Monthly Archives: March 2010

Nanakusa, Glasgow City Centre

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We ate at Nanakusa on Saturday, 27 March 2010. We were celebrating our anniversary, so it was a bit of a special occasion!

Thankfully we had booked as it was absolutely mobbed at Nanakusa. And so it should be – we have eaten at this restaurant 5 times since discovering it in May 2009 and have never been disappointed. This was the first time it was really busy in the restaurant which was a pleasing sight as it’s good to see that others have cottoned on to how amazing this restaurant is.

The restaurant is beautifully decorated with light timber panelled walls and ever-changing wall lights which give the restaurant a moody vibe. What I like about this restaurant is that it has a casual atmosphere but has exquisite food of the highest standard. The staff are so friendly that you feel like you’ve been inducted into their family as soon as you arrive. As the restaurant was so busy, it was quite noisy – but not in a distracting or annoying way, more a pleasant rubble in the background.

The menu is massive! The biggest difficulty we have eating here is to narrow down the possibilities and to try new things – there are dishes I would happily order every visit, but I try to be adventurous. The menu ranges from small starters (better for sharing than a strict starter), noodles in soup, stir fried noodles, teppan noodles, rice dishes, house specialities and a la carte dishes. Furthermore, there is an amazing selection of sushi and sashimi, as well as special yakitori BBQ dishes. You will definately be able to find something very exciting on the menu and I love spending time reading all the dish descriptions and salivating before finally choosing my meal!

We normally get about 3 starter size dishes and then two mains which is a great sized meal for two people. As Saturday night was a special occasion we also lashed out for wine and dessert which made for an amazingly decadent meal at a very reasonable price.

We ate:

 Sake maguro sashimi – tuna and salmon. I love sashimi and this is some of the most delicious I’ve ever eaten – including the sashimi I ate in Japan. Perfectly cut and presented, and delicate and tender in flavour and texture. A real delight and a lovely start to the meal. 
 We ate octopus balls (takoyaki) when we were first in Japan and they are a favourite of ours. These seemed to be hand-rolled as opposed to being cooked in a traditional takoyaki grill, but they were just as delicious and had generous chunks of octopus. 
Ebi yakitori – grilled prawns with yakitori sauce. I didn’t get a try of these as my boyfriend wolfed them down pretty quickly, but he did tell me they were very soft and delicate, perfectly cooked and nicely marinated. I love prawns – so no comment! Ha. 
Yaki sake gohan – teriyaki salmon with rice. Wow, what an amazing dish. The salmon was light and fresh and the sauce was generous and packed with flavour. 
Kamo chilli noodle – deep friend duck stir fry. I avoid anything deep fried as I don’t normally like the greasyness, but the duck was delicious and I immediately regretted not ordering this! The deep frying made the duck lovely and crispy and it worked really well in the stir fry. Yum.
Chocolate cheesecake. Wow, delicious and amazing. So amazing in fact, we broke protocol and both ordered the same dessert. I loved it, but don’t have as much of a sweet tooth as my boyfriend and had to let him finish it. He didn’t seem to mind!
As you can tell, I am a huge fan of this restaurant and cannot find any fault with it. The meals are reasonably priced and of an very high standard, all serving sizes are very generous and the staff are fantastically welcoming and friendly. Highly recommended! 

Nanakusa on Urbanspoon

West Brewery, Glasgow Green

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We ate at West Brewery on Saturday, 19 March 2010. As we’d had lunch, it was more of a mid-afternoon snack to fend off drunkeness from too many beers!

West is in a beautiful location, right near the People’s Palace and on Glasgow Green. It is such a beautiful location in fact, that there was a wedding there on Saturday when we popped in for drinks. This meant the front room (the Hop Room) was closed off for the wedding and reception.

We love our beers and dived straight into West’s own beers. While I am a member of a beer club, I am no expert and so will instead direct you to West’s website for more detailed information about their beers. I thoroughly enjoyed the Hefeweizen for my first beer of the day, while my boyfriend went for the St Mungo. We later headed inside to enjoy some food – as it was mid-afternoon and I wasn’t hungry enough for a proper meal, I had the cheese board. Delicious – served with the usual blue cheese, cheddar and brie, as well as butter (something I am yet to fully comprehend) as well as a delicious red onion chutney. The chutney was lovely and rich, really made the cheeseboard a bit more interesting than the usual.

(I apologise that the cheeseboard has been half-eaten in the photo!)

My boyfriend had a pepper chicken sandwich which was served with chips or salad (he chose chips!). The chicken was lovely, soft and velvety and the chips were lovely and fresh. One thing I love about West is the accompaniments – I love that they give you four different sauces for your chips. Very generous and well appreciated!

