A Tale of Two Restaurants

I love eating out. Trying new things and food that is beautifully cooked.

Last Tuesday was Andrew's birthday, so we went out for a meal. We went to The Sisters Restaurant at Kelvingrove. We had a lovely meal. I had scallops to start, chicken for main and melting chocolate pot for dessert. The Scallops were a bit of a treat and the chicken was moist whilst the skin was crispy, yum yum. I have a bit of a soft spot for this restaurant and always recommend it to people who enquire for a good restaurant. Of course, our meal was quite pricey. Hoever, we could have had the pre-theatre menu but chose not to.

On Friday we went out with some friends from work. During the day I was trying to work out where we should go. We don't go to the city centre very often, so our knowledge is quite limited. So we asked around, but no-one could help us. So I consulted a few web resources, the first being the list. I looked on their hit-list and saw a restaurant that looked good, Ad Lib. The selling point was their gourmet burgers. We thought that would be great for an after the pub meal. I thought I should make sure so went on 5pm and it seemed to have some good reviews. So I booked a table. When we arrived at the restaurant we were greeted with the news that one of the chefs had walked out, so there would be a bit of a wait. Fair enough. However, when I booked the table they took down my mobile number and could have called me to let me know. So I pointed this out and asked if we could have some snacks to keep us going. They gave us some nachos, good customer service.

Then the food arrived. . . .

They were not Gourmet burgers. First of all they were tiny. I wouldn't have been bothered but they were much smaller than the buns. Hmmm, not good. The chips tasted of cardboard. Salad was probably from a packet and so was probably everything else. It just was disappointing. I hate that feeling, it could have been so good. I didn't want a Michelin star dinner, just a decent burger. Which isn't that hard, surely?

You don't have to pay a fortune to have good food, we have been to several good restaurants where the food is good and affordable. For example Henderson's and Wannaburger in Edinburgh, Mother India and Ichiban in Glasgow. With pre-theatre meals places like Two Fat Ladies and The Sisters are made more affordable.

Overall it just made me sad that meal was bad, especially as the night had been so good. And although I did consult with the my friends before making the decision, I feel partly responsible. So next time, I will try and find a word of mouth recommendation. Which I usually do. If not we will be heading to The Sisters again. Which means I will be eating out less.

OK, rant over. For now away . . . . .

The first chapter is the hardest, is it?

Yesterday I continued to work on the same chapter of my thesis that I have been working on for quite a while. Its quite annoying that I haven't managed to finish it yet but hopefully I will finish it next week. So I can start a new one!

The box arrived, this week we got:

• leeks
• spring cabbage
• purple sprouting broccoli
• parsnips
• potatoes
• onions
• carrots
• swede
• cauliflower
  

To break up the chipping away at my first chapter, I made leek and potato soup for tomorrows lunch.

I met up with Andrew in Glasgow centre. We went to Two Fat Ladies for dinner, which was lovely. Its definitely one of my favourite restaurants in Glasgow. I always look forward to dessert as I know I will have the sticky toffee pudding, which never disappoints. We then went to see Dara O'Briain, who was very very funny. Even if he did mention the Scotland V England rugby score :(

Today I was in the lab for the morning and some of the afternoon. After seeing the lovely purple sprouting broccoli in the veg box, I decided to use it for dinner. So getting some inspiration from the newsletter with my box, I decided to incorporate it into pasta. So dinner tonight we had creamy tagliatelle with leeks, bacon and purple sprouting broccoli (PSB).

So I fried the bacon in a frying pan until crispy and brown. I then added one sliced leek. When the leek was soft I added some vermouth, some gruyere cheese and the leftover double cream from the soup I made yesterday. Meanwhile I cooked the pasta according to the instructions, adding the PBS for the last couple of minutes so it was just cooked. I put a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking water in the frying pan to loosen the sauce. Then drained the pasta and PSB, then added to the frying pan. I made sure the pasta was coated with sauce, and topped with some more gruyere and toasted pine nuts, yum yum.



I also made a bacon, cheese and pea frittata for Andrew's lunch as he is doing a lot of site work and apparently soup isn't compatible with site work!