Some restaurants get it right, that is, they hit on a formula that works. The strategic thinking that drives them flows consistently through every aspect of the business- food, decor, service, value for money- creating an internal consistency. Getting it right doesn’t necessarily equate to being brilliant, but it does usually translate into being successful.

So many restaurants are idiosyncratic, riven with contradictions- good food/ bad location; bad food/prime location; fine cooking/rubbish service; lofty aspirations/unrealistic prices- that ultimately lead to their undoing. It’s impossible to list all the factors that make a restaurant work, this is an art, not a science, you just know it when you see it, and it’s quite obvious when one, like Bibimbap in Glasgow, nails it.

What is not to be underestimated here is the transformational effect of the radically, but not structurally, altered interior. In past incarnations these premises were difficult, narrow, tapering, uninviting, almost as if you were walking into a trap. I can’t believe that Bibimbap’s look came from amateurs, however gifted, more like a professional designer, a clever one, who makes you want to walk in. One wall is now mirrored, doubling the illusion of space. It reflects the other wall, which is clad in artificial greenery that imports a vertical garden element. Neon lights in geometric shapes bring in a densely-populated, downtown Seoul feel, their vivid colours- magenta, orange, acid yellow, cobalt- echoed by up-ended parasols suspended from the ceiling, which visually cut the unusable height and so allow for a more intimate dining mood than the basic proportions of the space would allow.

Busy- we’re lucky to get a table- but the staff isn’t flustered. Everything from the tabletops to the floor is clean, despite the volume of diners. Menus and drinks arrive in a flash. Diners at the next table are tucking in to Korea’s answer to KFC, kitted up with disposable plastic gloves. Tempting, but the honest answer comes back that although the chicken is halal, Bibimbap can’t be sure if it’s free-range. We assume that it isn’t and pass up what otherwise looks to be a tempting proposition.

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Also at other tables we’re eyeing up what resembles giant macaroni in a red sauce. Luckily we’ve ordered it- Dokbokki- chewy, gummy tubes of fried rice cake overlaid with thin slices of fish cake that bring an anchovy-like fishiness to the plate in addition to a powerfully garlicky, fiery red sauce that has a slightly fermented back taste. The net effect is comforting, and like many of the dishes here, makes you want to go back for more. Ditto kimchi pancake, with its slippy-sour innards of faintly sulphurous chilli-hot, preserved oriental cabbage inside a crisp fried exterior that stands some comparison with a fried potato scone, or an especially squidgy crumpet. It’s compelling with a drip or two of salty soy sauce, and cold, would make a pack lunch that you could really look forward to eating.

The most astonishing thing though is the bokk-eumbab, kimchi and belly pork fried rice. It seems suspiciously cheap, given that’s it approaches the dimensions of a small curling stone, a gleaming mound of immensely savoury, pearly, Japanese-style short grain rice, once again with that background sour, possibly fermented garlic heat, mixed with fatty meat, cabbage, and yellow pickle that might be turnip, plus a crisp-edged fried egg on the top. It comes with a mildly smoky miso soup that’s calming and cloudy with tiny cubes of tofu, silky sheets of seaweed and shreds of spring onion. £9.95, yet there’s enough to serve two by my standards.

Janchigugsu is a noodle dish that slowly reveals itself, each spoonful intriguingly different from the one before as all its elements gradually unfold and blend. Soft noodles, thin ribbons of what looks to be omelette, shredded courgettes and carrots, floating in clam stock. The nearer you get to the bottom the more the red Korean chilli paste infuses it with its ferrous heat, and yet this bowlful of flavours remain subtly differentiated, reeling you back in for another mouthful.

Want to study and understand the elements of a successful restaurant? Put Bibimbap on your list.

Bibimbap, 3 West Nile Street, Glasgow 0141 221 6111

Food: 8 and a half/10

Service: 9/10

Atmosphere: 10/10

Value for money 10/10