othernonsense's Qype profile

First time at this little hidden gem thanks to a friend’s recommendation — the sushi was delicious and service was particularly nice because we went with a native Japanese speaker. Fatty tuna was heavenly in its meltiness, as was the himachil.
Spent about £20 for an order of sashimi and three nigiri, which is perhaps a little steep, but well worth it. I suspect I’d be broke if I lived anywhere near this place.

Went out for dinner with a few friends, and had to book a bit on the early side as this place is popular on the weekends. Let's just say we were delighted with the food, and less so with the service. The moment we arrived, they rushed us to a table with menus and then disappeared for a bit. We wanted to ask for wine recommendations but the waiter insisted that we wait until after we ordered.

We decided to stick with tapas as most of us had snacked beforehand and chose an interesting array - quail, caramelised oxtail, white asparagus, tuna tatar in addition to some not so average croquetas, squid, and calamari. Have to say that pretty much every dish was utterly divine and had an interesting modern twist in its presentation and flavour or texture.

The waiter did provide an excellent wine recommendation (they properly pour it into a decanter, which I appreciated) but service was a bit shaky in that it was a bit slow and sporadic. The waiter did warm up to us though, and ended up having a pretty interactive conversation with us about Android phones. He later rewarded us with some sweet nibbles and a shots of peach schnapps, which was a nice way of changing our minds about the service.

Bill came out to be about £160 for about 2 tapas each plus a bottle of wine, so certainly not the cheapest tapas around. Rumour has it that their sister restaurant across the street is better value for money.

Went with a few friends for a midweek dinner, looking to try out their pizza and was definitely a bit disappointed. The service was a bit touch and go, with a bit too much attention when we were trying to decide on food and definitely not enough when our glasses went empty. Pizza had minmal flavour and was a bit overpriced. The highlight of the meal turned out to be the starters as we really enjoyed the not so traditional gnocchi and had good fun sucking on the grilled bone marrow.

A bit late on my reviewing, but I also attended the 30 Rock Qype event at Jetlag and enjoyed the screening thoroughly. The downstairs bar was quite swanky, with comfy chairs/sofas and a pretty decent projector screen; I could see renting it out for a private event.

I love the concept - I am a big believer that street food often represents the most interesting/tasty tidbits of any given country. However the sampling we had was annoying skewed American due to the theme of the night (says the annoying American). The jerk chicken was quite tasty, but chili dogs really just don't do it for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a hot dog girl. But there is something wonderful about the taste of a real grill. I like my dogs covered in char marks. And not being a chilli fan, well, it just wasn't meant to be.

That being said, the doughnuts were the big disappointment. It was definitely too dense and cake-like to meet my standards for a doughnut, and the frosting was just too much. I was one of the awful people scraping it off in an attempt to salvage the edible bits. I'm usually not one to play with my food like that, but I was really just hoping to keep my teeth (and indulge in a doughnut, of course).

I think I need to go back and give this place a fair chance. I'll be ordering off the rest of the menu though.

Shockingly, despite a quarter of a century in the city, I never managed to make it to Mistral -- I didn't know what I was missing! Had a fantastic Sunday brunch with a few friends, while I was visiting, and I'd have to say that pretty much everything worked out well. Great service, great food: our waiter knew his food and he knew it well, even recommending adding a bit of goat's cheese to an already indulgent mushroom and gruyere omelette (divine) and the eggs benedict was again pretty close to perfect. My only complaint was that I couldn't fit more food in my stomach!

The atmosphere was also appealing, posh but relaxed. There was even a gang of girls having what looked like a sorority reunion in their hoodies and pajamas. However, there was no snobbery from the staff, just good humor and excellent service. Brunch was a particularly nice way of getting familiar with the restaurant; will definitely be back.

