Big Slope, Glasgow - Restaurants in Glasgow | s1play.com

Big Slope is a big hit

Review published on 09/10/2006 © Sunday Herald

Mitchells and Butlers, the chain that owns the All Bar One pub chain, recently reported that since the smoking ban came into force in Scotland, its pubs had seen drink sales drop by one per cent while its food sales have risen by eleven per cent.

More evidence, if it were needed, that people who had previously boycotted pubs because they hated emerging smelling like ashtrays, are being wooed back and are spending a fair bit of money. M&B observed that that “the best long-term prospects for profitable growth (in pubs) were in food”.

Pubs are ideally placed to steal a march on mid-market restaurants that many people already find off-puttingly expensive. Since the smoking ban, a civilised pub that serves decent food in an informal setting is a very attractive proposition. The ban certainly presents new opportunities for publicans who want to do something creative, not just the usual reheats from catering suppliers like Brakes or 3669, or the old ‘chicken in a basket’ and greasy, lukewarm pie repertoire.

At Big Slope in Glasgow, they have brought imagination to the challenge. They have, for example, reinvented ‘breakfast in a pint’. For £3.50, you can have a pint glass filled with muesli, fruit and yogurt. As someone who uses breakfast to wake up, before I even think about washing or dressing, I can’t quite see myself in Big Slope of a morning, but if I lived around the corner, I could see myself dropping in for tea of a weeknight.

I use the Scottish word ‘tea’ deliberately. The food at Big Slope is fairly straightforward and basic, but there is an honest lack of pretension about it that I like. I spotted no sign of bought-in food. On the contrary, everything tasted home-made. Better still, it was blissfully, even rashly cheap: monkfish roasted in Parma ham (£8.50), steak and chips (£7.95) for instance.

It’s a civilised environment too with its comfy leather chairs, warm chocolate brown walls, and a fake, but nevertheless warming wood burning stove. The only blot on the landscape is a plasma screen silently playing Sky sports while music plays loudly overhead. Look, if you want to go to pub to watch a game, then choose one where the volume is full blast and everyone is watching it and getting into the spirit of the event. Otherwise, plasma screens are just more visual pollution that mitigates against appreciation of food and conviviality.

Trying out the salads – which come obligingly in two sizes and price levels – we liked a generously proportioned stack of fresh salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and roasted (rather than pickled) beetroot topped with slices of fried Halloumi cheese. The pizza was pretty good too with its thin, friable base topped with crumbled Italian sausage – the meaty, fennel-scented kind – softly sweated red onions and melting cheese.

Of the main courses, a Ligurian-style pasta with potatoes, green beans and basil pesto was let down by overcooked linguini, but it was infinitely preferable to deep fried ‘scampi’ and chips, or boil-in-the-bag Thai green curry, and moderately priced at £5.95. Much better, however, was the grilled pork chop which was anointed by a lively lemon zest and thyme crust. It went very well with mashed potatoes enriched with parmesan.

Big Slope is diffident about desserts. There is no mention of any on the menu. On enquiring, however, there was one, a maple banana cheesecake. We speculated on the odds of it being one of those nasty, artificial, bought-in confections that turn up in bad coffee shops, reckoning that there was a 50-50 chance that a pub chef would decide to take the easy option. But along came a patently home-made offering which seemed to have been assembled to order.

A thin, crumbly, circular biscuit base supported an extremely moreish mass which tasted like cream cheese, slackened with sharp, natural yogurt. It managed not to be cloying even though the butterscotch flavour of maple syrup suffused it. Its crowning glory was diagonal slices of caramelised bananas. This was as fine a pudding as you’d get in many a restaurant and at £3.50, cheaper too.

Nice place, good food and cheery, attentive service. It’s a winning formula.