Asia Style, Glasgow

Another day another dark, rainy mid-week journey to Scotland. I love Glasgow but it can be a bit dismal in November. For some reason I was craving noodles, only they would brighten my day.

Search for 'noodles Glasgow M8' and chances are you'll end up at Asia Style (actually that's lies, you'll probably end up at somewhere called Ichiban, but Asia Style must have entered my conciousness somehow 'cos it only took me two minutes to recall its existence and locate it), a casual Chinese Malaysian place close to Charing Cross station just off the motorway.

I was hoping they might serve me a decent laksa, my last such experience being a bit underwhelming. At least they had roti canai, sneakily hidden on the menu under the description 'Malaysian pancake'. Roti canai, done well, are marvellous. Crisp, flakey layered eggy breads of utter deliciousness; like the buttery bastard child of the finest paratha and a wayward croissant, dipped in curry sauce. Oh yes.

Sadly this one was a bit rubbish, cooked too quickly too hot, rendering the edges charred but the interior lumpen and unflaked, grease permeating the whole. I still loved it in a sordid, sweaty fried bread kind of way though, that is if you ate curry with your fried bread. Which you probably should.

Curry laksa this time, I would have had assam but they didn't do one. I'm no expert on Malaysian food, but I think curry laksa should include seafood and tofu, but I'm not really sure in what sort of ratio. This one was ten parts tofu to one part seafood. One big prawn, three fish balls and several kilos of spongey tofu and the weird vegetarian tripe that is beancurd skin.

I'm yet to learn to love tofu. I'm really trying, but it's just not working. The texture is always wrong, be it spongey or squishy or slippery or chewy. Consequently eating this was a bit of a chore. The curry broth was ok, nothing special though, as were the noodles (which were the thick yellow mee variety).

I can't quite decide whether this was rubbish, or just not to my tastes. I'd just driven for four hours in a torrential downpour so my brain was frazzled when I ate it so it's hard to say for sure. On the plus side it's cheap and cheerful, and copious quantities of Chinese tea are proffered free of charge. It's open late so maybe go when you're pissed.

6/10

185-189 St George's Road
Glasgow
G3 6JD

Taco Mazama, Glasgow

I usually eat splendidly when I visit Scotland's number one city (get over it Edinburgh). Take a look through my other posts labelled Glasgow and you'll see what I mean.

Last week I didn't. I'm not sure why I'm bothering to write about this really, another boring burrito is hardly exciting news. Probably because I like to whinge.

Here's that boring burrito, or rice sandwich as I'm renaming it. No-one really wants a rice sandwich do they? Especially when the rice is overcooked verging on mushy.

For balance I should point out that there was some beef and other stuff in there too, which was quite nice when you chanced on it. But why it cost an extra quid for the barbacoa shredded beef I'm not entirely sure. Update: I've just wikipedia-ed it and apparently proper barbacoa meat is cooked in a hole in the ground covered by maguey leaves (or if you spell it differently, it's a shit Jamie Oliver restaurant in London). That explains it then.

Not nasty or inedible or anything, just six quid's worth of boring boring boring.

4/10

261 Byres Road
Glasgow

http://www.tacomazama.co.uk

Northern Food on tour: Scotland round-up

Nothing we ate on our recent trip to Scotland was as exciting as our dinner at Wedgwood, but we didn't do badly. Here's what else we ate.

Espresso Mondo, Edinburgh

A late lunch on arrival in Edinburgh. The cafe was a bit scruffy but they had a nice line in loose leaf teas and coffee.

They made a nice brew but the food was less successful. A chicken panino with peppers, pesto and mozarella wasn't great. The chicken tasted low grade and processed and the accompanying salad was boring. Whoever decided dribbling catering pack balsamic glaze onto tortilla chips was a good idea wants sacking too. Reasonably priced for Edinburgh.

5/10

116 Lothian Road
Edinburgh
EH3 9BE


Paperino's, West End, Glasgow

After the previous night's posh dinner we decided to lower the tone a little in Glasgow. Pizza and ice cream please!

The pizzas at Paperino's were pretty good, with a decent chewy-charred crust and quality toppings. The sausage on mine was lovely, coarse and spicy with loads of fennel.

Both of them were overtopped though. There is such thing as too much cheese and sausage on a pizza, there really is. Less can be more. Still, after scraping off some of the excess they went down a treat.

It's a quick, casual place, not really somewhere to linger but worth it for the pizza, for which prices are reasonable (around the £9 mark). Mark ups on side dishes and drinks let the side down though. £2.95 doesn't sound bad for a side salad, but it's poor for a side salad consisting of not very much of nothing remotely interesting, and a pint of Peroni shouldn't cost £4.65.

7/10 if you stick to pizza and tap water. Knock a point off if salad and booze is included.

227 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8UD

http://www.paperinos.co.uk/





Nardini's, West End, Glasgow

Thanks (I think) to a large Italian immigrant population, many of whom set up business in the catering industry back in the day, Scotland, and Glasgow in particular is well endowed with pizza restaurants, caffs serving proper coffee and ice cream parlours.

