Sharing the love for my city will never be something I'm hesitant to do on this blog. Quite often I get emails for suggestions of things to do in Glasgow, most notably places to eat, drink, and be entertained. Luckily these are my three faaaaaavourite things to do in the city (along with shopping, because, y'know!) and although I have trusty haunts which I regularly frequent, I'm always on the hunt for somewhere new to try. Thankfully, Glasgow is host to an abundance of places to get your mouth watering and your toes tapping. I was long overdue a catch up with my friend Jacs, so we decided to get our glad rags on and have a little mate date on Saturday evening.
Both Jacs and I live in Shawlands which is on the south side of the city. A £5 Uber ride gets us right into the centre in less than 15 mins, and bang on 5pm we arrived at our dinner destination - Sapporo Teppanyaki on Ingram Street. We sipped on Peach Bellini's and Lychee & Vanilla Martinis while waiting on our starters, the most delicious sushi I think I've ever had, hands down. Many of the cocktails contained a subtle but quirky asian twist, and I saw a few on the menu which contained Saki! Something I wasn't brave enough to try yet, but maybe next time *hic*
The whole idea behind teppanyaki is that your meal is prepared and cooked in front of you, in a fun and theatrical style on a traditional, flaming hot plate. This makes for lots of laughs whether you're there as a twosome or in a bigger group (which this sort of large table set up caters for perfectly - there were a lot of birthday groups etc there while we were in) Our teppanyaki chef was brilliant fun, and with all laughs aside the food was cooked to perfection. Jacs went for the rolled chicken fillet stuffed with asparagus and garlic, and I opted for the teriyaki fillet steak. Absolutely mouth watering, and even the simple sauteed potatoes and egg fried rice on the side tasted out of this world. I was naughty and skipped the veggies but to be honest it was all so filling I don't think I could have managed any more. Well, apart from dessert, cause y'know we all have a special second stomach for that...
Being completely indecisive with desserts, we got the Chocolate Spring Rolls along with the White Chocolate Cheesecake and went halfers. Both very well constructed and not too heavy, I'm the sort of person who craves something sweet after dinner and then proceeds to slip into a food coma with major dessert regret. However these were both lovely and just 'enough' to finish your meal. I feel like we barely scratched the surface with the menu (especially the selection of sushi and cocktails on offer) so I'll be dragging Pete back here soon for sure, keeping in mind they've got 20% off all food until the end of January. The general atmosphere of the place was fantastic, and feeling upbeat with satisfied tummies we took a walk 5 minutes down the street for some after dinner entertainment at The Riding Room.
The Riding Room is the cutest little speakeasy style bar hidden away on Virginia Street with cabaret (a mixture of live sets, burlesque, side show and magic) on stage 7 nights a week. Despite boasting a rather quirky cocktail menu of its own, on saturday night it was host to Social & Cocktail who were showcasing their new menu additions for 2017. The Disco Drumstick, Blueberry Sour, and Mango & Orange Daiquiri were the stand out winners for us! Dangerously easy to drink, it took me back to when I hired Social & Cocktail to bring their pop up bar to my old flat a few years ago. For no particular occasion might I add, it was seriously just a fun way to get everyone together and I didn't even need to do the washing up at the end (bonus) Social & Cocktail offer cocktail making classes for birthdays, hen parties, engagements, house warmings and anything else in between. It was really nice to sit and blether with Jacs and have a few drinks while watching the great acts performing on stage. Putting the world to right over Japanese food and cocktails with one of your favourite ladies truly gets 5 stars from me when it comes to a Saturday night in Glasgow. 8 times out of 10 we would usually end up in a club after an evening like this, but we contentedly hopped in a taxi home and I was in my jammies by 9.30pm!
Whats your favourite combination or destination for a night out?
