Fabulous lunch at 111 by Nico, West End in Glasgow

My husband, myself and my daughter Emily have just been to 111 by Nico (http://111bynico.co.uk) in West End in Glasgow for lunch today.  It was a fabulous dining experience!

Ever since I read the restaurant review by Marina O'laughlin in The Guardian's Weekend magazine, I have always wanted to go to this place and finally the time has come!

We booked our table for 12.30 in case we could not get in. It turned out that we were the first customers and we could choose any table we wanted. There was a booth next to the kitchen. It looked nice and cosy but we opted for a table by the wall as it was a lovely day and we would be sitting in a natural day light from a warm sunshine.

Cosy corner .....

We sat down and perused our menus.

Nico and his Head Chef Modou

We were then faced with a big dilemma - everything on the menu sounded so good we did not know what to choose!

Eventually we decided. Emily and I ordered Smoked Mackerel for starter and Stone Bass for main course. My husband ordered Langoustine and Squid for starter and Artichoke for main course.
We also ordered Warm Bread Loaf, Paprika Butter.

Emily and I were really excited to try their food.... and then the Warm Bread Loaf and Paprika Butter arrived.

The bread was delicious AND paprika butter was really creamy texture and flavoursome.

Whilst we were enjoying this, the staff brought us demitasse cups of mushroom veloute with rapeseed oil as amuse-bouche.

According to Wikipedia (What do we do with internet!), the word, amuse-bouche, is 'mouth amuser' in French, offering a glimpse into the chef's approach to the art of cuisine. We did not expect this at all and this was met by our absolute delight; mouth amuser indeed. I almost wanted to clap my hands with huge grin on my face. This was really delicious and we could not wait what comes next.

Our starters then arrived.

This is Emily and my Smoked Mackerel with Asparagus, Quail Egg and Radicchio.  Beautifully presented on a beautiful plate. Look at the contrast of vivid colours of purple radicchio and fresh green of asparagus. It's like spring has come!

This was a very refreshing starter. Radicchio was not bitter at all and asparagus tastes lovely green with bite. You cut into the quail egg and it was yokey inside.

My husband had Langoustine and Squid with Farfalle Pasta, Olives and Shellfish Bisque.  This was gorgeous to look at and gorgeous to taste. Shellfish Bisque came separately and the staff poured it onto the plate at the table in front of us. I love the blue plate too. It just make me want to go to The Mediterranean Sea.

When all the stuff on the plate finished, you still just can't help not finishing up the bisque too. Yes, that's why the staff brought him a spoon with the dish. It was really flavoursome.

My husband didn't want to lick the plate clean [Yes, we were in the restaurant] but it was so tasty he managed to polish the last trace of the bisque with his spoon.

Wow, everything was really delicious so far and we still have main course and dessert to go. We can't wait.....

Whilst we were waiting for our main course, other customers started to come in. Some of them ordered Smoked Ham Hough that came in a glass dome piped full of applewood smoke over the ham hough. When the staff lifted the dome, the white smoke escaped and wafted throughout the restaurant, enveloping around the diners. I bet Emily would order this next time.

Our main course arrived.

Emily and my Stone Bass with Miso, Cucumber and Horseradish Cream.  Beautifully presented again.

The staff then poured light miso flavoured broth over the dish ....

... and is ready to eat! Love the plate again.  Fish was cooked to perfection.

Of course, you finish off the broth to the last drop .... yum.

This is my husband's Artichoke with slow cooked egg, sprouting broccoli and leak. Artichoke was really tasty so was sprouting broccoli and this is a fusion of different flavours and texture. Love the plate again too.

Underneath, there was a slow cooked egg hidden....

My husband loves artichoke. He really enjoyed this dish and finished all. He said he would order this again. Look how clean the plate is!!! Even the empty plate looks really good...

We love the plates. They compliment the dishes they serve really well. Emily looked at the back of the plate and learned that they are Steelite plates (http://www.steelite.com).

We thoroughly enjoyed our courses so far. What we liked about this place is that the portion size of each course is just right. Not too little, not too much, and timing and pace between the courses are also just right. This means that we still have some room left for desserts....

My husband tried Chocolate with salted caramel, hazelnuts and rhubarb.

I tried Pear with cheesecake, lime and amaretti. This is a deconstructed cheesecake with lovely pear and tart but lovely lemony jelly.

Emily had the flaming Coffee creme brûlée. This was really tasty.

We then finished off our meals with great coffees.

Macchiato and cappuccino

We finished our coffees and asked for the bill. What's the damage? 3 course meal is £20 - for the quality, this is not bad at all.

When you visit their website, the first thing you notice on the Home page is Nico's philosophy:

"A JOURNEY OF PASSION"

"My vision is simple:

Firstly to create a unique dining experience for my guests.

The second is to give young people who've faced 

enormous challenges the opportunity to share my

passion and drive for cooking, to teach them 

my gift and philosophy and hopefully

change their life for the better.