This is a novel concept to residents of Yorkshire cities, which last time I noticed weren't particularly well stocked with ice cream parlours (If I'm wrong please do tell), so we had to follow up the pizza with a ridiculous dirty great ice cream sundae.

I can't remember the name of this, but it comprised raspberry syrup, raspberries and vanilla ice cream topped with an unfeasibly large quantity of whipped cream with three chocolate marshmallow snowballs shoved in it, and an assortment of wafers. Ace.

I think it cost about £6, but it served two with ease. Although I think I had most of it.

8/10

215 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8UD

http://www.nardinis.co.uk/ 




Avenue G, West End, Glasgow

Excellent coffee. A flat white was up there with those from my favourite coffee shops. Exceptionally smooth with quite a pronounced bitterness. Somehow still balanced though, delicious.

Toasted brioche was ok but slightly let down by the cheap butter and jam it was served with. The sandwiches and cakes looked very good though.

£2.20 for the flat white. Similar for tea. Cakes around £3. Table service, efficient and friendly.

8/10

291 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8TL

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avenue-G-Caf%C3%A9-Glasgow/223293021018108




Curler's Rest, West End, Glasgow

I liked the look of the Curler's Rest, a tarted up pub on Byres Road. Bare wooden tables, plenty of space, a few good beers on draft, a pleasing enough but strangely familiar sounding menu.

Then I took a look at the website and discovered a new phenomenon. I'm calling it the 'stealth chain'. A pub run by a large corporation, with the same style and the same food as others run by the same large corporation. A chain pub. The difference being that said large corporation doesn't want you to know that it's a chain pub, because it's not aimed at people who like chain pubs.

I looked at the website (here it is: http://www.thecurlersrestglasgow.co.uk/food/) and immediately thought 'I've seen that before'.

Then I remembered: The Adelphi (http://www.theadelphileeds.co.uk/food/). AS thought it looked familiar too. Then she remembered: The Lescar (http://www.thelescarhuntersbar.co.uk/food/).

A couple of days later I was searching for somewhere good to eat in the vicinity of Waterloo station when I chanced upon the White Hart website: http://www.thewhitehartwaterloo.co.uk/food/.

So that's at least four not obviously chain pubs in four different cities spread over four hundred miles with virtually identical menus and the same photo of roast beef on their websites. Thanks Mitchells and Butlers you sly bastards.

Anyhow this is a subject to which I may return, but what of the food at the Curler's Rest? It started off wonderfully. After three courses with three wines, then pizza and ice cream, the last night of our break was supposed to be healthier. I accidentally couldn't resist ordering battered black pudding from the bar snacks list though. Oops.

It was worth the calories though. Nuggets of soft peppery pudding encased in a marvellously light crisp batter.

Things went rapidly downhill with the wild salmon fishcakes. They were alright, well flavoured but a bit claggy texture-wise. The accompanying salad was supposed to be little gem and beetroot, which it did contain, but not in such significant quantities as the other stuff that fell out of the salad bag (slightly slimy tasteless watercress mainly).

AS also had a salad; - halloumi, cous cous and whatnot in a spicy dressing. She liked it but it looked to be suffering from the same slimy salad affliction from where I was sitting.

We paid around £33 including a couple of alcoholic drinks each. The service was lovely.

6/10 (would have been less but for the black pudding)

256-260 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8SH

Banana Leaf, Glasgow

Glasgow's West End is a great place to eat Indian food. There are several restaurants and cafes all within walking distance of one another (and also all owned by the same people) that have served me some really fantastic food over the last few years. This meal at the Wee Curry Shop was wonderful, and prior to starting the blog I dined well at two of the Mother India places.

Banana Leaf, a budget South Indian cafe and takeaway in the same part of town (but not under the same ownership), has had loads of great press so I was hoping it would live up to the high expectations.

First thing to note: go elsewhere if you want a nice restaurant. This is very much a caff and takeaway, and a bit on the grotty side at that. Don't let that put you off though, budget South Indian places always seem to be a bit scruffy and none of them have poisoned me yet (and they did have hygiene certificates on the wall).

The food is cheap, and the menu predictable for anyone familiar with cheap and cheerful South Indian food. There are dosai, vadai, idly's, sambar, loads of curries and dry-fried dishes.

Being greedy and having not had one in ages I ordered a plain dosa (£4) as well as a non-veg set meal (£7.50).

I couldn't fault the dosa, it was thin and light without being so thin it crumbled to nothing. Just the right texture for scooping up the chutney's and sambar which were all good. Fresh, bright tomato and coconut chutney's and a deeply savoury sambar tempered with loads of mustard seeds and curry leaves.

The set meal included (clockwise from top right) more sambar, raita, mixed veg curry, chicken curry, chapattis and rice. I could have eaten the chicken gravy, sambar and rice all day, lovely stuff. The chicken curry gravy matched the sambar for savoury deliciousness, having a stock base built up from bone-in chicken. The rice was fluffy loveliness.

The veg curry was a little too sweet and watery and the chapattis were rubbish (thick, doughy). Forget the breads here and stick to rice or pancakes.

