Category Archives: Steak

Malmaison, Glasgow City Centre

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We hadn’t visited Malmaison in ages and were thankful to be invited along to try their new Sunday lunch menu, the Mal on Sunday. I’ll forgive their play on the newspaper with a similar name but of dubious quality. Lunch at Malmaison was simply all class, no trash.

Chef’s Table at Malmaison

For £19.95 per person you get a three course meal in the Brasserie. Malmaison have gone for something a little different though, which makes this feel decidedly more decadent and special than a usual three course set menu. The starter course is served at the Chef’s Table – “a selection of hors d’oeuvres and chef’s cook station featuring eggs, omelettes, waffles and pancakes prepared just for you.” We arrived at around midday on Easter Sunday to find the Chef’s Table to ourselves – you can imagine my delight! I was also ravenous from playing roller derby the day before, so it was great to be able to head up and help ourselves without having to wait for our orders to come out.

Chef’s Table: pancake/omelette station

The Chef’s Table was incredibly well stocked, and would cater for all tastes – salmon, cold meats, salads, pancakes, fruits as well as the option to have an omelette made fresh with whatever filling you wanted. The chef at the table on Sunday was incredibly chatty and friendly, and was super helpful with any questions you had about what certain dishes were. My only comment would be that they could improve the lighting in this areas as it is pretty dark and could be difficult to see!

My first trip to the Chef’s Table

I can’t fault anything I ate at the Chef’s Table, it was all fresh, tasty and in good portion sizes. I was wary of eating too much and not being able to eat my main though.

For mains, I went for the steak: Mal steak frites (200gm). Graeme had the burger (180gm) with bacon, Gruyère and fries. Our mains arrived a good amount of time after we had finished eating from the Chef’s Table, meaning we felt relaxed and had some digestion time. The steak was massive and I found it a challenge to finish it all. It was cooked beautifully and had a nice charred grill flavour on the outside while being perfectly cooked (medium rare) on the inside.

Mal steak frites

Graeme’s burger made me drool with envy. I really struggle to find a burger that I like in Glasgow – I am really not a fan of a tower burger that is impossible to eat. While this burger was big, it tasted heavenly. I put it down to the relish on the burger which had a nice pickle flavour through it. The bun was also really soft and easy to bite into.

Mal lunch burger with bacon, Gruyère and fries

Finally we moved onto dessert. With 7 options it was a little difficult to narrow it down but I ended up going for the crème brûlée and Graeme ordered the sorbet.

Crème brûlée

Apart from the fact that this dessert was delicious, it was also served in a wide and shallow bowl – meaning more of the crunchy topping! Perfect! I did struggle to finish this though, just because it was rich and I was incredibly full by this stage.

Sorbet

Sorbet is such a great way to finish a heavy meal as it refreshes and cleanses, and is easy to eat as it’s so light. This sorbet was lovely and each flavour packed a real punch.

We had a wonderful lunch at Malmaison. It was quiet while we were there, but it was the first day of British Summer Time so people may have been still sleeping in! The staff was friendly and helpful – again, a shout-out to the chef on the Chef’s Table as well as the lovely hostess.

Thanks to Purple PR for inviting us along to sample the new lunch menu. It was a really lovely Easter treat!

Bo’Vine, Glasgow West End

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It’s been a while between posts! Sorry for the lack of content recently – life has gotten in the way. Thankfully I have a huge back-load to post over the Christmas holidays so prepare to be inundated.

We had dinner at Bo’Vine a while ago, and had a lovely time. We had been meaning to go to Bo’Vine ever since my first trip to Byres Road (probably in April 2009 – so quite a while!) as I thought it looked like an interesting place from the outside, and I love steak. We finally made our way there and were greeted by some seriously friendly staff members.

This restaurant is attached to the Hilton Byres Road, although I don’t think it felt like a hotel restaurant in any way. We had a drink before hand in the bar next door which was a nice place to start (although it was incredibly quiet the night we were there!).

