Friday 6 December 2013

Spontaneous dinner at The Finnieston

by Bex

Please excuse the crappy phone pictures in this post.  We ended up in The Finnieston last Saturday completely by chance after a day of wee jobs and a fantastic find at a salvage place we discovered by accident!  Finding ourselves in the West End where we rarely go out, having missed lunch due to being so busy (cue a rather grumpy, hangry, Bex) and feeling quite exhausted, we decided to stop for some food on the way home.  We happened to pass Bibi's which I'd heard from Roz was an amazing mexican I've been dying to try ever since.  She did warn me you always have to book as it's not massive and is very popular.  We thought it being 4pm we would be able to just get a table.  Not so.  They only had 4 tables free and all were booked for 4.15pm!  None of the other tables were near finishing so we departed vowing to book to go there soon!

Anyway, rather than just end up somewhere random, I tried to think of other places in the vicinity which had been recommended to me and The Finnieston was one Diana had suggested a while back and we'd only ever sampled their cocktails before (incidentally - very good!).  We got the last table!  Clearly an early Saturday dinner is the thing to do these days!  I am still being good with trying to get healthy and lose weight so have not been drinking alcohol or caffeine but I decided to treat myself to a glass of Prosecco (£5.20) which was delicious, especially after all the excitement at G.A.S.!


We had a lovely cosy booth in the corner at the front of the pub/restaurant by the fire.  Just perfect for a winter weekend.


Again, trying to be good, I quite fancied the lemon rice which came with one dish but that dish was fish in pastry, not so good for the diet.  I asked if I could please have the wild lemon rice with one of the fishes of the day instead and the chef said that was fine.  I opted for grilled Coley (£15.95) - a great advantage on the menu when trying to be healthier is the choice of how it's cooked and the sauce - I chose salsa verde and I was allowed to choose one more side so went for the salad.


It was absolutely lovely!  Nice crispy skin and a delicious sauce.  I didn't think the rice was very lemony (perhaps the chef just thought I wanted wild rice) but Nik squeezed his lemon over it for me and it was fab!  It would have been perfect with just a bit more of the sauce.  The salad was wonderful and just the right size, the dressing was so flavoursome!


Nik went for fish & chips (£12.95), again choosing coley, which was served with mushy peas, tartare sauce and pickles.  He loved it but found his fish to be extremely greasy - he soaked an entire napkin through patting it to try to remove some of the grease and ended up using my napkin as well.  We think perhaps it could have been drained better after being deep fried, maybe it was just due to the thickness of the batter.  Nevertheless he thoroughly enjoyed his meal.


The atmosphere was great, it was pretty busy until we were ready for dessert when a few people all left at once and I took a sneaky photo of the rest of our end of the bar area.


We both fancied dessert, especially when Nik learned that the Peanut dish was a mistake on the menu and it was actually chocolate and black cherry delice (£7.00).  He loved it - very rich and not too bitter with quite a sharp brandy & cherry sauce to cut through the richness and a wee spot of creamy mascarpone.


I went for the Christmas pudding creme brulee (£5.95)!  YUM!  It had a lovely custard on top with the perfect thickness of hard caramelised sugar all on top of a thick layer of christmas pud and served with cinnamon & ginger shortbread!



The place was lovely, cosy and relaxing.  The staff were friendly and helpful, especially checking for nuts and with my request to swap sides from other options.

We noticed a flyer on our table for a special champagne 7 course French dinner they're doing on the 12th December for £99.  It's a while since we've had a posh meal out and since Nik's stuck working nights on my birthday (and New Year's Eve, and Day and the next day!) we decided to book it to celebrate my birthday early!  Also, one of the courses is frog's legs which is another thing I need to tick off on my food list!  :)

Finnieston on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Your dessert looks delicious! Will be booking here.

Unknown said...

That creme brulee looks absolutely amazing.

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