So on to part two of Glutton’s family friendly eating out mission. I mentioned in part one about there being plenty of Italian restaurants in Glasgow providing a good, relaxed child friendly atmosphere, but as it happened we didn’t actually go the any of them. The reason.... a great fun but slightly tiring visit to Edinburgh Zoo left us a little too exhausted for another meal out however a handy solution was some excellent take away from the newly refurbished O Sole Mio on Bath Street.
We feasted on risotto, pizza and some particularly delicious flatbreads all of which were of a great standard for take away food. The Italian sausage on the pizza was high quality and punchy, the chicken and truffle oil risotto was packed full of flavour and well cooked but the highlight was the rosemary and garlic focaccias which were actually thin pizza bases cooked in the stone oven until crisp and golden – utterly addictive! If you live in the city centre or nearby it is definitely worth considering and I can’t wait to go back and sit in to enjoy the food again.
That covered I’ll move on to our next dining out experience which was Arisaig in the Merchant Square. I love the Merchant Square because it always makes me think of continental Europe, no rain, cobble stones and simulated “al fresco” dining make it and pleasant change. I haven’t always loved the restaurants though, so it was up to Arisaig to change my mind.....
We had booked a table for six and a highchair but when we arrived it seemed to show two on the reservation, luckily they had plenty of room inside the restaurant so problem averted. The restaurant inside has been nicely decorated with some funky Scottish twists and the table provided was nice and spacious.
The menu is mostly Scottish themed and has quite a large selection of both seafood and meat options. What I wasn’t convinced on was the price of some of the dishes, for example £7.95 for a bowl of mussels, even rope grown ones from Lewis, is excessive however it did seem to even itself out with some of the meat dishes and a reasonable pre theatre menu. The kids menu is quite limited, but the offerings are homemade which is commendable.
For starter I decided on the crab cakes and honestly I was a wee bit disappointed, they were too big and quite stodgy and the crab seemed lost in amongst a lot of potato. However the accompanying tomato cream sauce was good and helped carry the cakes along and a deep fried piece of curly kale garnish was absolutely stunning. My husband’s smoked venison was delicious though, not for the faint hearted it has been well cured but the watercress and beetroot salad was a lovely accompaniment to the strong meat. The rest of the table enjoyed the unusual smoked Brie dish and some nicely cooked if a little boring fried squid.
On to main course, I decided on the chicken fillet and haggis which was tasty and well balanced. I had read the menu wrong and assumed the chicken would be stuffed with the haggis but I liked it never the less. The whisky cream sauce was well seasoned and complimented the moist chicken and spicy haggis well. Arisaig don’t serve carbohydrates with all of the main courses but they did provide a decent selection of vegetables. The best plates of the night were surprisingly from the pre theatre menu, a spiky dish of chicken in a chilli coconut sauce served with sweet potato mash and a generous beer battered fish and chips were met with delight by all who had them. Unfortunately a vegetarian dish of red pepper and spinach sausages fared less well and was deemed almost inedible, but thankfully my nephew’s ample and delicious portion of homemade chicken nuggets and chips came to the rescue of my hungry sister-in-law!
No desserts required as we had a chocolate birthday cake to finish off, brought out by the cheery and in tune waiting staff, it was a good finish to an okay meal. Apart from the evil veggie sausages most of the food was tasty and well presented, a few tweaks here and there would have made all the difference and because of that if I’m back in that part of town Arisaig probably won’t be my first choice. If you do fancy trying this restaurant I would opt for the pre theatre, it definitely came up trumps on our visit.
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