We ate:

Carpaccio of Perthshire Venison, pine nuts, Parmesan, pickled wild mushrooms, Sloe Gin Shot £7.00

This carpaccio (hidden under the salad) was very generous and delicious. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the shot, so I handed that over to Graeme to drink. I think it’s hard to beat the winning combination of rocket, Parmesan and pine nuts though, so I really enjoyed this starter.

Haggis Bon Bons, Madras fruit chutney, potato & truffle crisp £7.00

All Graeme’s dreams come true? Possibly! He really loved this starter, and I like what I tried of it although sometimes I find haggis a bit overbearing. I loved the crispyness of the bon bons, and the chutney worked really well with it – personally I wouldn’t have tried haggis with chutney before but I definitely will now!

Char-Grilled rib-eye 9oz – £17.00

We both had the same steak, just with different sides. I went for dauphinoise potatoes whereas Graeme had chips, and you can also choose a sauce or another size in the price of the steak. I think £17.00 for a 9 ounce steak is a pretty good price in Glasgow compared to other steak restaurants. Especially when you factor in getting two sides or a sauce and a side!

Dauphinoise potatoes

If I could, I think I would live on dauphinoise potatoes. I loved the cheese oozing off these potatoes and devoured the whole thing.

After eating all that food, we had absolutely no room left for dessert! This was a bit of a shame as there are definitely a few desserts I could have eaten – or even the dessert for two would have been a nice option.

We had a really nice time at Bo’Vine. The restaurant had a pleasant atmosphere with it being busy, but not crowded. I’m looking forward to our return visit to try the great value Market Menu which is £14.50 for 2 courses… or maybe the Lobster & Chateubriand (£85.00 for two) as I’ve heard Michelle from ananyah.com mention! Perhaps that’s one for a special occasion.

Thanks to DADA PR for inviting us to dinner.

Bo'Vine on Urbanspoon

Viva Brazil Restaurant, Glasgow City Centre, Glasgow

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I’d heard about Viva Brazil on the grapevine but wasn’t really sure what it was all about until we went for dinner last Thursday. I’d had one of those days, it was pouring with rain, I’d trekked to Edinburgh and back and was totally drenched by the time I arrived for dinner. Thankfully all my stress and frustration soon dissipated upon eating at Viva Brazil.

We met the owner, Jaf Siddiqi who explained how to restaurant works to us and told us a bit about the food and idea of the restaurant (I’ll come back to that later!). Jaf explained that food is served rodizio style – traditional Brazilian style – whereby you pay a fixed price for your meals and waiters bring around different meats to serve to you at the table. On your table, you’ll find your coaster serves as a yes/no signal for more food – just switch over to red when you need a break and the waiters will leave you to get on with eating or digesting. If you feel like getting back into the food, flip to green and they’ll be back with more meats for you.

Chilli chicken – frango com pimenta  

You can also go up to the salad bar and help yourself to whatever you fancy – this comes with a warning though, don’t fill up your plate on salad and leave no room for the delicious meats!

Hot salad bar and cold salad bar

I loved the meats – they were all cooked in the same way (on a barbecue and being Australian, obviously I love a barbie!) but all the meats had different marinades or finish so were all different flavours. Some of the meats we tried were the chilli chicken, pictured above – I loved this and it had a real spice to it. We were offered chicken hearts and I initially baulked at the idea, but then decided to just give them a whirl anyway (they are quite small after all). They were actually delicious! I really enjoyed them. At Viva Brazil they marinade them in red wine, garlic, black pepper and oregano. I was really impressed. If you want to know the rest of the meats on offer, they have a huge range of red meats (rump, lamb, sirloin, flank steak, pork and beef ribs) as well as an assortment of chicken – you can check out the selection on their menu.

Barbecue where all the assorted meats are cooked

If you’re not a meat lover, don’t think that you’d just be left with the salad bar as your only option – they also do a seafood option which gives you a heavenly assortment of prawns and fish on a tray to your table.