Pepper chicken sandwich with chips.

We also shared some onion rings – I should have learnt by now that I don’t enjoy onion rings, but my boyfriend loved them!

We had a great afternoon at West and wouldn’t hesitate to go back. The one oddity of the day was dogs being allowed in the restaurant area which I found strange, however not off-putting enough not to return. And I love dogs. But strange, all the same.

West Brewery, Bar & Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Upcoming reviews

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I thought I’d list a couple of the places we are heading to in the upcoming months in case any readers would like to make some suggestions:

West Brewery, Templeton Building, Glasgow Green
Nanakusa, 441 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Royal India, 10 Harvie Avenue, Newton Mearns

I promise that all upcoming reviews will actually have photos! Sorry about the lack of photos so far, I have not been very diligent with the camera.

And some reviews to be posted from restaurants we have already visited:

Wedgwood the Restaurant, 267 Cannongate, Edinburgh
Ichiban Sushi & Noodle Cafe, 50 Queen Street, Glasgow

The Butterfly & The Pig, Glasgow City Centre

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We ate at the Butterfly & the Pig on Wednesday, 17 March 2010.

This was one of the first pubs I visited when first in Glasgow. And I was amazed, it was beautifully decorated and had a lovely relaxed yet vibrant feel. They have great décor, everything is interesting to look at with mis-matching furniture and plates without anything being worn or crappy. It’s the kind of place you feel comfortable in instantly and I’m always wanting to head back there as soon as possible.

We have eaten here so many times and I have never had a disappointing meal. The menu has to be mentioned – anyone who has eaten here knows what I mean. It’s written in part rhyming slang, part jibberish and makes for an interesting and informative read, and I love that there is always an element of surprise to what your meal actually will be.

You can eat in the restaurant section, or in the more casual bar section. Both locations are ideal. We have not yet had the pleasure of eating upstairs at the Tea Rooms however, we will have to rectify this as soon as possible!

When we ate here on Wednesday night, my boyfriend opted for the beef burger and I ate the chicken – both were generous, delicious and exactly hit that spot. To me, there isn’t a better feeling than being “just right” full after dinner. We didn’t have dessert as we were heading off to Frankie Boyle, but past experiences have been a delight. I can’t go past a cheese board, and my boyfriend loves anything oozing in chocolate.

Our meals came in at a very decent £15 for two mains. I love this place and can’t wait to return.

The Butterfly and the Pig on Urbanspoon

Red Onion, Glasgow City Centre

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We ate at Red Onion on Saturday, 6 March 2010 with a couple of friends. And again, apologies for the lack of photos – I promise I will do better in the future!

We had walked past Red Onion many times (mostly on the way to the Butterfly and the Pig, a big favorite of ours which will be featured in an upcoming blog post) but Saturday was the first night we ventured in for a meal. The restaurant is beautiful and has a lovely atmosphere. For some reason I’m quite partial to sitting in booths as it feels quite intimate and private.

A slight criticism I have is that the menu is not presented very well online, but in person it is easy to pick the stand-out meals of the menu. I ate crayfish, plum tomato and avocado salad with caesar dressing and melba toast, followed by Malaysian style curried salmon baked in a banana leaf, with coconut rice and spicy peanut salad.

What an amazing meal! The crayfish was fresh and delicate and everything in the salad went extremely well together. The salmon was the highlight for me though, it was beautifully presented and the taste was mind blowing. I had feared the salmon may be overcooked but it was lovely and delicate, and the flavours were huge without being overpowering.

For dessert I had the cheese board. For me, the blue cheese was too strong (which I have never said before) but a dining companion happily wolfed it down, so it didn’t go to waste.

Overall, I would give this restaurant a very high rating as the service was impeccible, and the food was amazing. Best of all it was great value and came in about £40 per head for a three course meal, plus two bottles of wine. Great value in my book and I can’t wait to go back.

Red Onion on Urbanspoon

Il Pavone Sud, Newton Mearns

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A slightly older review, as we ate at Il Pavone Sud in January 2010. I was expecting it to be a bit average as its sister cafe (inside the Avenue shopping centre) can be a bit average and overpriced. But Il Pavone Sud was lovely!

We just stopped in for a brief lunch but I’m looking forward to going back for dinner.

