West On The Corner
160 Woodlands Road, Glasgow
0141 332 0540
Lunch/Dinner £6-£30
Food rating 8/10
WE fell into conversation with the people at the next table when we ate at West On The Corner, the new second venue of the east end brewing outfit, now establishing “a little corner of Bavaria on Woodlands Road”. The icebreaker was their children, a toddler and baby. “How brave of you to sit beside us,” they said. Actually, this pair was a pleasure to behold. We were happy to see children taken out to a restaurant of an evening, not tucked up in their beds until some arbitrary age when they are suddenly deemed to have become civilised. Introducing kids to restaurants, teaching them to enjoy them and behave well there is a parental duty in my book, all part of rearing generations of adults who appreciate food and the pleasures of the table. And just like at West at Glasgow Green, the management “loves the company of well-behaved dogs and children – the more the merrier!”.
Next Table, like us, loved the cool, airy decor, strikingly different from the dark beer hall of the original, and apparently a real transformation from this venue’s pub days. But we agreed that with its neutral paint, limed reclaimed timber wall cladding, sleek modern chairs, and eggshell formica-top tables, it felt more Scandinavian than German. It has to be said that at least in Berlin, Germans have heaps of design style, but still they get landed with the Austrian Sound Of Music image, all lederhosen and dirndl skirts. Next Table thought that there was a more restricted choice of food, here in West in the west. We remembered it the other way round. True, burgers come in a shiny pretzel, but I’d still say that the menu at West On The Corner is less German than the mother ship.
Good thing or bad thing? Next Table wasn’t bowled over by the German sausage selection: Bockwurst, Bratwurst, Nürnberger, Bavarian smokie, with mayo and sauerkraut. At the risk of offending Scotland’s German ambassador, German sausages do tend to be alarmingly spongy; but then that’s part of the deal. Next Table did, however, just like us, take a liking to the West curry sauce that helps these porkers slip down, a vinegary, gingery, tamarind-powered, mouth-puckering condiment that also came with my clean-cut, straightforward, nicely breadcrumbed haddock fishcake. A hearty bowl of goulash owed its terra-cotta glow to heaps of earthy paprika, and went well with Tapa rye bread slathered generously with fat triangles of butter. The copious beef, unfortunately, was too lean, and had gone a bit stringy. Stews need meat with more fat through it.
There’s something quite homespun, and occasionally crude, about the food here. I expected the Jäger Schnitzel to be breaded, when in fact it turned out to be a simple, naked pork escalope served in a competent creamy wild mushroom sauce underpinned with Marsala, brandy, or some such alcohol, but the fries it came with were poor enough to make me wonder if they were bought in. “Goan” fish curry, on the other hand, was rather special, a pearly hunk of fat-flaked cod cooked just right, topped with an unapologetically chilli-hot melt of fresh onions and tomatoes, spiked with star anise and yellow mustard seed. Goan it wasn’t, but it was good anyway.
Improbably, given that West On The Corner is more of a bar than a restaurant, our desserts were really something. Of course beer made to exacting German craft and purity rules, is what West is all about. The one I dream of is the cloudy Hefeweizen, brewed with 80% malted wheat. Made into a confection somewhere between ice cream and sorbet, it really lived up to its description as “bursting with banana and clove flavours”. Serving it with straightforward raspberry compote was just perfect.
I’d cross town to taste this ice cream again. Someone in the kitchen is clearly a dab hand with the gelato machine; the sharp, lemony creme fraiche ice cream that accompanied Black Forest chocolate fondant, was another object of beauty that eschewed excessive sugar for a more sophisticated, natural taste.
West On The Corner gets a warm “willkommen” from me.
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