I enjoyed this, the only thing missing was a bit of a chilli hit. Everything was very mild for South Indian food. I'm sure the Glaswegians can handle a bit of spice so I'm not sure why it was all so toned down. Having said that if I had somewhere like this anywhere near my house I'd be in there once a week.

Pretty good for £13 including a soft drink and tip. It's also handily positioned just round the corner for pre- or post-curry beers at Brewdog Glasgow. Worth a visit.

7/10

76 Old Dumbarton Road
Glasgow
G3 8RE

http://home.btconnect.com/glasgowproperty/bananaleaf/banana.html

BarMC and Grill, Abode Hotel, Glasgow

At last a half decent hotel restaurant meal. I had high hopes for this one. I've never eaten in any of the restaurants that Michael Caines puts his name to, but had a general impression that he was a famous Chef who hadn't completely cashed in at the altar of celebrity. No embarassing endorsements, only intermittently on the telly, a two-michelin starred gaff that he might actually cook in himself and a small chain of hotel restaurants that seem to garner generally positive reviews for the food.

The Glasgow outpost is one of the more casually branded, bar and grill rather than restaurant, which is a fair description of the place in practice. It looked like they were definitely aiming for the weekend drinking market;- plenty of standing room, dimly lit with neon edges, dance tunes on in the background and drinks offers displayed prominently. All fine on a quiet Wednesday night but probably not much fun for a weekend meal.

The menu differed from the one on the website, suggesting it does get changed frequently, and was also short. I've never had potted shrimps before, so was pleased to see them on the menu. I've heard the dish described enough times to know this was a classic rendition. Tiny sweet brown shrimps, spiced with a little mace and set in clarified butter;- scooped onto delicate toast they were really good. A little more lemon juice would have been good though to give the flavours a lift.

Cod with chorizo and chickpeas in a tomato and mussel broth was pleasant, but not as described. The fish was nicely cooked and worked well with the broth which seemed to be flavoured only with the chorizo and tomatoes. There were definitely no chickpeas and I couldn't detect any mussel flavour in the broth. If mussels were involved I'd imagine they would have served a few in the dish too, there'd be no point releasing their juices to flavour the sauce then throwing the meat away. In place of mussels and chickpeas were vegetables, harmless enough but not adding anything to the dish particularly in the case of some mushy bits of broccoli.

The first two courses were moderately sized so I had room for dessert. The million dollar question where any chocolate fondant is concerned (as played out on Masterchef about twice a week for the last several years) is can they time it right so the insides are molten and lovely? In this case, yes. The fondant was very good but I wasn't a huge fan of the accompanying pain d'épices (spice bread) ice-cream which was too strong on the cinnamon for my taste. I'd have preferred something a little cleaner tasting to offset the richness of the chocolate (vanilla suits me fine). It was a good ice-cream though, and a subtle seasonal touch on the menu.

Overall I enjoyed this meal, it wasn't brilliant but each course had good points and it was far better than is often the case in mid-range hotel restaurants. Service was friendly and efficient, and prices are reasonable by hotel standards. Three courses with a large glass of wine will set you back around £30-£35 including service.

7/10

Abode Glasgow
129 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 2SZ

http://www.michaelcaines.com/barmc-and-grill/glasgow

The Wee Curry Shop, Partick, Glasgow

Best laid plans and all that. I started out with no intention whatsoever of eating Indian food in Glasgow this week. I was thinking Spanish or maybe even a rare foray into Italian, but my first two restaurant choices were both utterly deserted. I didn't fancy being the sole diner staring out at the drizzle from an empty room, so moved on. Said drizzle wasn't really conducive to a lengthy walk either so I ended up at the Wee Curry Shop near the bottom of Byres Road. Not entirely a random choice as I dined at one of their other restaurants last summer and really enjoyed it.

The menu here is refreshingly short, and gives equal billing to both vegetables and meat. There are just five starters and eleven main courses, a rare sight in Indian restaurants where the 'something for everyone 500 different options' menu seems to prevail over the 'do few things and do them well' school of thought.

To begin, haddock with mustard seed and curry leaves was served in the foil it had been baked in. It was simple and delicious, lightly cooked until it just flaked and marinaded with nothing but the named ingredients and a bit of salt.

Sticking with the meat avoidance plan, next up was channa paneer with broccoli. I've heard paneer described as being a bit like feta, or a bit like cottage cheese. This was nothing like either. It was slightly rubbery, but not in a bad way. The flavour was really mellow and milky, perhaps more like mozarella if anything. Despite the mildness it was still distinct through all of the other tastes in the dish.

The earthier tastes; creamy paneer, nutty chickpeas and vegetal broccoli were offset beautifully with the tangy, garlicky tomato based sauce. Slivers of raw ginger and coriander leaf added little vibrant bursts of flavour. Scooped up in light, pillowy roti this was fantastic. Great with rice too, although an extra roti would have been a better choice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite the deliberate lack of lamb it was the best Indian meal I've eaten this year. Service was efficient and amenable, and it was great value too (£16.90 including a generous tip).


9/10

The Wee Curry Shop
41 Byres Road
Glasgow
G11 5RG

http://www.weecurryshopglasgow.co.uk/