MacSorley's

 

I’d always considered MacSorleys to be just a classic Glasgow pub, with drinks, loud music and maybe a greasy pie if you were lucky. One look at their Scottish 'Spring Menu' (on a tartan clipboard) shows how wrong I was. There’s nettle panna cotta, rabbit and snail terrine, mussels served up with a ‘deconstructed pigs trotter’, and that’s just the starters. This is not food for the unadventurous.

I’m a firm believer that food should sometimes be challenging, surprising and it should occasionally scare you a bit. MacSorleys certainly manages this. I thought I knew food, but I didn’t know what half the things on the menu were. Spoots(1)? Tobacco rhubarb(2), espuma(3), feves(4), anyone…?
I didn’t know what a hogget(5) was. So I ate one. Or most of one. And a delicious main course it was. Perfectly pink slices of hogget loin rest on a mound of mash, accompanied by shoulder, lights (that’s lung), tongue, epigramme (meaty bits) and sweetbreads served up chicken-nugget style (but oh-so-light and tasty). They certainly aren’t into serving up just one bit of an animal here, but that’s no bad thing. My dining companion had loin, cheek and belly of pork and declared it all delicious.

It was inventive, verging on completely bizarre at times but the chef certainly knows how to cook. Occasionally it’s a little bit fussy but most of the strange combinations work. A trail of dusty dried camomile really does go with fat juicy scallops. Dark chocolate mousse is actually complemented by carrot sorbet. The staff were charming, happy to share stories of the first time the chef fed them a snail, what they love about the menu, how the chef won Masterchef ’99... And, if you’re not feeling brave, they’ll serve you a pie. What’s not to love?

(1) razorfish
(2) rhubarb cooked with a cigar
(3) foam
(4) broad beans
(5) adolescent male sheep