In this unfairly maligned city, everything is a pleasant surprise (especially the food)

There’s a viral video that’s been circulating on social media, a quick clip of a gentleman who has clearly had a little too much liquid enjoyment, stumbling around the Glasgow streets in the early daylight hours.

At one point the man approaches a railing overlooking a street full of commuters beginning their day, he spreads his arms wide and drunkenly roars, “Morning Glasgow!”

There’s a pause. And then off in the distance you can hear a response: “Morning!”

This is Glasgow. This is the sort of city where people return a friendly greeting, regardless of the time of day or the motivation. It’s the sort of city that has been critically and unfairly maligned in the past, a place with a reputation for danger and yet one that charms visitors almost instantly with its unadulterated sense of humanity.

Glasgow: full of surprises and an unadulterated sense of humanity.Credit: iStock

Everything good in Glasgow can come as a surprise when you only know it by decades-old cliches: the good will of its inhabitants; the beauty of its architecture; the quality of its galleries and museums; and, no doubt, the standard of its food.

Cut to a busy street just like that one in the viral video, Great Western Road, a thoroughfare named last year by readers of Time Out as one of the coolest streets in the world. It’s a stretch filled with high-end vintage stores, boutique wine shops, uber-cool cafes, and one of only two restaurants in Glasgow (and 10 in Scotland) that boasts a Michelin star.

This is Cail Bruich, a restaurant whose name is Gaelic for the phrase “to eat well”, and which takes that moniker as mantra and mission statement. It’s run by head chef Lorna McNee, the only female chef in Scotland to hold one of those coveted stars, and one who received the accolade in 2021 after only five months at Cail Bruich’s helm.

Inside Cail Bruich.

Her food is the food of Glasgow, sourced locally and prepared right here on Great Western Road, though it’s possibly not the food you’re most familiar with. Yes, this is a city, and a country, of haggis suppers and deep-fried Mars Bars, of late-night curry houses and classic pub meals. But it’s also the cuisine of McNee and Cail Bruich.

This is a slick operation. I arrive one evening for the first and only sitting – if you book a table here, you get that table for the night – and am immediately seated with a good view of the open kitchen, with a wine and cocktail list to peruse under warm, low lighting.

Staff move here in the practised, methodical way you expect in a restaurant with a star on the door, easing an amuse bouche – a single skewer of “wangus”; that is, a wagyu-Angus beef cross – onto the table as I take in the menu and the surrounds.

Everything on that menu has provenance in Scotland: langoustines from the Isle of Skye, cod from Peterhead, roe deer from the Highlands (a note at the end of the menu warns diners, “all game may contain traces of shot”), brown crab from the West Coast. There are also herbs from the garden: Cail Bruich has its own nursery, where its greens are grown in good Glasgow soil.

Monkkfish, Isle of Wight tomato, saffron rouille and aljotta.

McNee learned from the best, as far as Scotland goes. She worked under the tutelage of Andrew Fairlie, the late chef who became the only Scot to win two Michelin stars at his eponymous fine-diner at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. McNee then won Great British Menu, a BBC cooking competition, in 2019, and began work at Cail Bruich that same year, moving up to head chef in 2020.

Her food is exceptional. The first course proper is an island of West Coast brown crab girt by a consomme of Isle of Wight tomato. Next is that Isle of Skye langoustine, shelled and poached, served with a light sauce of Granny Smith apples with little jewels of Oscietra caviar.

Wild scottish mushrooms, black garlic, brioche, madeira and truffle.

There’s mushroom tart with house-baked bread. Peterhead cod with a sauce – smoked almond with mussel and parsley – whose recipe any French saucier would kill to steal. The Highland deer is gently seared and served with baby leeks and Perthshire girolle mushrooms.

It occurs to me as I eat that this is Glasgow. This is the food of Glasgow, with all the heart and character and passion of the city itself. No wonder it’s caught on.

THE DETAILS

Eat

Cail Bruich is open Tuesday to Saturday for dinner, and Friday and Saturday for lunch. Set menus cost £140 ($260) a person. See cailbruich.co.uk

Stay

The Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel is a beautifully appointed five-star property in central Glasgow, with rooms from $470 a night. See kimptonblytheswoodsquare.com

The writer travelled as a guest of VisitBritain and VisitScotland.