blythswood square restaurant - blythswood square

very good food, slow service

visited midweek with work colleagues. very pleasant bar atmosphere and dining space with a good range of dishes on the menu. service was slow though, with no obvious reason why.

from the upcoming june edition of bite magazine a confession. ever since blythswood square opened in glasgow, i’ve been cheating on edinburgh, having made several trips across the m8 to dine in their restaurant. set within the former royal scottish au tom obile club, the hotel mixes art deco glamour with contemporary scottish comfort. the former ballroom is now the restaurant, and it’s an elegant space with d esi gn nods to motor history, and bespoke harris tweed furnishings. recently, i was through for lunch with my friend kathy, and right away we both commented on the friendliness of their front-of-house team. this befits the winners of the 2011 scottish hotel awards for five-star cus tom er service, providing a relaxed fine dining experience, delivered without frippery. the affordable market menu at â£20 for three courses comfortably sits alongside the swankier ã la carte offering. from the compact menu, i started with cauliflower veloutã© with blue cheese croquette,

great place to have breakfast, they have cold dishes in the buffet and hot dishes to order from a menu. lively and nicely decorated. i liked their mushroom and cheese omelette and they also have a delicious hot chocolate.

i’d had blythswood square on my list for a visit for a good wee while. sister hotel of the excellent bonham in edinburgh, i’d popped in for drinks a couple of times, but hadn’t had the chance to check out their restaurant until now. i was joined today by regular guest quester tim and first-timer ian. ian was recently awarded the obe so is possibly the fanciest person we’ve had along on quests, to date.

 a well reputed hotel should house a fine restaurant to match its starred status and its here at the blythswood square hotel glasgow, formerly  the royal scottish  automobile association  , that one will be able to enjoy a gastronomic experience. the restaurant is quite simply named restaurant at blythswood square. photo credits:  http://www.townhousecompany.com/blythswoodsquare/   interestingly, my search did not begin with “best hotel restaurants” or “5* hotel dining” but rather “josper grill”. not heard of it ? “josper is an elegant combination of a grill and an oven in a single machine. by bringing the added value that comes from the firewood (charcoal) to the raw material, we obtain those flavours of yesterday, as well as a perfect texture and juiciness. by combining the functions of an oven and grill, we can work at high temperatures, sealing the product, smoking and grilling at the same time. these results are unique, and make the josper charcoal oven a piece of equipment that i

so overall, the food was good (and i was very pleased with two out of my three courses) but the service was mediocre, bordering on unacceptable, especially for a restaurant at a 5 star hotel. it wasn’t directly related to the staff – although our waitress was not particularly friendly, she wasn’t unpleasant either, and in any case, her expressionless face was made up by the fact that the lady who brought out our food was very enthusiastic and smily. what really let the place down was the slowness. orders for starters and main courses were taken promptly enough and there was no undue delay in the food being served, but it took so long for our empty main courses plates to be cleared away (at least 15 minutes from the point we put down our cutlery). in fact, we noticed that the people at the table right next to us had their plates cleared before ours even though they finished around 10-15 minutes after we did. then after we were done with our desserts, we had to wait another 10 minut

restaurant overwhelmed?. with grand, scottish inspired, surroundings complimenting the original pillars and ceilings, blythswood square is quite an intimidating sight! we were seated near the window on a comfortable tweed couch. staff were pleasant at first but as the restaurant became busier they very clearly began to lose control. any diner has to predict service to be slower at 8.30pm on a saturday but waiting almost 40 mins for 5 main courses on any day at any time of the year is a bit much. when the food came it wasn't bad but i was so hungry i almost ate my napkin. obviously good quality ingredients, and well cooked, but the food lacked imagination and was unmemorable. after deciding to skip dessert we waited 20 mins for the bill, after two reminders to two separate staff. went to the cocktail bar upstairs afterwards where drinks, atmosphere and service were excellent.

reading this back, i feel harsh. the service is not, in my mind, the waiters fault. they seemed desperately understaffed and i feel it is the managers duty to solve this. three members of waiting staff in a full restaurant on a busy saturday night is a bit strange. going by their prices they could afford a few more.....

lovely lunch. we had lunch today and chose predominantly from the very well priced market menu (3 courses £20). the food was excellent - in particular the aberdeen angus beef main course.

the staff were incredibly polite and pitched the level of service perfectly. unsurprisingly the venue is incredibly plush.

i can strongly recommend this restaurant. - it very definitely feels special and is completely unpretentious.