Hot Tattie

Tattie Macs, Otago Street, Glasgow

Catching up with an old friend was excuse enough this week for dinner out and my companion’s venue of choice was Tattie Macs in Otago Street.   A warm, friendly little bistro sandwiched between Gibson Street and Great Western Road it was welcome suggestion.  

The restaurant is small but perfectly formed, twinkling candles and chilled out music makes it the kind of place I love.  The waiting staff were excellent, very informative and not over imposing, they were kind enough to let us try some of the wine before committing to a full bottle. 

A real selling point of this restaurant is their Bistro menu, available Sunday to Friday until 10pm and Saturday until 6.30pm, which is a bargain at £11.95 for two courses.  I appreciate a restaurant in this climate making the effort to stay busy and with such a reasonable offer and minimum time restrictions it paid off so by 8pm the place was bustling.

The main menu was offered but there is a decent choice on the Bistro menu so we ordered from that.  Starters were a pickled herring and potato salad for both of us, which was delicious.  The herring were sharp and sweet which along with the creamy potato salad was a match made in heaven.  The absent taste of advertised horseradish was only a mild glitch in a fresh and vibrant first course.

For my main course I plumped for the venison casserole, a melt in the mouth, comforting stew that was served with well prepared, zingy red cabbage and green beans.   My friend’s choice of roast chicken, with honey, ginger and Cajun spice was a surprise winner.  It was beautifully cooked, moist and much more earthy and interesting than I would have gathered from the description, it is a dish I will be ordering on my next visit.

The wine list is great with a good few choices by the glass but more importantly the whole ambience of the place is spot on.   Good service, food and wine make up ninety percent of any meal but Tattie Macs has the extra je ne sais quoi that makes it shine out.

Yo Sushi! – YoYo

Yo Sushi – House of Fraser, Buchanan Street

A recent venture to Yo Sushi in the ground floor of the House of Fraser was a pleasant one if not entirely consistent.   As with most Yo Sushi restaurants they have done a fine job of kitting the space out with a good number of booths and a funky conveyor belt arrangement.  I still find it a little strange that you can see into the store but finally the overwhelming scent of the perfume department has given way to a more food based aroma.

We were greeted by a friendly face and given one of the roomy booths which still have the conveyor belt ambling past which is fun.   With wine ordered and glasses filled from the table top taps we perused the extensive menu with gusto.  As I have mentioned before I am a menu enthusiast and Yo Sushi has a wide and varied selection of both hot and cold dishes.  Anyone scared of sushi should try this kind of establishment as the amount of raw fish on the menu is actually quite minimal, even a lot of the sushi dishes are made with cooked ingredients making them a safe choice for first timers or the squeamish.

Yo Sushi encourages you to order a few dishes at a time whilst helping yourself to anything that catches your eye from the conveyor belt, and at the end of the meal they count the different coloured plates to calculate the bill.  Be warned, don’t take anyone with a large appetite...  The bill can fairly mount up if you’re not careful!

As it was a relatively quiet Tuesday night the conveyor belt wasn’t packed with dishes, so we kicked off by ordering a few cold dishes from the waitress.  An adequate California roll was first to be devoured, followed by an interesting and flavoursome duck futomaki,  think duck and pancakes but in sushi form.   A masago gunkan got the thumbs up from my husband who is partial to the tiny flying fish roe.

Onto a few hot dishes, a chicken katsu which was fine, possibly a bit over fried and a vegetable tempura  that fared a little better.  Although the tempura batter wouldn’t have won any prizes the selection of vegetables was good, tenderstem broccoli, lotus root and aubergine along with the obligatory onion and carrot. Chicken gyoza were tasty but not as nice as I’ve had elsewhere however a beautiful seaweed salad snatched from the conveyor belt was a real favourite, a crunchy blend of seaweed, carrots and edamame in a punchy soy dressing that cuts across any of the fried dishes – a real palate cleanser.

Palate cleansed we were off ordering again, this time from the seasonal Kill Chill menu which has been designed for winter and only has hot dishes on it.  These were the two outstanding dishes of the meal, gyudon beef bowl was delicious and moreish we probably could have ordered another two of them.  It was like a beef stir fry on sticky rice but with a complex and rich flavour although sadly with none of the advertised pickles garnishing.  Next up the chicken wings which were hot , savoury and totally addictive, hard fried and finished with a slick of chilli sauce and spring onions they were my idea of heaven.   I would love these to become a permanent fixture on the menu as they were worth the visit alone.

A cute selection of desserts such as Japanese pancakes were on offer, but we were finally full. 

The kicker with most of my meals at Yo Sushi is usually the price, as a greedy Glasgow glutton it is hard to show restraint and with plates priced between £1.70 and £5.00 it can soon mount up.  The more civilized of you out there could probably keep it reasonable, I cannot!

All in all a good meal a few misses but mostly hits, the staff are very friendly and the vibe was nice although subdued on such a quiet night.  This restaurant is obviously geared to the Saturday shoppers and town workers but if you find yourself down that end of town in the evening give it a try.