Chutinan C.
Yelp
I'm usually a bit wary when it comes to highly rated restaurants that appear almost at the top of google search when you look for a restaurant in a city but there's something about the Ubiquitous Chip that said "hey there, wait wait, don't discard me just yet, come see what I have to offer". So after reading several reviews here and there, I decided to give it a try. It was the definitely the right decision.
Like one of the other yelpers said, the Chip IS a Glaswegian institution.
Living in London, having lived in NYC and coming from Bangkok (foodie central of the world IMHO), I've become very spoilt with choices of fancy food. pretty artwork like dishes with an interesting twist so although I was open for some food creativity and art on a plate, I wanted something that could also offer a taste of Scotland. the Chip definitely ordered that. I was feeling greedy so I ordered the classic haggis neeps n' tatties for starters with the addition of whiskey cream, thanks to the suggestion of the lovely waitress, and the pigeon with sweet potato mash.
Haggis can be too rich sometimes and for non-Scots like me, it can be hard to find the right combo that would a great dish out of Haggis. The Chip told me how to do it but they did it so perfectly that I think i'll continue to leave it to them. It was the best haggis dish I'd ever had and the whisky cream sauce perfected the dish. Now that's what I was looking for.
Not long after enjoying the HNnT, the wood pigeon came. The pigeon itself was a bit too well cooked for me. It was a tasty pigeon, wasn't too gamey at all but the texture could have been more tender-something like a juicy duck breast would have been wonderful. But that was the only problem I had with the dish. The sauce was full of flavour and the rights ones and the sweet potato mash was just heavenly. Maybe they'd put a lot of butter into it but whatever they did, it was magic. Needless to say, the dish was very pleasing to the eye before I gobbled it all down.
And another great thing about this restaurant is, even though the decor is nice and fancy and you get people coming in for some fancy/proper dining, all the staff are super friendly and down to earth, just very easy going.
Only thing I regret was not waiting for my friend to come back from her study trip to join me. Yeah, it's one of those places that's so nice that you just want to take your friends and loved ones to. Such a beautiful place with a glass roof, beautiful interior design, a small waterfall and lovely paintings - the ambience of the place reminded me of this very dreamy artworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany in the sculpture hall of the Met Museum in NY. Love this place and will come here again.
Wow, that was long....