08/04/12 - Rose and Grants, Merchant City, Glasgow

What’s the point in describing your “Vegi Special” sandwich as being “Roasted Veg, houmous and salad on brown” then giving the customer some raw tomatoes, raw red onion, lettuce and a miniscule spreading of houmous? Where was the roasted veg? Truly the worst sandwich I have ever had.

The carrot and coriander soup was severely bland and tasted it had little or no seasoning in it. There was no black pepper on the table to help it along. The plastic menus were dirty and the place was freezing cold. We caught the female member of staff’s eye when we entered but got no smile or welcome. In fairness, the gentleman who served us was very nice but we won’t be back. It’s a shame as it’s in a good location and they could do a lot with it.  

10/04/12 - Shandon Belles, Glasgow

Don’t like it. Yes its £15 for 3 courses (without wine), but that’s no excuse for lacklustre, cold food. This place gets rave reviews - have no idea why. 

Starters – seafood and clam chowder plus 2 overcooked bony, sardines sitting on a few leaves. Chowder was acceptable but nothing startling. Sardines were terribly disappointing.

For mains it was £2 extra for fillet of beef stroganoff with basmati rice. It was lukewarm and it tasted like a school dinner beef stew. Horrible.

Mr B had dry, overcooked chicken with olive and lemon stuffing with a tiny amount of basil pesto cream. It was also almost cold. A small dish with greasy carrots, a couple of slices of soggy courgettes and 3 small potatoes was our accompaniment.

Sticky toffee pudding wasn’t sticky toffee pudding. It was a piece of dry, plain sponge with no dates in it served with a tiny amount of butterscotch sauce. I asked for ice cream with it but there was hardly enough to compensate for the dryness of the cake. Butterscotch sauce was nice, but then it always is! Husband’s fruit crumble was better with crème anglaise although the top of the crumble had a few black, burnt bits on it.

It wasn’t all bad – the saving grace was the nice bread and butter we had and the glass bottle of water brought to the table.

Won’t be back. Only 6 tables on a quiet Tuesday night yet service was very slow and there really is no excuse for cold food.

29/03/12 - Battlefield Rest, Southside, Glasgow

We have been coming to the Battlefield Rest regularly for over 10 years and it never fails to please us. It has been my venue for business lunches, romantic dinners, quick impromptu 'on passing' dinners, lunches with gal pals, dinner with parents, birthday celebrations and Christmas meals there and it continually serves up great food and brilliant service - whatever the occasion.

Popped in on Thursday night but with a sore tooth I decided not to go for a pizza although the Calzone Battlefield is to die for. (Black pudding in a pizza - what's not to like!)! Started with their Mussels Stew and went onto Sea Bass which came on smoked haddock risotto. My husband had his favourite Pate and then Lasagne. Huge portions for both of us but we squeezed in an affogato for him and a child's portion of ice-cream for me! Everything was absolutely delicious. Couldn't fault anything. Love love love this place.

I would put my hand on my heart and say this is honestly the best restaurant in Glasgow.

05/04/12 - Citation, Merchant City, Glasgow

Nice place – very busy in the wine bar area downstairs but we had booked a table upstairs in the restaurant. Didn’t seem like my sort of place at first (more of somewhere for annoying rich women out after a bit of shopping) but once the food came, none of that really mattered! It was a cold night and my starter of French Onion soup was magnificent and warmed me up considerably. It came with a large gruyere crouton floating amongst the thick, brown, oniony, delicious broth. It was a huge bowl with more bread on the side and it was just what the doctor ordered! Mr bunglingidiots starter of lovely Fresh Daily breads with with olive oil & balsamic also came with some kind of pesto dip. Lovely. No complaints there.

They have a great menu with plenty to choose from and I opted for a main course portion of mussels in a tomato, coconut and coriander broth at £11.95 and I ordered a side of hand cut chunky chips. (Which I needn’t have!) The portion of mussels was massive and it came with yet more bread. The tasty broth was a winner for me and the fat chips came with a dish of home made tartare sauce that was bursting with flavour. The metal pot the mussels were served kept everything super hot and although I tried my best, I just couldn’t finish it all. K's beer battered haddock (£10.50) came with the same hand cut chips and tartare sauce, (he asked them to leave off the mushy peas!) and again, the portion size was on the large side. We couldn’t manage a dessert but left feeling warm, full and happy. Service was really excellent – a minor blip of an extra few items from another table’s order added on our bill (£35 worth!) was the only thing that slightly detracted from a great meal. 

11/03/12 - Epicures of Hyndland, West End, Glasgow

Saturday afternoon, 5 of us went to Epicures for lunch. It was really busy and really noisy but we were seated within 5 minutes of waiting. The Manageress was lovely and cheery and seemed really efficient at getting everyone in and sat down. The problem with West End places like Epicures are the omin-present ‘ladies that lunch’ who sit for 3 and a half hours over a bottle of wine and some salad. Hurry up and leave!!