A perfect museum wandering break from the Kelvingrove, the Crab Shakk totally made my cold, grey day in Glasgow. I had spent all morning wandering the Kelvingrove Museum, but hadn't quite finished but I desperately wanted non-museum food so I wandered down Argylle St as i had noticed the Crab Shakk during my walk to the museum. It was indeed a good address as it had some of the better seafood I experienced in Glasgow. I enjoyed a delicious dozen oysters (plump and briny) and their squid tempura for lunch. The squid was pretty much perfectly fried, tasting misleadingly light, with chili flakes in the batter for a bit of kick. Looking around, there were probably about ten other dishes I wanted to try (particularly their ginormous fish club) but I was more than satisfied with my choices. I would definitely have gone back if I had more time in Glasgow.

I didn't have much luck with this place. I had booked a solo dinner there (was travelling for business to Glasgow) and was really looking forward to some quality beef. When I arrived, I wasn't feeling exceptionally hungry so I ordered myself a nice Kobe beef burger. Boy was that a mistake! It arrived, and I took a bite immediately, hoping to relive the joys of a near perfect Kobe beef burger I'd had elsewhere. But it was far from perfect. In fact, it was impossibly salty and just didn't taste like quality kobe beef (I consider myself an expert seeing as I've had kobe been in Kobe. And pretty much eat it whenever I see it on a menu.)

Trying not to be overly annoying, I continued to eat the burger until I hit a point where I decided I actually preferred not eating (I was starving that night) than finishing it off. The waiter noticed that I had stopped and checked whether I was just taking a break (yay for good service); I explained the situation and they promptly took it away. The hostess (manager?) came by and apologised, and even offered me a free dessert.

Dessert arrived and I'd have to say that it nearly made up for the burger (again, I was starving). However, at the end of the meal, they ended up charging me for my free dessert. I wasn't bothered enough to complain (again, trying not to be overly annoying) so I paid my bill and left.

It was a shame, because I really wanted to like the place. But the experience disappointed, and I also ended up with a terrible case of food poisoning. So much for high quality kobe beef...

If half stars were allowed, I'd add one to my review for this place. To start with, the food was quite good, but our visit started off on the wrong foot. I arrived early for once, and grabbed prime seating by the window. My other friends joined shortly and one of the guys went to the men's room to wash his hands while the rest of us perused the menu. He came back, a bit disturbed, and quickly grabbed the attention of a waitress. Apparently, one of the cooks in the kitchen had rushed out of the toilet when he entered, and proceeded to exit without washing his hands! The hostess rushed back to talk to the chefs, then returned to reassure us that he had subsequently washed his hands, but it was a bit of a disturbing start to the evening.

Once food and wine were ordered, however, the experience only got better. The potato omelette, as mentioned previously, is well worth a try. The octopus and the gambas were also of note -- though the servings were a bit on the small side (there were exactly 4 prawns). Dessert was a definite highlight, consisting of a near perfect molten chocolate cake, but by that point the wine probably took over the taste buds.

Overall a pretty good experience, but I'd be a bit concerned if their sanitary habits weren't improved...

A welcome addition to the local lunch options, the Cupcake Emporium is an adorable place that serves all things good in life: cookies, gingerbread, milkshakes, cakes, and even cakes in the form of a cup (surprise!) that only have about 130 calories each. The good news for me is that they also happen to serve toasted sandwiches at a much more reasonable price than their cupcukes (almost 3 quid each!) so I'm not tempted to have a cupcake for lunch every day.

To top it off, they also offer free wifi. Sugar lovers: you may just have to spend a day here and swim in its wonderfulness.

Considering the options around (i.e. the other sandwich shop located INSIDE the laundromat), Sheila's offers relatively good food (though it's quite pricey for what it is). The pricing can be somewhat arbitrary though, as they will charge you for two slices of cucumber which seems a bit excessive.

You'll always see the cabbies lining up there as Lancaster Mews is a one-way so the police never drive in to fine them for parking. It's also conveniently located across from a pub.

Not sure that Sheila's is my favourite sandwich shop, but it sure is the closest!

Edit: had to remove a star as Eileen seems to have adopted some dodgy management practices, charging arbitrarily and being a bit unkind to her staff. Not going back any time soon...