Urban Brasserie

St Vincent Place, Glasgow

visited 21/07/09

It's hard to find decent places round George Square, but this place seems to be recommended everywhere. It's in a former bank, but rather than going for the lofty, echoey style there's a low ceiling and the restaurant is separated into zones. There's a nice little snug where you can have a drink and plenty of space round the bar. As I was dining with Americans I seized the chance to have cocktails and was served a fantastic dry Manhattan--really cold, dry and with heady but distinctive ingredients.

The main dining room has generously-sized booths, low lighting, an a generally comfortable and smooth ambience. There is a delightful maitre d' and the service was efficient and friendly.

The food consists of standards with variations that weren't really apparent in anything I tried. In a public-spirited offer to demonstrate how prawn cocktail differs between Britain and America I had "shrimp cocktail with pear, lime and sweet chilli" but it was just a generous amount of shrimp (possibly frozen at some point) with a tiny bit of lime dipped in chilli and some hard pear that tasted like apple. So really it was just a normal prawn cocktail in a light mayonnaise and perfectly OK. Then I had a whole lemon sole which was lovely--good fish, perfectly cooked. It came with monster chips were great while hot but cooled into that lightly pre-prepared style. We shared a lovely crunchy green salad in a slightly over-sweet sauce. Two of us shared some cheese which was a bit disappointing for the price.

So all in all, the Urban Brasserie is a very well-thought out venture that aims to please and largely succeeds. I;m normally a bit sceptical about these culinary empires (Urban Brasserie is owned by the proprietors of the over-rated Gamba that once served me bream with a "salsa" that was more like fruit salad) but in this case the very slightly corporate feel is a good thing. As it is a minute from Queen's Street and easy to get the last train back to The Capital I can already imagine several dinners coming up, and will certainly head there if in need of a cocktail in Glasgow.