I love it when I’m surprised by a restaurant, or even better, surprised by a genre of food. I was invited along for a sneak peak at Horn Please and was told the minute I entered that there were no curries at this Indian. I placed my skeptical hat on but proceeded nonetheless.

I really enjoyed the decor of Horn Please. They have the basement-chic-thing that’s popular right now down, but they have loads of artifacts dotted around which makes it really interesting. In particular: a light which is actually a horn…that toots. A tooting light! We moved away from the tooting light and settled at our table,  preparing to be plied with wine and food. 

These nuts were incredible. They tasted of various Indian spices and were just so pungent. I love them! 

Flavoured mini popadoms with house-made chutneys

The chutneys are absolutely gorgeous! The brown one is Tamarind, yellow is mango and the red is tomato. I couldn’t get enough of all three! Totally delicious!

Bread pakora

I usually want to finish with the pièce de résistance but I just have to share this immediately! Oh my good god it is phenomenal. I assumed the salmon toastie would be my favourite but the ham absolutely blew my mind. The  ham was gorgeously smoked, enveloped in gooey paneer and encased in bread with a spicy fried crust. I really can’t wait to have another! 

Crab cake with crab salad

This was so delicious! The crab cake was jam-packed with pungent flavours and had plenty crab meat – I often get irritated with stingy crab cakes! The strong aromatic nature of the crab cakes was mellowed by the crab salad which was like a lobster roll filling – cool and creamy and just utterly delicious. The coconut and chilli paste had a very dark taste, which again worked so well with the other two components.

Chicken curry burger with pickled cucumber

This was really tasty – like a Korma in a bun with a slice of tomato and home-pickled cucumbers. I really liked this, but I do think the bun was wrong for it. I’d have gone for a small pitta or a sweeter bun! 

Venison with fried shiitake and cashew sauce

This was absolutely gorgeous. The venison was cooked medium and the caramelised flavour from the grill was just so beautiful. I loved the creamy cashew sauce with it too. Definitely one of my favourites!

Marinated salmon with potato and garlic cakes

Another favourite. Oh my – this garlicky potato “plate” was delicious and gave a strong and comforting flavour. The salmon is coated in spinach and garlic which all together provided a beautifully balanced and luxurious tasting dish. I really, really liked it!

Pastry with paneer & spinach with butternut squash puree

This was a vegetarian option which I’ll be honest and say that it tasted nice but it didn’t excite me much. It was a cheesy samosa and I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn’t order it when there are so many amazing other options!

Gulab Jamun Cheesecake

I’m not a huge fan of desserts generally, and I’m definitely not a big fan of cheesecake anymore as I ate far too much of it a few years ago. This was absolutely amazing though and I’m glad I gave it a try.  Gulab Jamun is probably the only Indian dessert I’ve tried, but it’s really delicious with its sugary caramel taste. That coupled with baked cheesecake and chilli-chocolate sauce…it’s a winner! 

There are two dishes I tried that just weren’t to my taste, so I’ve omitted them. One was beef with pâté (which my friend liked) and a ceviche that neither of us enjoyed. 

We were given samples of various wines during the meal – I had access to more wines than I was able to taste! I really liked these:

I’d already thoroughly enjoyed my wine intake by the time the hipster wine arrived. On principle, I didn’t try it. I would be disowned by my people. It did make me chuckle though! 

After dinner I took a wander to see more artifacts. I think the toilets are pretty cool.

I was even told to look in the men’s. 

“Sharon! There’s a jigsaw in the men’s room!”

Their wall art sums up my thoughts – thumbs up! Horn Please is now open and I totally recommend that you open your mind the wonder that is non-curry-Indian street food! 

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Horn Please

91b Berkeley Street

Glasgow

G3 7DX

0141 573 3021

@HornPlz_GLA

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