FOOD & DRINK RECENT OPENINGS
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 VINYARD 28
BARS & PUBS
SUPPORTED BY
SMALL BUSINESS A decade on from launching one of Fife’s favourite dining spots, Craig and Vikki Wood have a new sister venue right in the centre of Edinburgh. Donald Reid goes big for The Wee Restaurant
T aking up in the New Town premises previously home to Fleur de Sel (and before that the original La P’tite Folie), The Wee Restaurant is a similarly sized chip off the original North Queensferry block. Craig Wood oversees both kitchens, but in Edinburgh he has called in the services of head chef Michael Innes, who returns to the capital after a spell at El Celler de Can Roca, the place that knocked Noma off top spot in Restaurant magazine’s list of the World’s Top Restaurants.
Don’t come looking for 3-star cooking, however: what’s on offer here is an extension of the original venue’s ethos, rather than a whole new direction, with a continued focus on excellent ingredients and confident, well-executed cooking, be that moules frîtes with bacon, basil, pine nuts and parmesan, new season asparagus with herb gnocchi and soft poached egg, or a decadently buttery whole-roasted lemon sole with baby shrimps and samphire. The sense of comfort is enhanced further with toffee- coloured leather chairs and bold art on the walls. The one slightly odd note is that, with 40 covers (the same as the original now offers), it ain’t really that wee.
THE WEE RESTAURANT
61 Frederick Street, New Town, Edinburgh EH2 1LH Average price two-course meal: £16 (set lunch) / £29 (dinner).
such as Top Out, Alechemy and Fallen, while the pies, made in the highly competent Butterfly kitchen, are proper pies – none of this pastry lid nonsense. Fillings include venison or haggis, while ‘duckfast’ is a satisfying number utilising the monks’ infamous tipple. A succinct choice of accompaniments – beans or mushy peas – add up to an enticing, albeit limited, food offering.
(a margherita is £6.60), while serious salads are also available, as are bunches from 8am including oven- baked shakshuka, brioche and avocado toast.
OSTARA CAFES
53 Coburg Street, Leith, 0131 261 5441, fb.com/ ostaracafe, £10 (lunch)
28 Vinicombe Street, West End, 0141 560 8004, fb.com/vinyard28, £17 (lunch/dinner)
BLACK VANILLA CAFES
Replacing Booly Mardy’s, VinYard 28 comes from old-hand Lawrence McManus (Epicures, Nick’s, Old Salty’s – on Byres Road only after Finnieston closed recently), and features many of his interior design hallmarks –
brickwork, industrial trim and chunky wood. Unlike its predecessor, the bar is not pitched as a full-blown cocktail spot (though there’s expertise thanks to some ex-Booly’s staff). Emphasis is on dining, with a compact menu offering small or main variants making tapas-style eating a temptation – and generally rewarding. From beef carpaccio and crab and chilli (not nearly enough) linguine to meatballs and stand-out lamb rump with borlotti beans, there’s an appealingly solid hand in the kitchen – plus sunny-day enticement from the al fresco set-up.
MACGREGORS PIE & ALE HOWFF BARS & PUBS
5 Blackfriars Road, Merchant City, 0141 552 5012, @macgregorpiebar, £5 (lunch/dinner) From the Butterfly & the Pig group comes this traditional-style pub, set on a quiet Merchant City street, featuring gambling machine, dartboard, sport on TV, and bar and lounge split. The name about says it all: they do ales and pies. Drinks rotate from breweries
553 Duke Street, East End, £5 two course (shake/ cereal and cake) Amusement and bemusement met the news of Glasgow’s first cereal bar. Infamy aside, this Dennistoun venue isn’t really the same beast as London’s much maligned Cereal Killers. No irony, no recipe booklets. Just a serious amount of sugar. A closer reference point would be the American sweet shops that have sprung up in recent years. This is cereal- as-dessert territory, with imported varieties topped with marshmallows, caramel, chocolate sauce, and flavoured milks. No seats, just takeaway, and in fact milkshakes and cheesecakes are the more popular items. And popular they are: queues are common.
Edinburgh WILDMANWOOD PIZZA
PIZZA RESTAURANT
27-29 Marshall Street, Southside, fb.com/ wildmanwoodpizza, £11 (lunch/dinner) Malcolm Innes’ Edinburgh eateries, including The Outsider and Ting Thai Caravan, have always been noteworthy affairs, and his latest is (a) true to form and (b) different again. Located on the corner of Marshall Street and Potterrow, reclaimed ping-pong tables, spotlights and huge windows have it looking great in and out. Centre stage belongs to a wood-burning oven capable of temperatures approaching 600ºC. Pizzas emerge bubbling and blistered, and they’re well-priced
Bringing some neighbourhood conviviality back to this relative backwater of a cobbled- street in Leith, this new café-bistro has an easy- going nature and a reassuringly engaged attitude to local suppliers,
services and residents. Walkers wandering off the nearby Water of Leith walkway won’t do badly either, with an all-day menu ranging across Puddledub bacon rolls, scrambled eggs on toast, generous lunchtime salads, baked sweet potatoes, Bearded Baker bagels and Archipelago Bakery cakes alongside teas from Pekoe and coffee from newcomers Williams & Johnson.
SALT HORSE BAR & BEER SHOP
57 Blackfriars Street, Old Town, www.salthorse. beer, £12.50 (3-item platter) Replacing Blackfriars in the spaces also once occupied by Black Bo’s, Salt Horse have responded to the challenge of the dual unit with a bar and beer shop combo. Despite being 50 paces from the Royal Mile there’s no danger of tartan tatification: this is craft beer and artisan food chic. The bar has 12 rotating keg lines with all the latest tipples and trends, while you can also browse something from the strong mix of UK and imported bottles and cans next door. The shop sells takeaway bread, cheese and pies, while the bar serves charcuterie and/or cheese boards featuring small-scale producers and house-made pickles and bar snacks.
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 46 THE LIST 2 Jun–1 Sep 2016