I have partaken in many pub crawls in my time. Local ones, city ones, holiday ones…even the sub crawl. A food crawl, however, was a brand new venture that the genius Glasgow Food Geek came up with and organised. A group (I feel like we should have a collective term) of bloggers) visited three Glasgow west end restaurants who each provided us with some food. It was great fun, and we have another planned for this month!
Starters: Enjoy Cafe
393-395 Great Western Rd, Kelvinbridge, G4 9HY
(0141) 3346622
http://www.enjoywestend.co.uk
@EnjoyWestEnd
King prawns
These king prawns were cooked with herbs and garlic to give a simple dish, served with breads to soak up the lovely butter! As you’ll see, we were served a range of dishes in a tapas style, so the prawns were a fabulous addition to some of the salad dishes!
Salmon ceviche
I am not a fan of ceviche or sashimi – give me salmon treated with heat please! I thought it was smoked salmon until I was eating it, so unfortunately I didn’t like it. Don’t take my word for it though – I’m posting it here just so that you can get an idea of the food they serve – afterall you need extremely fresh fish to make ceviche!
Halloumi & Butternut Squash Salad
This is my favourite dish of the day – I love all of the ingredients individually, but I have never actually made myself a salad containing halloumi before, and I have never included butternut squash in a cold dish either. My mistake! The salty halloumi was the perfect addition to the roasted squash with a light salad dressed in mango with figs – a perfect light lunch!
King scallops on pea puree with prosciutto
I almost sickened myself of scallops (I said almost) becasue I went through a phase of seeing them on a menu and being unable to order anything else! I have been training myself to avoid them in the past few months because I have noticed that I’m not enjoying them like I used to, but I made an exception. When they serve you proscuitto and pea puree, you eat it. It was delicious, and I was impressed by their fresh, plump scallops!
Aubergine, Halloumi & Toasted Pine Nuts
More halloumi! Yay! This time it was baked onto some sliced aubergine and topped with a herb mixture and toasted pine nuts. Aubergine is a funny vegetable – it tastes different every time I eat it and it seems to change dependant on how its cooked and what its cooked with – which seems like a really dumb, obvious thing to say, but even when the dish is really plain this rule applies. Ooh it feels like the first time, every time…*ahem*
Hake
Y’all know how much I love me some fish, so when a fillet of hake arrives with an assortment of mediterranean vegetables, I was most pleased. The vegetables were lovely and tangy – that’s what I love most about mediterranean food, the fresh tangy ingredients – and the fish was cooked to perfection. Hake is quite meaty and this worked really well with the strong flavours from the vegetables.
Chicken & Roast Pepper Salad
Steak salad
I’m not going to beat about the bush: the salads were exactly what they said on the tin! Lovely bistro salads with roasted red pepper thrown in for good measure, and a generous helping of the grilled meat of choice!
Generally speaking, the food here is guilt free. You can eat the food here and feel really good about it – it’s delicious, it’s fresh, it’s pretty healthy in terms of both ingredients and the cooking – and the restaurant is cute as a button. I sampled some of their brand new menu that has just been launched and I’m excited to try it out properly! The wood pigeon I tried was absolutely stunning and many of you commented/liked the pictures on Instagram!
Main Courses: The Left Bank
33-35 Gibson Street, Glasgow, G12 8NU
(0141) 339 5969
http://www.theleftbank.co.uk
@TheLeftBank1
Garlic Masala Fish, Squid & Prawn Curry
As I have mentioned a couple of times now, I do love a seafood curry. Seafood and Indian cuisine are my two loves, and when I put them together I am complete. The Left Bank was our host for our main course, and I chose this curry with its tomato, coconut, chilli and curry leaf sauce and topped with garlic pickle. The curry was served with rice and papads (small poppadoms). I really enjoyed this curry – it was the perfect level of spice for me – some might find it a bit hot, and serious curry lovers might find it a bit cool. I like a spicy curry that doesn’t rip my mouth to shreds!
Dessert: The Richmond
144 Park Road, Glasgow, G4 9HB
(0141) 334 3571
http://www.therichmondglasgow.com
@TheRichmondG4
Assiette of Desserts
I nearly died when I realised this was all mine! What a generous portion!
Brownie
Cheesecake & Raspberry Coulis
The Nutella Samosa
This, my friends, is the one. If you haven’t tried this, you’re seriously missing out and you have my pity. Upon discussion, we have agreed that to descrbe the texture of the samosa, we have to call it a hybrid between croissant and samosa pastry. The pastry is quite dense, but it has to be to hold in the molten heaven within. The innards of this parcel is a mascarpone, chocolatey hazelnut goo. I have eaten a couple of these now and it is just absolutely glorious. They haven’t simply stuffed it with Nutella, they’ve made their own filling and my god, is it to die for!
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A huuuuuge thanks to Pammi for organising such a fun event! I’d highly recommend organising something like this with your friends. With so many different areas of Glasgow, each so well connected with various kinds of food – you could easily do a food crawl of your own. We have another one planned or this month, so stay tuned to see where we go!
