Ron Mackenna: Azur Bistro, Princes Square, Glasgow

Creamy mushrooms, chicken liver pate, mussels and, groan, even soup du jour jump out at me. Awkward. Especially as we former Evening Times newsroom guys had a tiny, itsy-bitsy falling out, online punch-up even, over where exactly we were meeting for lunch.

OK, that bit is my fault, too. That's the trouble with being a restaurant critic, think you know it all. Anyways, an hour or so later Stormin' can't make it but Robbie, Gibbo and I are so deep in stories of the day Eck hid under the newsdesk; the morning Scoop Vincent informed the very same news desk he was sick by phoning a message not to the office, but to the newsagents across the road and other such stuff that I barely register that we're eating from some voucher menu. Yeah, we like to tell the same stories.

I've had a reasonable sweet French onion soup to start, Gibbo's eating goat's cheese parfait and Robbie a vegetable soup. I also ordered a pan tomato on the grounds it might be a little authentic. It's a baguette with tomatoes and enough olive oil to make it pleasant.

I've got to say this is possibly the least French feeling French bistro I have ever been in. In fact as a story was being told earlier about Big Roddy "tuning the drones" - don't ask - I scanned the menu again to see what I fancied. Sole goujons, linguine, roast chicken breast, burger, mussels and ta-raa quiche. I think the general idea with bistros, certainly the ones I have been to very recently in France and even Glasgow, is to do something interesting with humble everyday ingredients - possibly even freshly source them.

There is seabass with crushed new potato - in January - on the a la carte menu and duck breast - with winter berry jus - but that's about it. Hardly local. As for that quiche. I would order it - ditto the pate - if I could have been sure it was made here today and not delivered from the back of a freezer van, but there's no clue to the answer to that question on the menu. And I'm long past the stage where I can be bothered to indulge in some top badinage with waiting staff about what exactly made-here means. I always end up looking like a weirdo. Furthermore, the menus don't look like they change much, if ever.

So, in the end it's a croque monsieur for me and a couple of minute steaks for the others. All come with thin, crispy, salty chips. The steaks are frankly not the best looking being a tad stringy, but the chef has seasoned them well. I should say in all fairness that all the food is cleanly and well prepared even if there's not much to challenge a chef.

There were tidily turned little batons of vegetables with the salad, small cubed tomatoes with the bread, the croque comes with a grilled béchamel sauce on top and is made with soft bread. That same bread has perhaps let the béchamel ooze into it just a little too much.

We continue to have a laugh, but the food is neither good, nor bad. It's simply never mentioned. The price? Voucher or not it's £11.95 for two courses which in my book doesn't slide into the value category.

Next time? Someone else can pick the restaurant.

Azur Bistro

Princes Square,

Buchanan Street,

Glasgow

0141 221 7044

Menu: Faintly French and looking a bit like a theme restaurant. Not much sign, if any, of the great bistro tradition of turning humble ingredients into interesting dishes. 2

Service: Staff are pleasant and helpful young guys, who only needed a couple of reminders that we needed extra cutlery. 3

Atmosphere: Princes Square is still a lovely spot for a lunch. but the restaurant itself seems outshone by those around it. 3

Price: We paid £11.95 each for two courses which is the set menu price. Not great value. 2

Food: Neither good, nor bad. Disappointing if you were expecting more from a French restaurant. Overall dull. 5