This is my vision

This is my passion

This is our journey"

Apparently Nico has a training academy for young people to give them the opportunities to gain skills to be a top chef one day.  On the wall it says ....

However, such altruism aside, the restaurant serves fantastic food. You eat their food with eyes - colours and contrasts, and then aromas of different ingredients and then taste - flavours and textures, etc.  And some fun too .... a glass dome filled with applewood smoke and a flaming creme brûlée.
All staff were very courteous and friendly too.

111 because the restaurant is at 111 Cleveden Road ....

We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch today. We realised that we were in the restaurant for 3 hours!!!
We did not even realise that we were there that long. Such a leisurely lunch, what a fantastic dining experience.  We would definitely go back.

We went outside and walked back to our car. Emily noticed a cherry blossoms. Beautiful. What a fantastic day we had today. 

Have a nice day and that's all forks!

Riverhill, Glasgow

Riverhill Restaurant and Bar (http://www.riverhillcafe.com/west-nile.htm) is on West Nile Street, more or less across the road from Las Iguanas. Apparently there is also their coffee bar at 24 Gordon Street which is not that far from it.

It's a great place for brunch, but they also have very good breakfast menu, lunch menu and dinner menu too. I went there with my daughters for lunch when we were in Glasgow for Christmas shopping. We did not book a table but as we got there just around noon, we managed to get ourselves seats. It's not a big place so it'd be probably better if you book in advance. Alternative you can sit at the long counter table.

Wall decor behind us ....

We consulted the lunch menu. It has lots of tasty and interesting sounding things on the menu. For starters, there are Grilled octopus, chorizo, smoked butter, burst cherry tomatoes and almonds; Navajo fry bread, cheese and chilli oil; Cauliflower skordalia, charred cauliflower, lavish and toasted pumpkin seeds or Peanut-crusted mahi mahi, sweet potato pickle and raita. Skordalia is a Greek style dip.

For main course, you could have Goat cheese and roast pumpkin pierogies, spiced pecan, sour cream and crispy sage; Today's curry; Wild boar gnocchi, tomato ragu, mushroom pesto and crispy skin; Fritto Misto, mustard sauce, bitter leaves and soused shallots; Cobb salad - grilled chicken, egg, onions, tomatoes, romaine, black beans, bacon with a red onion dressing or Lentils, radicchio, cavil nero, feta, walnuts and honey. Pierogi are Easter European style filled dumplings.

You see where I am going... It's not an ordinary cafe restaurant. Menu has some global twists, almost making you feel as if you are travelling without leaving anywhere. And I have only just read you their lunch menu and not got even on to Dinner menu yet. Just reading their menus makes me smile and gets me thrilled - I want to try every single item on them from A to Z, top to bottom, left to right, except I don't eat meat so I need to exclude them. If you eat meat, there would be more food travelling you could do at this place! And if you think their food menu sounds good, wait to see their classic cocktail menu with difference (http://www.riverhillcafe.com/menus/Riverhill%20WNS%20Bar%20Menu.pdf). It's not a big list but their cocktails sound really good. I want to try their Riverhill Bellini, which they claim they try to make as close as possible to the colour and flavour of the original Bellini created at Harry's Bar in Venice.

Anyway, despite all these, we decided to try their casual/quick lunch menu.

Emily had Katsu curry chicken - crunchy breaded chicken strips, pickled cabbage, katsu curry aioli, toasted baguette.  It was a good sized baguette filled with lots of chunky breaded chickens!

I had Crayfish, hot smoked salmon, caper mayo, lemon, rocket and toasted wholemeal bap. The bap was huge, and when you lifted the top half, you see it was packed and piled up with crayfish and hot smoked salmon!

Maria had Green gammon croque monsieur - boiled green gammon, mustard sauce on toasted sourdough. You should see the size of it - like someone's foot.

Well, well, well .... the generous volume of food and quality of ingredients are fantastic. You may pay extra but they are not your ordinary coffee shop sandwich or baguette.

Whilst we were tacking into these, we notice that a couple next to us were having huge plateful of full Scottish breakfast. You can also get vegetarian one if you like that comes with helium, spinach, falafal, masala beans, tomato, mushroom, toast and tattie scone.

You can also get skillet eggs, such as Shashouka (Tunisian style eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chilli peppers, and onion spiced with cumin), Huevos Rancheros (Mexican style spicy eggs) or Jamon Manchego (Spanish ham and cheese). They had a vegetarian skillet eggs on their special menu that day and I am regretting not to try it to this day.

We then had coffee to finish our meal before we ventured out for further Christmas shopping.

You would probably easily pass by this place without noticing. Step inside and you find a small but cosy cafe restaurant that offers amazing selections and qualify of food. 

Looking at these photos and their menu make me feel hungry as well as wanting to go back there to try something different, whether for breakfast, brunch or dinner and you can travel around the world with them without leaving Glasgow. 

That's all forks!