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 DDOCE
ITALIAN CAFE
Level 1, St Enoch Centre, City Centre, 0141 248 9655, ddocecafe.com, £11 (lunch) Looking a little forlorn in the St Enoch shopping complex, newcomer Ddoce deserves more attention – at least for its speciality pastries from Naples and quality caffeine fix. Past the glass frontage, it’s contemporary rather than cosy and dominated by white, from the tables to the patterned tiles. Savouries are, by comparison, less appealing: while the menu of Neapolitan specialities reads well with layered pasta, pizza, arancini and timballo, what’s available on any given day can be much reduced. Still, the mainly ricotta-based delicacies – including a mesmerising ‘riccia’ of semolina and ricotta in a puff pastry case – plus the doted-over coffee should have samplers singing like divas.
THE HIPPO TAP ROOM BARS & PUBS
323 Sauchiehall Street, City Centre, 0141 353 3400, hippotaproom.co.uk, £12 (lunch/dinner) Glasgow hasn’t much pedigree with US-style ‘taprooms’, nor in its Mexican food. So this place, from the owners of the much-celebrated Hippo Beers shop in the West End, is most welcome, with six rotating kegs, three casks, a heavy presence from Scots brewers Alechemy, Cromarty, and Fallen, plus an impressive selection of West Coast American
32b Broughton Street, East End, 0131 556 8092, educatedflea.co.uk, £10 (set lunch) / £21 (dinner) The latest in a run of new openings down Broughton Street, this light, easygoing, 25-seater venue comes from the same stable as popular neighbourhood restaurants Three Birds and the Apiary. A variety of menus make for flexi-options at most times of day, with approachable, colourful and upbeat dishes predominating. The main ingredients are what you might expect: salmon, lamb, aubergine, but there’s a hip or unusual element on almost every dish, from
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 38 THE LIST 1 Sep–3 Nov 2016
SUPPORTED BY
KINGS OF THE CASTLE Albert Roux has teamed up with son Michel Jr to tantalise fine diners on Glasgow’s outskirts, as Andrea Pearson discovers
T here are no subsidies in the culinary arts. Every restaurant depends on private patronage to survive – one pretty compelling reason why the industry needs to keep producing top-notch chefs. Some of the credit for the UK’s credentials in this are due to the Roux family, who, in the form of a partnership between Albert Roux and Michel Roux Jr, are now in evidence on Glasgow’s outskirts. It’s the second venue in Scotland for the pairing, while father Albert has five Chez Roux operations already. Crossbasket head chef Mike Mathieson has set the bar very high with a taster menu that changes daily. The seven-course journey opens with canapés in the bar and ends with petits fours on the balcony overlooking the Calder Valley. In between are some perfectly executed French classics such as a labour-intensive lobster bisque, dishes that showcase Scotland’s larder (rack of Borders lamb) and exhilarating, joyful combinations (treacle -cured salmon in a liquorice consommé served under a smoke- filled cloche) served in the ornate dining room. Of course it comes at a price – but with more than 30, sometimes highly complex, elements required, it feels like an art form worth supporting.
ALBERT & MICHEL ROUX JR AT CROSSBASKET CASTLE Crossbasket Estate, Stoneymeadow Road, High Blantyre, Glasgow,
G72 9UE, 01698 829461, crossbasketcastle.com
Tue–Sat 12.00–2pm; 7–9.30pm. Closed Sun / Mon Set 3 course lunch £30 / Set 7 course dinner £67
beers. Nachos ‘crunch’ more than elsewhere, burritos have quirky options (pulled lamb, peanut crema), taquitos have vibrant, citrusy brown chicken meat, and chorizo fries are stupidly munchable. Pub grub at its best. Sauchiehall Street is a risky location, but the quality on offer is enough to draw punters in.
elderflower-cured biltong to smoked halloumi rosti. Most dishes are gluten free.
FOUNDRY 39
BURGERS, PIZZAS AND BRUNCHES 39a Queensferry Street, West End, 0131 510 6766, foundryproject.com, £17 (lunch/dinner)
SHILLING BREWING COMPANY BARS & PUBS
92 West George Street, City Centre, 0141 353 1654, shillingbrewingcompany.co.uk, £10 (lunch/dinner) UK-wide Glendola Leisure – owners of Alston Bar & Beef, Gordon St Coffee and so on – have crafted a brewpub from an attractive former bank (check out the loos’ vault doors). There’s a unicorn mural and IPA named after Scotland’s national animal (yes, really), part of the core range from brewer Declan McCaffrey (previously of Clockwork Beer Co) also featuring Glasgow Red (their best), and The Steamie, a blonde ale, plus a regularly changing small-batch tap. Pizzas are dished up from cupola ovens, mixing classics with the more intriguing. It’s all decent, even if Shilling’s hipsteresque, craft-minded ambitions can get muddied in the blur of city-centre suits.
Edinburgh
EDUCATED FLEA BISTROS & BRASSERIES
Dark wood, metallic glints and warm leather tones abound in new opening Foundry 39, thanks to a splashy, urban-inspired makeover. The menu is more or less split between burgers (surprise, said no one ever) and pizzas. The
latter bring more of a frisson to the menu, featuring sourdough bases and toppings like smoked salmon with samphire. There’s a good cocktail list plus beer from Innis & Gunn. If none of that floats your boat, breakfast options are strong: expect pancakes, Turkish eggs and a swoonsome-sounding salt beef bubble and squeak.
INDABA DELI
SPANISH & SOUTH AFRICAN DELI/TAKEAWAY 17 Causewayside, Southside, indabadeli.com, £10 (lunch) A spin-off from Tollcross’s quietly admired Indaba restaurant, this former corner shop near Summerhall adds another appealing dimension to the cultural swirl of Newington. While droëwors can seem a bit incongruous alongside boquerones and bocadillo on the menu, they rub along admirably thanks to the mix’n’match tapas format and the owner’s keen eye for decent quality food from whatever source. Good for a toast and cortado breakfast, daily puchero (stew) or a jambon sandwich to munch on a Meadows bench, there are also a few shop shelves with Spanish fish, jams, biscuits as well as home-from- home South African favourites including biltong.