Pepperoni pizza:

My creamy salmon pasta (with a strange arrangement of cherry tomatoes to the left hand side…)
I really enjoyed the pasta, it was fresh and the salmon was delicious. Not overly creamy (something that their sister restaurant can sometimes get wrong). The service was friendly and it had a lovely, relaxed atmosphere. I would be interested to see how busy it gets during dinner service. 
Il Pavone Sud on Urbanspoon

The Kitchin, Edinburgh

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The first day of the blog and I’m already breaking the theme! Not all the restaurants we will be eating at will be in Glasgow, and this is our first minor diversion. We ate at The Kitchin, Edinburgh (Leith to be more precise) on 14 February, 2010. 


It has been described the as the best restaurant in Scotland, the 2nd best restaurant in the UK and also has a  Michelin star to its name. Safe to say we were quite excited about going!

They had a special 5 course dinner for Valentine’s Day, plus amuse bouche and a glass of champagne. We tried to resist, but failed. It was a great option as we had a bigger range of dishes to try and would have skipped the seafood in the a’ la carte menu, which ended up being amazing. We drank a bottle of Fritz Haag Riesling from Brauneberg in Germany. The wine was amazing and I’d love to have it again.


We ate: 

Langoustine consommé w/brown prawns

Carpaccio of west coast octopus w/pickled vegetables and a lemon & caper dressing

Razorfish from Arisaig, served with diced vegetables, chorizo and lemon confit

Seared fillet of North Sea red mullet, served with a ragout of coco beans


Saddle of roe deer from Humbie, served with pumpkin, celeriac, roasted apple from Moira’s garden and pepper sauce


Sadly I missed taking a picture of dessert!! I think I was too excited and in some kind of food heaven after the venison. Dessert was “Pear ‘Belle Helene a la Kitchin’, served with chocolate ravioli and vanilla ice cream”. Absolutely delicious and the ravioli was tiny but had so much rich chocolate flavour. 


My favourite courses were the razorfish and the venison. Originally I said the razorfish was the best thing I’d ever eaten, but had to take that back once I had the venison! 

The whole dinner was amazing. The restaurant was lovely and peaceful and the whole atmosphere was relaxing, not stuffy or pretentious. 

We were so happy and pleased with dinner, it was expensive but well worth it. I can’t wait to go back, we are already planning on going back for lunch as they have a great deal of £24.50 for three courses at lunchtime. There really was a big difference between the food served here than anywhere else we’ve ever eaten, so it was great to see that a Michelin star really does mean something. 

The Kitchin on Urbanspoon

Richard’s, Newton Mearns

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We ate at Richard’s on Ayr Road in Newton Mearns on Monday 22 February 2010.

They have a set menu of two courses for £14.95 which seemed like great value. We diverted from this however (it was a special occasion) and went for the specials which had price supplements. I can’t resist a prawn!

I ate: goats cheese salad with walnuts and iceberg lettuce, tiger prawns provencal with rice (£8 supplement) and strawberry & raspberry pavlova.

My boyfriend ate: bruchetta with goats cheese, duck breast with pepper sauce (£5 supplement) and strawberries and chocolate & ginger cheesecake.

It was a lovely, small restaurant with just one waiter and a peaceful, relaxing atmosphere. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a beautiful meal, however I think the menu was a bit dated and aimed at the older generation.

Sadly no food photos!

Richard's on Urbanspoon

The Clockwork Beer Company, Cathcart

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We ate at the Clockwork Beer Company in Cathcart on Saturday 27 February 2010. Apologies that there aren’t any photos of the food!
It is a short walk from Mount Florida train station, making it a perfect place to go for Saturday afternoon/evening drinks without having to worry about getting home. They also have their own microbrewery on site which means you’ve got loads of different beers to sample. I tried the Red Alt at 4.4% – made from American red ale hops and German Alt ale. I loved it, really drinkable and a smooth, sweet flavour. My favourite of their beers. My boyfriend didn’t enjoy the Hazy Daze Ginger quite so much as it was slightly watery and the ginger flavour was overpowering.
The menu is simple and straightforward. I liked that they served food right through the afternoon into the evening, but I didn’t like that there was a separate dining area as it seemed to be lacking in atmosphere, and there were too many children running around for my liking. I fully acknowledge there isn’t much Clockwork can do about this though, and they do market themselves as “family friendly”.
Between four of us we shared the combo platter, consisting of breaded mushrooms, onion rings, chicken goujons, garlic bread with dips of garlic mayo and salsa. Delicious and the perfect amount of food for four as an entree.
For main I had the chicken fajitas which were served as “make your own” (thinking about it, I’m not sure how else you could serve fajitas!). Fresh, sizzling and delicious, the chicken, onion and capsicum (spiced peppers) were tender, moist and made for 4 delicious wraps. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would go back just for the fajitas.
A great bar with interesting beers on tap, simple food but with excellent flavours.

The Clockwork Beer Company on Urbanspoon