The service was really impressive. Over the course of our meal we had 3 different waitresses but they were all brilliant. I was a bit nervous at the one who took our main course orders without writing them down but the 5 of us got everything exactly as we asked. One of us got the soup which was a huge bowl of carrot and parsley served with soda bread. The pastrami sandwich looked great but strangely a lump of cous cous accompanied it on the plate. Odd but looked pretty though. The veggie ploughman’s lunch had far too much blue cheese on the plate but still looked bright and appetising with some lovely home made picalilli. I had the seafood platter which had a mound of smoked salmon, some prawn cocktail, mackerel pate and another terrine and some skewered prawns as well as some salad leaves to pad it our. Far too expensive at £9.50 (I think) and there wasn’t enough bread served with it. Unfortunately I was still hungry afterwards! I also hate eating off wooden plates. They look pretty but I can’t help feeling they are unhygienic. The cake menu was diverse and interesting but still had old favourites like scones served with clotted cream and carrot cake. The £3.60 parsnip and maple cake my other half had came with a dollop of cream and was moist and delicious. Coffees and teas came with a tiny cube of tasty brownie and one of our party liked it so much he ordered a whole one. He said it was awesome….

All in all I think it’s far too noisy, it was cold and it’s really expensive. But if someone else is paying and you don’t mind not talking (you really can’t hear each other speak) then I would think about going again but take a cardigan! Had heard from others that the service was shocking – it certainly wasn’t on Saturday. 

16/02/12 - Piccolo Mondo, Argyle St, Glasgow

The waiter we got at the start of our Piccolo Mondo experience was incredibly annoying. We had reserved a table and asked for the Celebration Menu but without drinks. We just wanted sparkling water as we didn’t want alcohol that particular night. When my husband ordered a large bottle of sparkling water, the waiter exclaimed quite loudly and nodded exaggeratedly while saying “Oh, OK– I’ve got you now Sir. Ah-ha, OK, Uh-huh, OK, I’ll get that sorted” with a strange sneering attitude. We were both quite taken aback at him.

I ordered the mussels to start with which were charged with an additional supplement. They were very uninspiring, over cooked and served in a strange opaque gloopy liquid that tasted of nothing except flour and water. Yuk. Really unpleasant. My husband’s caprese salad came straight from the fridge. Freezing cold, hard tomatoes and mozzarella which had no taste as they had no chance to develop any flavour having not been at room temperature for even a second. Tiny portion as well.

My main course was ‘Carved Roasted Gigot of Lamb Tuscany Style ‘ which was a very small, fatty piece of lamb served with a bland tomato sauce. It was one slice of lamb served on top of a lump of mashed potato which made it look bigger than the meagre portion it was. It also came with roast potatoes which were soggy and not crispy, and some parsnips, which were also soggy. So I got mashed potatoes, roast soggy potatoes and starchy parsnips. No nice green vegetables or anything to give a different texture to the dish. The worst dish, however, was my husband’s vegetarian Risotto all Ortolana. It came swimming in a pool of yellow water and it appeared to be made with long grain rice and not arborio or any other kind of risotto rice. Totally bland, no flavour and he wasn’t offered parmesan with it. Really bad meal. Awful waiter. Won’t be back. 

23/02/12 - Bella Napoli, Kilmarnock Road, Shawlands, Glasgow

Have been going to Bella Napoli for years now. I really really like it most of the time but my husband isn’t so sure. Got a lovely booth downstairs but the place was a touch draughty.

Great service from the waiters – very attentive and polite – until we finished our main courses. Waited almost half an hour to attract the attention of one of them as I wanted a dessert. By the time he came over the mood had gone (!), it was too late and I just asked for the bill. On hindsight they maybe thought we wanted to sit for a while before ordering and eating something else but I like to be asked if we want a rest before dessert!

I had a mixed salad to start with which was lovely – and I dressed it with a really good Balsamic vinegar which had been thoughtfully put on the table as well as some olive oil. For my main course I ordered a goat’s cheese, caramelised onion and roasted pepper Calzone. The onions didn’t appear caramelised and I don’t think the peppers were roasted but it was quite good and I love the fact that the dishes are piping hot. My husband’s meatball pizza with roasted garlic looked a bit dry and sparse with the toppings though and was a bit greasy. His starter of mushrooms done in a creamy sauce with cognac over foccaccia bread was lovely though. Really tasty. However, was with most of the dishes we have had in Bella Napoli, it was far too salty!! It even says in small letters at the bottom of the menu “Our chefs have seasoned your dishes – please taste your food before going mad with the salt!” It really tastes like the chefs have gone mad with the salt and then some! Stop adding so much SALT (please)!

Again, I really like Bella Napoli – sometimes it can be bit pricey and you only get one side dish included in your main if you order fish or meat but it has a lovely authentic atmosphere and they serve decent Italian food and that gets my vote.