Brendan T.
Yelp
Very strong 3&1/2 and a functional Yelp 4...Despite being lucky enough to have had the opportunity to have made a number of visits to the great nation of Scotland, and arguably it's greatest and definitely largest city of Glasgow, I would be a fool to try to pass myself off as some sort of authority on it's cuisine, or larger culture in general for that matter. That being said, I found this contemporary Scottish gastropub, with a traditional Scottish Language name I could not begin to attempt to try to pronounce, right in the heart of one of Central Glasgows main strips to be a really solid representation of both.
Considering we stumbled into this place blindly during a Sunday Morning torrential downpour after being turned away from the more widely known, historic (and Bourdain approved) Cafe Gandolfi around the corner, I was skeptical that this would be a forgettable and/or mediocre meal or worse. Happily I was beyond pleasantly surprised by the uniformly solid take on Scottish and wider UK classics, the professional and friendly service and in particular the great multi course lunch special, which offered our group a chance to pick and choose and share, and sample widely across the menu, with portions huge enough to have leftovers for our Glasgow relatives to take home and enjoy later. The Cullen & Skank I had as my first course option, is a very thick seafood laden chowder, with a more yellowish tint than any NE clam you'll find back stateside and with an aggressively smokey and fishy (in the best way) flavor owing to the dominance of the smoked haddock at it's base. The Haggis, surely the most notorious and iconic of all Scottish dishes, served here in classically traditional fashion alongside perfectly lightly whipped up mashes of potato and turnips, which provide the perfect contrast to the dense, rich and unctuous haggis, it's rich decadent blend of oats and barley with deliciously bits of various organ meats was lovely and soul satisfying, dare I say delicious and nicely presented enough to make a convert of even the mildly offal-averse. The fried Haggis cake/fritter app that the misses got was one step to far for me however, and I imagine eating the whole thing of one of them might have run the risk of taking me out of commission for the day, landing in by stomach like a lead anchor. I would especially not advise ordering that, as she did in combination with the massive, very solidly prepared fish and chips, the portion size of which I would more commonly expect maybe in Texas as opposed to Scotland. I did however very much enjoy the Haggis, mixed alongside minced beef and a rich flavorful gravy enveloped in a delectable savory pie crust in the traditional Crofters Pie. While most of the party opted not to choose the desert course option and topped out at 2 courses, one of us did choose it and selected the most traditional seeming option of a lovely Sticky Toffee Pudding, which was probably just the perfect amount of food we could have at that point in the very filling and haggis-heavy meals before verging into over-stuffed territory. Cocktails were also quite nice, if just a tad on the sweet side, which I found to be more often the case than not in this country. All in all, while maybe not a life changing experience, you could do a lot worse than seeking refuge on a rainy Scottish afternoon by popping in here and having a, relaxed satisfying, solid stick to your ribs Scottish supper in a supremely pleasant room.
