Citation, Glasgow - Restaurants in Glasgow | s1play.com

Bill of rights

Review published on 26/01/2009 © Sunday Herald

Faced with the same menu, we all make different choices. I can bet one friend will always choose the same things; smoked salmon to begin, then either steak or fish and chips. He is a creature of habit and convention who seeks familiarity. Another regular dining out partner has a thing about truffle oil; if there's anything with this pungent ingredient then he has to have it. My niece, on the other hand, avoids it like the plague. It's too overwhelming a flavour, she says. Then there are the people who avoid whole categories of food, such as fish, based on some childhood prejudice and never reconsider their decision. One mate says she likes eating out with me because I encourage her to go for dishes that are a bit more adventurous. Being an infrequent eater-out, she tends to play safe. Leave her to choose in a Chinese restaurant and she'll come out having eaten the lemon chicken, still curious about how the rice congee might have tasted.

At the risk of sounding like a spoiled, decadent restaurant critic, the thing I strive to avoid is boredom. Believe me, 99 per cent of restaurant menus are samey and derivative, just like a class where everyone has used the same crib notes. You don't notice it when you eat out occasionally, but when you scan as many menus as I do, you can't help thinking that most chefs and restaurateurs live in a little goldfish bowl, copying each other's dishes. You get weird little self-referential foodie sub-cultures.

Aberdeen's restaurateurs, for instance, seem obsessed with Caesar salad. Then there are nationwide trends. Currently it's wall-to-wall sea bass. Desserts generally represent the lamest, least imaginative, portfolio of choice.

Just think of all the desserts in the world, and wonder why we get fixated on sticky toffee pudding, lemon tart (with almost invariably soggy pastry) and crème brulée.

At Citation in Glasgow, an extremely comfortable restaurant in a handsome former court building in the Merchant City, there are signs of a slightly more independent mind in the kitchen, somebody who reads classic cook books rather than apeing the menu of the guy across the road. I can't remember when I last saw that US classic, oysters Rockefeller, on a Scottish menu, but it makes great sense here, especially in winter when we crave warmth. Mine were absolutely luscious, the slippery bivalve still gloriously juicy under its grilled crust of spinach, parmesan, breadcrumbs and Pernod. Across the table, some lateral thinking had been applied to the pleasing - but by now quite familiar - combo of ham hock and lentils, with these two harmonious ingredients stuffed into a robust fritter batter, its potential heaviness foiled by a salad of sweet roasted beetroot, flat parsley and caper berries, alongside a nicely fondant red onion chutney.

For a main course, I was drawn to the ubiquitous sea bass because it came with chermoula, that enlivening north African marinade/sauce - a great recipe for anyone who finds fish dull or who is unsure about how to cook it. Citation made a good job of it, producing a fresh, green, invigorating rough emulsion with all the right ingredients: lemon, coriander and other leafy herbs, spring onions and cumin. The kitchen here also knows how to season things up correctly, as both the fish and the crunchy golden fried potatoes beneath it testified.

Our other main course was less surefooted, as though someone had strayed from the menu description of "chargrilled calf's liver with celeriac purée, watercress and salsa verde". The latter is, of course, another of the world's great accompaniments: a finely chopped blend of herbs, anchovies, olive oil and lemon, generally served in Italy with "bollito misto" (boiled meats). Here, though, the green elements that would have lightened the dish seemed to have got lost in a thick, rich brown sauce and the distinctive celeriac had lost out to the starchy potato. It was still reasonable, but didn't live up to its billing.

To end, the inevitable crème brulée had been given a successful makeover. The top was covered in shattered peanut brittle and the toasted peanut taste infused the custard. A dark horse, but a winner. A better-than-average lemon tart was elevated from ubiquity by a delightful spiced sultana and pine nut compote.

Citation isn't exactly radical in its thinking, but at least it's fresh.

Head along early doors for a treat

Review published on 29/09/2009 © Sunday Herald

When it opened last year, Citation was the venue of choice for most of my friends’ celebratory meals. It was so lovely in March that we returned in May and by October there was really nothing else for it but to go back to the Parisian-themed upper dining area of the former Sheriff Court.

But like everything in Glasgow, places have their moment in time and new restaurants – perhaps more recessionista friendly – entered our 2009 horizons.

Speaking to a few people about Citation it was clear they considered it a very expensive place to go: the place to take the visiting boss or the ideal venue for a romantic, but special, meal.

However, until the end of September (and let’s urge them to continue it longer) Citation are offering their Early Doors Menu on Fridays and Saturdays, which means you can dine in the heart of the Merchant City for under a tenner – including a glass of house wine. (This is the two course price; three courses plus wine is a meagre £12.50 and the only proviso is that you dine after 4pm and before 7pm.)

Being a formerly loyal customer, I was on their emailing list and the virtual prod was enough to get me to book a Friday evening table for a post-holiday girlie catch-up with Ashleigh.

Cutting it fine with a 6.30pm table and getting there by the skin of my teeth for 6.45pm (I blame my taxi driver) Ash had already ordered a bottle of white wine, with their house prices starting at a reasonable £12.95 for a palatable South African Chenin Blanc.

The Early Doors Menu is quite a standard three options per course offering (with an additional tempting main course available with a £4 supplement) but the choices within each course are pleasingly diverse. The marinated herrings with warm potato salad, beetroot relish and lemon was perhaps the most comforting and adventurous of the starters, but both Ash and I opted for that old favourite, chicken liver parfait with toast and chutney.

When it arrived, we realised the parfait to toast ratio was quite significantly amiss so ordered some more bread, which made us start when it arrived.

A huge basket of bread was placed before us and when I asked if they could take some of it away, I was given a ‘you know you can do it’ look from the attentive waitress. We couldn’t finish it, but it was nice of her to inspire some confidence.

For main course I had pushed the boat out and ordered the Rose Veal Stringberg, the supplement dish. It was another mammoth portion (not typical pre-theatre sizing) and was served with saute potatoes, pickled cucumber and leaf salad.

The mustard-seed sauce was similar in taste to the dressing on our starter’s side salad but the perhaps odd combo of rich sauce and fresh pickled cucumber actually worked very well.

Ash had opted for a grilled pork chop with champ, apple compote & grain mustard jus, and apart from the mustard again being a common theme her plate was so clean it was almost ready for the next customer at the end of the meal.

Other main course options were a pan roast fillet of salmon or a herb and parmesan polenta, so there was pretty much something for everyone there.

The dessert list proved too tempting and we swithered between Bannoffee Brulee or Sticky Toffee Pudding but the winter warmer won out and its accompanying vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce were divine.

Having sunk the bottle of wine by this point, we had an epiphany: we’d not yet had our complimentary glass of wine! Without any sighs at not being able to turn around the table, we were furnished with two ice-cold and rather large glasses by our waitress. Who needs coffee anyway?

Service-wise you’ll get more than you ask for at Citation, as almost everyone busying behind the upstairs bar must have a catwalk day job; and yet they’re never too coolly cold like nearby trendy establishments. What Citation has managed to do right this month, however, is get its price point just right. And the ambience they’ve created means you’re likely to stay and spend on in one of their various bar areas: their ground floor taverne, the first floor balcony or the ‘terrace’ on Brunswick Street if the Autumnal elements are on your side.