Chocolate Fondue at Brel Bar, West End in Glasgow, Scotland

I had on-line vouchers for chocolate fondue at Brel Bar (http://www.brelbar.com) in West End of Glasgow so we decided to try this place a couple of weeks ago.

It was a rainy, grey Sunday. We thought we could find a parking place easily for being Sunday but we were wrong. Byres Road is always busy and we had to go around the blocks, eventually my husband had to drop us off first near Ashton Lane so that he could drive around further to look for a parking space. We forgot, this is the reason why we don't come to West End.

Ashton Lane ... walking toward Brel Bar.

The Voucher deal is for "a delicious Chocolate Fondue to share between two people and a choice of a glass of wine or tea or coffee each." Sounds yummy.

It was miserable outside however at least inside it was cosy....

We were shown to the conservatory in the back that features colourful chairs and serviettes which made us almost forgotten about wet, dull and grey weather outside.

It was lunch time too so we decided to have something to eat too so that we could then have chocolate fondue for dessert. We ordered soda bread to nibble whilst consulting the menu ....

I saw other people having a pot of mussels with chips that looked good so I decided to have a full pot of Moules Frites with lemongrass, chilli and coriander that came with some soda bread.

Soup underneath musseles were quite nice and spicy
with lemongrass, coriander and chillies.

My husband had Wild Mushrooms, toasted brioche, poached egg, hollandaise off the main course menu. It sounds delicious and looked good when it arrived. It's a great shame that the portion size is quite small for £10 for a plate that when it arrived we thought it was a starter portion. Underneath the wild mushrooms was a rather thinly sliced toasted brioche ...  we were expecting a brioche to be round like a bun or roll so this was rather unexpected. Let's hope that they were real precious and good quality wild mushrooms that justifies the price! 

I consulted an internet later but I could not find a definition of brioche in terms of a shape or form, in fact I did see some photo of a brioche loaf so it appears that a brioche is differentiated from other bread because of its butter and egg content along with the way it is baked and it is not necessarily round and fuller shape.

Emily had Brel's Mac n'Cheese but as baby mac n'cheese portion with chips. Although it was side dish, the small pot was quite deep enough to hold good portion.

Craig had the Brelburger with added onion rings toppings. The burger comes with frites, salad, aioli and BBQ sauce.

After the lunch, it was time for chocolate fondue with dunkable treats - the real reason why we came to Brel for.  You get Dark Chocolate Fondue with orange pieces, boozy cherries, waffle fingers and other dunkable treats whilst Milk Chocolate Fondue with mini meringues, mallows, waffle fingers and other dunkable treats. There were four of us so we ordered dark and milk chocolate fondue each to share amongst us.

Whilst we were waiting for our fondue, we looked around the restaurant. We were in the conservatory so there were some hanging plants with colourful chairs.

Asked Craig to move to the left so that I could take this photo, hahaha ...

Beyond the conservatory area, there is a garden with patio with tables and chairs - it would be nice for al fresco dining or drinks in summer.

I later found out that Brel is a Belgian themed bar - ah, that's why they promote Moules Frites...

According to their menu, every Tuesday is a Fondue night...

Our Chocolate Fondue arrived - one is dark chocolate and the other milk chocolate. We were however disappointed that pot of chocolate sauce did not come with a mini chafing stand heated with a candle or sprit lamp as you would expect for any fondue dish, especially they do cheese fondue and every Tuesday is their fondue night.

However, let's have some of these and have fun... boozy cherries were boozy alright ....

I prefer dark chocolate so I dunked a piece of orange segment using long-stemmed fondue fork....

Mallow is nice with melted chocolate too .... I wish they put more of these on the board ....

We also ordered tea and coffee ....

Adding milk .... a storm in a teacup....

Well, it was an interesting visit to Brel...  Tripadvisor's reviews generally seem to be good about their foods. Do we go back to Brel? I am not sure .... maybe because of their brioche not being the brioche that we expected, chocolate fondue without a chafing stand and burner underneath, maybe the dark, grey, dull and rainy weather that day, not being able to find a parking place, or combination of all of these...  Still, at least we tried this place and that's what is all about. Try somewhere new and something new, that's the most fun part and that's what keeps me going with my blog.

We stepped outside. It was definitely getting darker and even duller (?). Ashton Lane was quiet and you hardly saw anyone ...  Maybe we came at the wrong time. If it were sunny summer day, Ashton Lane would be full of pub goers, diners and students, adding some atmosphere to the area and we could be having Belgian beer or dinner al fresco in the patio at the back of Brel. We would be having a totally different experience of this place.

Still, it was good to try a new place ....

That's all forks.