Kember & Jones, Glasgow - Restaurants in Glasgow | s1play.com

Kember & Jones

Review published on 02/02/2005 © Sunday Herald

It’s just as well that I don’t live in Glasgow’s west end or I swear that I would go up a dress size. I have a barely controlled weakness for home-made cakes and tarts.

Winding my way up to Kember & Jones on Byres Road proved the last straw. Here I was eyeball to eyeball with a curdy lemon tart, orange cheesecake brownies, mountainous scones whose crusty extremities had that fresh-from-the-oven look, a pristine, elegant white chocolate and redcurrant tart and towering carrot cake, of which more later.

Kember & Jones is the most recent addition to the west end’s discerning specialist-food-shop-with-a-kitchen-on-the-premises cluster but takes the concept further by being half food hall/half café.

It is reminiscent, albeit smaller, of two excellent outfits in London that operate on similar lines – Flaneur in Farringdon and Villandry in Marylebone. I detect a south-of-the-border freshness about the buying policy, in labels that are not just there because they look pretty, but because they are the best in their category, such as Robert Wilson teas – the jewels of Sri Lankan production – and chocolate items from the admirable Rococo, and Artisan du Chocolat, in London.

The saucissons and salumi are artisan, not your usual Scottish deli industrial offerings. The cheeses are well chosen and looked after, and refreshingly free from the usual ubiquitous makeweights. Someone here understands good food.

Kember & Jones has a profoundly civilised, relaxing, almost countrified atmosphere. I didn’t mind queueing for a table because that gave me more time to scan the shelves and chillers.

One irritation, however, is the traiteur/ takeaway offerings can’t, in the main, be served in the café, due to reheating problems I understand. But from where I stood, the potato, leek and Stilton gratin, a fennel and Parmesan variant, and the feta, mint and courgette tart looked extremely tempting.

Upstairs in the loftier recesses we settled down to dishes that are little more than showcases for great raw ingredients. Platters of nicely ripened cheeses and fine cured meats flanked with fresh fruits, succulent olives, high-quality toasted nuts, quince paste, and more, passed by but I was tucking into my extremely superior sandwich.

All the bread is from the organic Trusty Crust bakery in East Lothian and superbly fresh. I chose one where the thick, but not daunting, wholemeal bread encased beautifully fresh, lightly roasted, fondant aubergine and courgette, a generous amount of oozing-at-the-centre buffalo milk mozzarella and a minty dressing.

Desperate Dan-sized, served with salad leaves and Tyrells crisps, it looked implausibly large but I did not leave a crumb. A very respectable Italian bresaola (cured beef) in thin pink slices came topped with rocket, shavings of crumbly Parmigiano, moistened with virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a hint of truffle oil.

But all this was window dressing for my attack on the carrot cake. “Ask for today’s cookies, home-made cakes, tarts and scones, made here in the morning by Claire,” invited the menu. Delighted I’m sure, and well done that woman!

I consider myself something of an expert on carrot cake and its potential flaws; too oily, burnt extremities, too ploddingly wholefoodie, and so on. But Claire reigns supreme as the carrot cake queen in my book. Her version was tall, but airy and fluffy, scented lightly not heavy-handedly spiced. The nuts might have been freshly shelled they were so creamy. As for the abundant sour cream topping? Just try it.

© Sunday Herald