Afternoon Tea at Rogano, Glasgow

My husband and I have recently been to Rogano (http://www.roganoglasgow.com) for their afternoon tea. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and the streets were busy with Sunday shoppers and with outside tables where people were enjoying drinks and brunches under the sun.

We stepped inside the Rogano, suddenly the hustle and bustles outside seemed so unreal as it was so quiet and relaxing. The restaurant was established in 1935 with Art Deco ambience and inside of the restaurant is a replica of that of the Queen Mary which was built on River Clyde around the time the restaurant opened. It is the oldest surviving restaurant in Glasgow and the building itself is A-listed.

We were seated right away. Nice to have an afternoon tea in a very relaxed atmosphere where you get proper cutlery and crisply ironed serviettes.

Rogano's Afternoon Tea menu is quite traditional but you get freshly prepared sandwiches with tasty fillings. Even simple thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches taste really good. You get:

Selections of Sandwiches

Smoked Salmon

Roast Beef (We got Goats Cheese as we don't eat meat)

Cucumber

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Scones with fresh cream & strawberry jam

Rogano Shortbread

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Strawberry Tart

Chocolate Eclair

Meringue 

with pot of tea

Sorry, you can't see sandwich with smoked salmon filling which is hidden behind ....

You all know the story of afternoon tea ...?

In 1840, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, Anna, became hungry around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In those days upper class people only ate 2 meals a day, breakfast and dinner and dinner was served fashionably late at 8 o'clock. The Duchess asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter (later on, the Earl of Sandwich came upon an idea of putting a filling between two slices of bread) and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. She then started inviting friends over to join her.

But why cucumber sandwich? So I have done the quick internet research. According to Wikipedia, cucumber sandwiches contain little protein, not sustaining for a proper meal. Upper classes could afford to eat foods with little nutritive value and cucumber sandwiches, which are also dainty prepared became part of the stereotypical finger food for afternoon tea. (By contract, lower working class were eating protein-filled sandwiches for supper.)

Apparently there are also some rules in how to prepare cucumber sandwich. 'The slices of bread are carefully buttered all the way to the edges in the thinnest coating, which is only to protect the bread from becoming damp with cucumber juice, and the slices of cucumber that have been dashed with salt and lemon juice are placed in the sandwich just before serving in order to prevent the sandwich from becoming damp enough to moisten the eater's fingers (Wikipedia).'  There are also some rules about what type of [white] bread to use and how it should be cut ....  however I shall not bore you with that.

Sandwiches are really delicious - even simple ingredients such as cucumber (hear, hear) or egg mayonnaise. I am not keen on goat cheese but that was nice, and the bread was so soft ...

We then move on to cakes, scones and shortbreads. They are delicious. We thought scones were really good.

We were not rushed and the atmosphere was very relaxing with courteous waiting service. Portion size was perfect. Excellent atmosphere, beautiful Art Deco surroundings, linen serviettes and table cloths, courteous service and delicious quality food. All is for £15 per person and does not break your bank, ha ha ha.  This traditional experience is what I like about Rogano's Afternoon Tea. I know it may be a bit old fashioned but I like it. They serve this between 3pm to 5pm.

Apparently, Rogano was originally founded as something of a 'men only' establishment in 1874 and few years later a guy called James Henry Roger assumed ownership with another guy a Mr Anderson. They then combined the first three letters of Roger and the first three letters of "another" to name the restaurant Rogano. An old story goes that James Henry Roger's son hanged himself in one of the cloakrooms and his ghost still haunts the restaurant .... (all from http://oldglasgow.tumblr.com/post/67578195529/oysters-ghost-stories-anonymous-of-probably).
Is this true ... or just an old story ...? Who knows, however this does not deter me going back to Rogano, and I am so glad that the restaurant is no longer men-only establishment.

That's all forks!

Upstairs and Downstairs - Cafe Rogano in Glasgow

So, after having pigged ourselves at upstairs of Rogano Restaurant this summer, we returned to downstairs, Cafe Rogano in late September as daughters got us online voucher deal to dine that included a bottle of wine.

Although it is meant to be more informal, I kind of like the relaxing but calm atmosphere of the downstair restaurant with some coziness.

