The Two Figs - Glasgow, Scotland

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Name: The Two Figs

Location: 5&7 Byres Road, Glasgow, Scotland G11 5RD

Contact Details: On website, http://www.thetwofigs.co.uk/index.html

 

Category: Fancy bar food

 

Menu: http://www.thetwofigs.co.uk/menus.html

 

Price Range: £ to ££ depending on what time of day.

 

Review:

 

My friend works near here and was raving for months about how good their coffee was in the morning and how good their menus looked and how we should "definitely go there SOON."

 

So it was a friend of ours birthday and we decided to make the trip. The restaurant has two parts to it, one that they open when it gets busier, which just makes sense. The seating is a mix of booths and tables in all shapes and sizes which nicely breaks up the fanciness of the rather imposing brickwork and fig wallpaper. The toilets were tiny though but you can tell they tried hard to make it nice, with each cubicle having a different "theme" with different wallpaper and picture and even door handles. I feel like little signs like these are definitely the markers of someone who thinks of the little details.

 

The main menu food is a little bit more than what I would like to pay for dinner, roughly around £12 pounds for the average dish but the menu made it sound delicious.

 

Three of us went, I had Seared Fillet of Seabass with Dauphinoise potatoes and it was just lovely. It came with a sort of chili jam that gave it a nice sweetness and the seabass was cooked perfectly. My two friends got the Chicken and Chorizo and the Shawarma with marinated Lamb, I would have had severe food envy if my own stuff wasn't so good.

All of us then had some bitter chocolate mousse which was gorgeous teamed with ginger syrup that took a bit of the bite out of the mousse. 

We ended up, with 2 cokes (or the like) each being around £25 pounds and then some tip on top but very worth it.

 

Like I said it was a wee bit more than I'd like to pay but they also do a lunch for a fiver menu Monday to Friday which is pretty good. http://www.thetwofigs.co.uk/lunchtimespecials.html

A friend and I went for her birthday lunch and we both got the aberdeen angus burger which comes with chips and a salad. The burger was lovely and juicy and overall just very nice but that is seriously nothing compared to the chips. They were beautiful, the were slightly crispy seasoned with rosemary and sea salt - it also came with restaurant garlic mayo to dip them in and it complimented them beautifully. Definitely excellent value for five pounds, I'd pay five pounds for the chips alone if I'm honest!

Because it was my friend's birthday we decided to have a cocktail. The cocktails were £6.30 which was more than my food but I decided to go for it anyway, I had a Miss Robinson, which is Stoli Raspberry Vodka, Chambord, Cream and Cranberry juice and it was, without exaggeration, one of the best cocktails I've ever had.

 

The service is really great as well, everyone is so friendly and nice. The second time we went, I think one of the waitressing staff had called in sick and we clearly had the Boss who was just pressed into service. He was nice too but just not as efficient as the other servers so it took awhile to get the bill. In fact it was a waiter from another section who noticed we were trying to get attention but he was really nice and apologised about it so I can't really fault them.

 

Overall Verdict:

 

I love this place. Not too busy, not too cheap but great food, drinks and service. I maybe wouldn't eat dinner here as often as I would like because of the price but I can lunch as often as I want!

 

Ratings:

 

Ambience: 4/5

Food: 5/5

Service: 4/5

Value for money: 4/5 at dinner, 5/5 at lunch

 

Overall: 4.5/5 (I can't give it full marks but it's oh so close.)

Edited June 12, 2013 by blank