Heavenly, Glasgow

Heavenly is a new stealth vegan café in the centre of Glasgow. You’d never know from their website, which is useless but very pretty. I note it’s improved a little over the last couple of days in the time between my checking it before my visit, to my checking it now to put the link in. It now mentions that the café is vegan, but there’s still no online menu.

This place is so new it smells of woodworking. It’s clean, modern and very, very green. The menu is basic and short, and clearly designed to appeal to non-vegans, which is good because the omni partner is with me.

I ordered the Heavenly Tofu Burger. My partner opted for Bangers and Mash. They also stock the Samuel Smith Organic Wheat Beer, so I had an enjoyable swift half.

The burger was a ciabatta bun stuffed with grilled tofu and roast veg. It came with proper chips, a tasty green salad and onion rings. The latter were, unfortunately, fried at too low a temperature and were therefore oily. I’ll be giving the tempura a miss in future.

The (tofu) bangers and mash came with onion gravy. The omnivore proclaimed it to be okay, but would not be drawn further, other than it was not as filling as you might expect.

Dessert was something rarely found in vegan form: rice pudding. And it was nothing like I expected. The brown rice pudding had been formed into a cake and dressed with poached pears, blueberries and chocolate. Fabulous!

Heavenly, 185 Hope Street (nr Junction with West Regent Street), Glasgow G2 2UL. Tel: 0141-353 0884. Open 11am – midnight, 7 days a week. Last food order 8pm.

Review: Stereo, Glasgow

The conditions of a cheap day return meant that eating in Glasgow was the most sensible option last Wednesday, and I used it as an excuse to visit somewhere I wanted to try out.

Stereo is entirely vegan, and the sister restaurant to Mono and The 78. The menu is a lighter one, with plenty of tapas, plus a selection of mains. There is a strong Mediterranean feel, but they’ve clearly trawled the world looking for interesting ideas for vegan dishes. Weirdly, they don’t mention anywhere that all the food is vegan. They don’t even mention that it’s vegetarian, though that would be obvious as soon as you scan the menu.

I went for the farinata, an Italian gram flour baked pancake (see photo). Usually served simply with salt and pepper, here it had been turned into a meal with the addition of borlotti beans and fried porcini mushrooms, and served it with a green sauce which I think was basically basil. It worked well, having the satisfaction level of a pizza (vegan pizza and calzone are also on the menu), but with the hope that it might be vaguely healthy. My partner chose a selection of small dishes. The Patatas Bravas met with his approval, the flatbread contained more garlic than bread, and the olives were devoured by both of us.

There was even dessert, though only a couple of choices, and there was no way chocolate orange cake was passing me by! Drinks-wise it was unimpressive. The only beer worth drinking was the superb Samuel Smith Wheat Beer, and the home-made sodas you get at Mono were absent. I also think they exaggerate the pedigree of their building. Charles Rennie Mackintosh did, indeed work on it, but mostly on the tiling at the back.

Stereo, 20-28 Renfield Lane, Glasgow G2 6PH. Tel: 0141-222 2254. Full menu served noon-9pm daily; tapas served until midnight daily.