Perfunctory Pony

Bath Street Pony, Bath Street, Glasgow

A wander down Bath Street proved uneventful in the restaurant sense, it feels a little dull these days except I noticed that O Sole Mio has undergone a makeover so I’m looking forward to trying that out.   After having a nosey at every menu on display we settled on the Bath Street Pony which seemed to lean more towards restaurant than bar.

It’s a nice looking place and we were greeted and seated by a cheery waitress, although on a warm sunny day it did feel a bit like the Mary Celeste.  Drinks ordered we perused the menu which is modern European with a heavy Italian bias throughout.  There were a couple of good value deals on, the Pony Express menu at £8.95 for two courses up until 7pm daily or £12.95 for two courses from the main menu up until 7pm daily.   We opted for the latter as it offered a wider choice.

I started with the Gravadlax served with pickled shallots and cucumber dressing which was lovely.  The fish was quite mild as was the pickle but it was well presented and only marred by a burnt piece of otherwise yummy foccacia.   My husband’s dish of Italian sausage was good, the course sausage was done in a tomato ragu and served with more (this time unheated) foccacia bread.  It was disappointingly lazy to serve burnt toast, it could easily have been redone as our starters wouldn’t have suffered from the wait.  

Moving onto the main courses which were hit and miss.  The hit was a steak burger, tasty, well cooked and served with better than average chips.  The miss was the Pork Milanese which seemed to suffer from another bout of lazyitis.  The pork had been stacked on top of cold salad, chips and then topped with wet vegetables so breadcrumbs that had started out nice and crispy ended up as soggy mush.  Had it been more carefully presented it would have been delicious.

The bill was reasonable, the music excellent and the service friendly, frustratingly I would bet during a busy service these silly mistakes wouldn’t have happened which is a shame.  The majority of restaurants on a slow day can easily succumb to lacklustre standards but Bath Street Pony’s has left a wee bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, much like the burnt toast.....