Seven21
Glasgow
THERE will be a very awkward moment in this meal when I suddenly sit bolt upright and think: holy semole did I just eat chicken wing tartare? As in raw. Chicken. Wing.
I know this place is cutting-edge, but … surely not. This will be followed by menu scanning, food prodding, head shaking and then the calling of the waiting staff over. Dum dum, dum.
It’s not the only time they’ll be over at this tiny back-to-the-wall table either. There being an awkward moment coming up when a waitress will rapidly leave the bar area, striding purposefully towards me while fixing eye contact to such an extent that I’m thinking: gulp, what did I do?
And then she’ll be leaning over and deftly removing the smouldering napkin I had draped over the burny candle. Oh. Fire. Not going to shout that one across the room. How we laughed. Well, I did. Nervously.
That will be during the cheese course. A £7 supplement, which, coming on top of a multi-course tasting menu costing just £30, I order out of curiosity. Home-made Branston pickle, it said. Why, I thought. Home-made digestive biscuits, it added. Hmm, rather have crackers.
And pitchfork Cheddar. Eh? Honestly? It’s delicious. Lovely, sweet, salty biscuits, a robust and tangy pickle and I even like the cheese – whatever it is. I loved too the golden beetroot gazpacho I had earlier. It having a real sweet and sour belt to it, textured with crunchy bits of pink beetroot looking like dolly mixtures, walnut and a teeny-weeny, polka-dot bikini mackerel fillet-ette seared on one side, languidly pale on the other. Bingo.
There was, too, that agnolotti, folded with the sort of artisan clumsiness only the human hand can achieve; stuffed with ricotta; set in a tiny bowl with peas so fresh I could actually taste them, lovage, asparagus, some frothy jus and then guanciale that had been cooked by someone who really cared – every nugget being completely crisp and bringing exactly the saltiness the whole shebang needed.
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Now. Seven21. It just appeared here one day, whoosh, on a strip of coffee shops and takeaways that Glasgow’s Pollokshaws Road thunders by. Ten whole courses for £30, too. Crikey. Shades of Six by Nico before the price went up? Having been in this movie before I’m only mildly curious, but I pitch up, pick one of the tiny two-seaters in the frankly, pretty small, dining room and wait for the usual yada-yada from the waiting staff. None comes. Bonus.
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Wheatberry bakery sourdough; mimolette (sloppy French cheese) custard, apple and tarragon; mutton leg croquette: that’s kinda the first three courses. OK not really courses. Pleasant bread, pleasant whippy dippy thing, not bad at all crunchy meaty croquette – zero mint tea experience though.
So far, so-so. Then arrives the micro fish course, the micro pasta course and things are perking way up. Suddenly – well, not suddenly because the gaps between courses are just a tad too long, so long actually that the foursome of doctors next to me are catching up ...
Anyway. Suddenly: there’s a crisp polenta, heaped with soft chorizo, a plateful of carrots in orange and dill; tender sliced beef, delicious peeled broad beans and a brown butter vinaigrette.
This is the main times three. And I like it. A cheeky wee lemon curd with pink peppercorn dessert finishes things off in a way that’s borderline weird. Not sure that granola is the texture this gloopiness needs.
But – hey. Not as weird as that chicken wing tartare which turns out to be … Nothing of the sort. Oops. The chicken wing confit was replaced, a waitress will inform me (without once, to her credit, using the word “stupid”) with beef tartare. Ah, I say. Was I told this? Maybe. It was a beef tartare that frankly was under-seasoned, kinda completely unbalanced and could therefore easily be mistaken for a chicken tartare by any fool. OK, just this one.
Let’s not forget this though. This interesting meal, cheese aside, cost £30. Crikey: a total bargain.
Seven21
721 Pollokshaws Road
Glasgow
G41 2AA
Mon-Thurs 9am-11pm, Fri-Sat 9am-midnight, Sunday 9am-4pm, book on web
Menu: A multi-course, fine-dining tasting menu at a bargain price, okay it’s been done before but mackerel, mutton croquettes, hand-made agnolotti, grelot onion, nothing if not interesting. 4
Service: Almost Scandi in its minimalism but pleasant - though the gapping from the kitchen between courses went awry at times - good at dousing fires. 4/5
Atmosphere: It’s a shoe-box of a place that’s been many different restaurants recently but still relaxed and fairly comfortable. 3/5
Price: Their knock-out punch. At £30 for a multi-course meal, it’s well worth a try. 5/5
Food: Bearing that price in mind it is great value and although the portions are small there’s some great dishes including that gazpacho, the whole three-piece beef ensemble and even the cheese course. 8/10
Total: 24/30
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