A’ Challtainn

Barras Art and Design Centre, Moncur Street, Glasgow (www.baadglasgow.com)

I’M NOT saying it's too noisy up here but when I ask, is the fish grilled, the waitress recoils and shouts: how’s the fish killed? We clear that misunderstanding up and later when a whole grilled plaice simply doesn’t appear we put that, too, down to the hard-to-hear-factor.

For a short while though it is unbelievably loud on the mezzanine. Something to do with a kiddies disco downstairs, a food truck convention outside and a roof-level speaker hanging pretty much right behind our empty heads.

As we look over the mobbed-mayhem of people eating wood-fired pizzas from Nomad, or tacos from the Chompsky Food Truck outside or simply petting their dug as the man two tables along is doing, it’s hard to deny it’s going like a fair.

Amidst all this crackpot chaos we are quietly eating starters of smoked salmon and crab cannelloni with puffed capers for £7 and whole salt-baked golden beetroot, braised fennel and smoked horseradish foam for £6. Surreal.

Now, I’m not in the business of giving people advice but I’d immediately take that £12 scallop starter off the laminated menu if I was them. And the £8 rabbit. Not only were they the very first things we saw, making us goggle at the prices in the Barras nowadays, but it may be a new Glasgow scallop starter price record.

Actually when the main course whole plaice finally arrives? It’s a beautiful fish, grilled perfectly to its crispy edges, steaming, soft and creamy inside, prompting Leo to say that it might be one of the best fish he has had for a very long time and it’s just £12. The same price as that scallop starter.

I have a square of halibut that is just the way I always want to eat it. Grilled, the surface carmelised and golden brown, the meat firm and white and juicy, and the whole thing on top a lovely pile of wilted spinach for just £14. Simple. Perfect. I could eat it every single day.

There’s more good fish, a plate of sardines, charred at the edges, that we eat with our fingers, salty samphire heaped around it, maybe not yet the Scottish sardine season in November but with global warming who knows?

Back to those starters. The Cannelloni? Hmmm. Apple gel, squid ink and crunchy puffed capers are served with a cannelloni that is actually smoked salmon rolled round a crab filling. Quite nice. But possibly a bit fussy and conventional in this setting.

If you’ve not yet noticed it is actually either a mad and completely misguided attempt to launch a Brick Lane in the heart of Glasgow’s rough and ready Calton or an act of foresight and genius.

I think they may be onto something. Judging by the turnout today as we picked our way past stalls on the way in, the famous Glasgow Barras ain’t the market it once was. Yet the buildings have an attractive Victorian industrial edge to them. This would make a fantastic restaurant quarter one day.

But I’ve also got to say I’ve been down here on a winter’s night and at that time this location, right in the middle of the dead market is quite, er, challenging.

OK, beetroot starter anyone? Pleasant golden beetroot with fennel and shallot puree, and a smoked horseradish foam that doesn’t add that much and given the setting makes the whole thing seems too a bit fussy.

The pont neuf – or Jenga-like potato batons – with caper salsa? Frankly, not great being soggy and flabby and watery on the grounds of nobody ever having thought, I wonder what the best potatoes would be to use here?

The mac ’n’ cheese, too, we don’t rate – it being more mac ’n’ cream. But…the kiddies disco has gone now. It’s all calmed down. There’s a couple of guys playing classical guitar in the courtyard. We’re chilling. And you know, fussy dishes aside, that grilled fish was very good.

Menu: Cool kids' internet-buzz fish restaurant in the Barras market with great whole grilled fish dishes, some overly fussy starters and the usual mac 'n' cheese and yadayada sides. 3/5

Atmosphere: A bit mad when we were in but there was a food truck festival on, otherwise pleasant-looking upstairs mezzanine area in a courtyard setting. 3/5

Service: Managed to miss out one main course entirely but it was so noisy when we arrived it wasn't hugely surprising that it wasn’t heard. Otherwise pleasant, relaxed and friendly. 4/5

Price: Avert your eyes from the prices of some of the starters and it’s actually very good value for main course fish dishes with a whole grilled plaice at just £12. 4/5

Food: Could be the go-to place for simple grilled fish; halibut on wilted greens, or whole plaice on its own. They need to decide what they are focussing on in the please-everyone menu. 7/10

Total: 21/30