So, for starters, we ordered Chilli Squid with line and coriander mayonnaise, and Fish Cake with Cucumber pickles to share between us.  I love squid and am very particular about how squid could be prepared, especially if fried; they must be cooked but still soft to bite and be able to taste the sweetness of them AND never ever be tough like chewing rubber! (OMG, I still can't forget my horrible experience of fried calamari I had at that restaurant in Lisbon. I am not a food expert or critique but that fried squid was a food crime - see my earlier blog about Lisbon). Anyhow, of course, being a seafood specialist, Cafe Rogano executed our start chilli squid perfectly.  Fish cakes were also lovely and I also liked refreshing cucumber pickles that came as garnish.

For main course, I had grilled sea bass with salmon fishcake, saffron mussel broth and pickled vegetable. It was really delicious. The salmon fish cake was really big though - almost the size of a baseball or a bath bomb from Lush.

My husband had fish of the day, but I am very very sorry, the name of the fish he had ordered totally escaped me! Could that have been Gurnard? The dish came with fried polenta cakes. My husband said he enjoyed them all and finished so they must have been very good.

We did not have desserts as we were really full, so we ordered coffee to finish off our meals.

Another satisfying meal at Rogano. Thank you, girls for the dinner!

That's all forks!

Upstairs and Downstairs - Rogano Restaurant in Glasgow

I know it's a good few months ago but I thought I just talk about Rogano (http://www.roganoglasgow.com), one of Glasgow's culinary institutions. It has Rogano Restaurant, formal dinning on the ground floor, and Cafe Rogano, informal dining downstairs. The restaurant was refitted in the same Art Deco style of the great Cunard line 'Queen Mary' in 1935

We went the main restaurant Rogano on the ground floor this summer for our wedding anniversary. I like their lemon sole meuniere so I already made up my mind that this was what I was going to have.

Our dinner started with two amuse-bouche - first, scallop mouse canapé with caviar, followed by seafood bisque (unfortunately my memory totally escaped me if it was scallop or lobster bisque...).

We then had Rogano Fish Soup with rouille and parmesan croutons for starter.

Rouille is, according to internet, a sauce made of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chilli peppers and is served as a garnish with fish soup. So I float a crouton with rouille and sprinkled shaved parmesan on my fish soup. The soup was lovely but also very very rich and I could only have half of the bowl. I remember having thought of what the calorie of this soup might be and wished that I had something different for starter to try, after having seafood bisque for amuse-bouche earlier.

Still, I had never had rouille before so it was an quite interesting experience, and we did really enjoy the soup.

For main course, my husband had Lobster Termidor with shoestring fries and I had my favourite Lemon Sole meuniere. We also ordered panaches of vegetables.

I must admit that I did not expect to see so much Lemon Sole Meuniere on my plate - it could easily feed two people. I could not eat everything and this is being a posh restaurant, I did not even have an audacity to ask for a doggy bag so I had to give up half way through the dish.  Oh, by the way, I was wondering what 'panache' of vegetable means. This simply means mixed vegetable. Anyway, vegetables were perfectly prepared, and especially baby carrots were really tasty.

It always amazes me how much one can eat at one setting. Everyone around us at other tables seemed to have no problem at all to consume everything presented to them on plates one course after another. And here we were already full half way through the main course....

Yet there is always some space for dessert, surprise, surprise!  I had Creme Brûlée with ginger shortbread and my husband had a trio of rhubarb desserts - a sampler of rhubarb creme brûlée, rhubarb crumble and a rhubarb crackle parfait.  They were really delicious.

Having finished our desserts, I looked around the restaurant. It was Friday evening, very busy with bustling atmosphere. There were families with children, there were couples, there were business people, there were groups of friends dining out etc.  I always remembered Rogano being opulent and elegant but this time I felt like it being a posh family restaurant. I am not saying it's bad, just felt odd as that's now how I have always felt, not that we dine here often. The same decor, the same menu for many years but somehow the restaurant feels different. Is this a sign of my old age, maybe....

We then ordered coffees. The restaurant was so busy the waiting staff must have forgotten to bring them to our table. We waited for well more than 30 minutes before our coffees arrived. Not that we were in a hurry. We were chilled so not a problem.  Coffees came with petit fours, which were really tasty.  We asked for a bill. The waiting staff told us that coffees were on the house for having kept us waiting for so long, which was a lovely gesture.

We really enjoyed our meal. Would we go back again?  Probably yes but not for a long time as it is an expensive restaurant (although you could go for a set menu rather than a la carte menu) and would need to wait till next time I feel like having another courses of Rogano's famous Fish Soup and Lemon Sole Meuniere again!

Well that's what we thought until our daughters got us a voucher for Cafe Rogano for present, so we went back again but to downstairs this time. To be continued....