Where were we? Oh yes, staring blankly at a bowl of something billed as mushroom rice pudding with crispy shallots and pickled onion. Both of us. For some hugely explicable reason Roberto and I completely avoid this dish as we eat our way round the table.

“Ready for the mushroom pudding, pal?” I eventually say, raising an eyebrow towards Roberto.

“No, mate,” he replies, and so we return to the jackfruit curry like Jack and Victor on a big night out. “This is good, though, whatever it is,” he says jabbing a spoon at what’s left of the spicy, occasionally tangy, sometime coconutty dish in front of him. “Makes a change from pulled pork.”

Funnily enough, jackfruit – not often seen around these parts, not even on the fringes of the west end of Glasgow – is being hailed in London as the sensational vegan equivalent of pulled pork. No, seriously.

This I only know because I look it up on my phone as we sit at a two-seater table against the wall chatting largely about the deeply unfamiliar food in front of us.

I like the black pepper aubergine with rice and pickled cucumber. Its dark, sweet caramelised flavours, that little hit from the exquisitely shaved and prepared cucumber.

The homemade kimchi, too, all angry red and white colours, pungent enough to knock out a horse at 20 paces.

Coconut soup with cassava and little rice dumplings maybe not so much, but probably because neither of us is keen on the dumplings, which taste too much like compressed rice cubes.

It’s quiet in here tonight. Behind Roberto I can see the chef bustling away in his little galley kitchen, a handful of people at tables chatting while super-bright electronic posters for up-and-coming bands scroll through the eye-level screen at the bar.

“All very Blade Runner,” I say, nodding out the window at the rain falling greyly on Great Western Road.

“Aye, mate,” Roberto replies, as he watches me plunge a serving spoon – we long ago abandoned the chopsticks – through the surface of the pudding.

Everything else on the table has now been finished, even the nutty-tasting fermented bean soup.

I don’t know why we have avoided the mushroom rice pudding for so long. It’s a beautiful thing to look at: all crisply golden onions, tiny elegant mushrooms – they could be shimeji – vibrantly purple shaved onions, shaved and curled greenery, shallots. Actually, I do know why we avoided this dish. It’s the name. Mushroom rice pudding? Ugh. Sounds like something Fungus the Bogeyman would have for his supper.

Of course, it’s delicious. Sweet and sour, different textures, crunchy onions, sour onions, metallic greens, the rice a warm bed for it all to lie on. It glistens with oil and soy and our spoons catch the coloured glimmers from that mad screen as its scooped up and finished. All of it.

In fact every dish we have eaten has been prepared to an extremely high standard. Each considerably more pleasing to the eye than the blind Stalinist description has been to the ear.

Vegan: that’s what The Hug and Pint is, obviously. It probably shouldn’t be that surprising given the large number of vegan places in Glasgow, but somehow it is. This mean old pub with its split levels and weird stairs, its basement gig room, all run by a band of very pleasant, helpful vegan people.

The other customers tonight, we can’t help but notice, are slim, healthy and young, as opposed to us who are, ahem, none of the above.

Everything we ate sparkled with flavour. How tired have we become of the same old chicken, beef, pork diet, we agree, as we order the pudding. Chilli and almond fruit salad, slices of papaya and guava, dotted with coriander.

You didn’t think it was going to be sticky toffee pudding did you?

The Hug and Pint

171 Great Western Road, Glasgow (thehugandpint.com, 0141 331 1901)

Menu Don’t let the vegan menu put you off. Dishes are Asian-inspired and generally great. Menu changes daily. 5/5

ATMOSPHERE Gnarly old Glasgow pub with lots of well-worn wood now treading the boards as uber-trendy vegan hangout. Cool(ish). 3/5

SERVICE Laidback, friendly people, though they occasionally forget to open on time, as they did on my first visit. Best to phone ahead. 5/5

VALUE Mains cost about £7 each, which given the thought and care involved in the preparation is pretty good value. 4/5

FOOD So different it can be a bit of a shock, but great flavours if slightly unusual textures. A must visit. 8/10

Total 25/30