Seafood selection
Viva Brazil has a really nice atmosphere – the restaurant is a huge space but they have cleverly split it into sections so you don’t feel like you’re sitting in a vacant hall. We had booth seats which face out toward the rest of the restaurant so you can watch everything that is going on. 
After our meal, Jaf filled us in a bit more about the foods and how much effort they go to make it an authentic Brazilian experience. They import some of their ingredients from Brazil instead of substituting another item of a lesser standard. 

We then were treated to a big selection of desserts, which I was worried about as I was already at bursting point. Thankfully the deserts are light and really refreshing after devouring so much meat.

Mango, papaya and passionfruit desserts
Going to Viva Brazil made me remember why I love writing this blog so much – meeting people like Jaf who are so passionate and enthusiastic about their food and sharing it with people. I’m really glad we had the opportunity to visit as I’d never had a Brazilian meal before and I really loved the experience. I think it would be a really fun and interesting place to go to share a meal with a group of friends.

The Glasgow Food Blog dined as guests of 3×1 Public Relations

Viva Brazil Glasgow on Urbanspoon

The Grill Room at the Square, 29 Glasgow, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

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I need to openly declare that I am immensely biased about 29 Glasgow at the start of this post. We had our wedding reception at 29 in June, and if I could marry a venue it would be this one. Of course our wedding day was the highlight of my life (apart from our second wedding day in Melbourne), and that’s why I love it so much. I’ll even admit I was quite nervous going back on Sunday night for The Grill Room at the Squares new Wicked Steak Club as I had such magical memories from our wedding day. I needn’t have worried.

So what is the Wicked Steak Club? Once a month (sometimes once every two months, depending on the time of year) The Grill Room will present a guest steak in a 4 course menu for £40 per head, or £32 if you’re a member of 29.

The guest steak last night was from Cairnhill Farms, based in Ayrshire and the steak was accompanied by a menu designed by head chef David Friel.

Also: apologies for the photos – I didn’t want to put the flash on, and the restaurant can be quite dark! So please just squint and use your imagination.

We ate:

Freshly baked home made bread
Sometimes restaurant bread can be delicious, and yet nothing to comment on. This bread was flavoured with lemon and dill and was absolutely delicious. A very generous sized loaf for two people to share – I had to stop myself scoffing down the whole thing as I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat the steak if I did! 
Hot and cold smoked salmon open sandwich with pineapple and mango salsa, coriander crème fraiche
I think this was a great accompaniment to a steak main – it was light, fresh and packed with flavour. The coriander crème fraiche was absolutely delicious. 
Lemon sorbet
A lovely palette cleanser – too icy for my sensitive teeth sadly! Graeme enjoyed both of them though. 
Cairnhill Farms extra matured 8 oz fillet with steak sauce, creamed cheese potato, caramelised onion and wilted spinach
This picture does no justice to the meal whatsoever! The steak was cooked perfectly and was up there with the best steaks I’ve ever eaten (Rockpool Melbourne being the other). The caramelised onion didn’t float my boat to be honest (but it generally doesn’t, I don’t like sweet with my savoury) but the creamed cheese potato was what my dreams are made of. Words can’t really express how delicious the steak was – let’s just say that even though I was incredibly full, I was still chowing it down until I had to admit defeat (granted, I probably only had 20 grams to go as well). 
Ice-cream and jelly dessert
After that immense steak, jelly was the only thing I could manage and so this dessert was excellent. 
I loved the Wicked Steak Night at 29. It was really well run and the sales manager of Cairnhill Farms spoke at the beginning of the meal to give us an insight into just what makes their meat so special. The night is also excellent value – on the a la carte menu, a fillet steak is normally £32 on its own, so to pay £40 for a 4 course meal is a pretty fantastic deal.

Are you tempted to go to the next Wicked Steak Night? It’s on Sunday 4 December – hopefully we’ll see you there!

The Grill on the Square on Urbanspoon