with a rocket and quinoa salad or — perhaps the best of the bunch — fries shaken with sea salt and chopped tarragon. Regular options include Fife-caught crab dressed in a light lemon mayo, and a satisfying short rib, slow- cooked in sherry.
EL TORO LOCO MEXICAN
28–30 Grassmarket, Old Town, 0131 226 3706, fb. com/eltorolocoedinburgh
Part of a mini Grassmarket empire which also includes Gennaro Ristorante next door and Mamma’s American Pizzeria along the road, El Toro Loco is the latest in a line of fashionable Mexican street food places to have sprung up of late, after Los Cardos in Leith, the west coast Pinto chain and the revived Illegal Jack’s. Decorated in warm reds and with lots of bright table seating outside, the food is very agreeable, despite a lack of kick to the fresh hot salsa, with burritos, tacos and quesadillas loaded with meaty, shredded hunks of pork carnitas, baracoa beef or chipotle chicken, beans infused with beer or bacon, and all the regular sides including ‘cactus’ (thin pickled gherkins).
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 70 THE LIST 5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016