Fingers crossed but, all being well, Riverhill West Nile Street should be serving its first customers today.
From the same stable as the Riverhill Courtyard restaurant in Helensburgh and the popular Riverhill Cafe Bar on Gordon Street, the West Nile Street venture is a cool, all day restaurant.
Independently run
Independently run and keen to use as much local produce as they can, Riverhill West Nile Street is the brainchild of Johnny Aitken.
Split over two levels (and connected to the Gordon Street cafe), the restaurant has a dining room on the upper level while the kitchen and loos are downstairs.
‘Eclectic, world cuisine’ is how owner Johnny describes the food and we couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
This means that you could start your day with porridge, honey and cream or with one of the restaurant’s own naan breads stuffed with Puddledub bacon, chilli jam, cream cheese and coriander.
Poached eggs on toast? Yours for £4. Prefer your eggs cooked in a skillet with spinach, yoghurt and chilli oil? That will be £7.50, please.
Go explore
The main menu is a belter.
You could walk on the wild side by having a starter of grilled octopus, chorizo, smoked butter, burst cherry tomatoes and almonds followed by cheddar and potato pierogies with caraway sauerkraut.
Or you could stay a little closer to home and have… no, hang on. It all looks deliciously exotic.
Horse whelk fritters with jerk aioli? Beef rendang? Seared onglet steak with a wild garlic and walnut pesto?
Hell, yeah.
Even the desserts don’t play it safe. The salted caramel popcorn posset with candied bacon and pecan brittle has our name all over it.
When we spoke to Johnny earlier this week, there was a question mark as to whether their drink licence would be in place for opening.
Contact them to see if it has been sorted out or not but the drinks menu, especially the cocktails, looks great.
Great pedigree
Lots of people in the 5pm office are fans of the Gordon Street Cafe Bar and have been pretty excited about the restaurant opening.
This 5pm Dining blog scribbler is a Riverhill newbie, but several years ago, in another life, I wrote about Storm, another restaurant which Johnny Aitken was involved with in Helensburgh.
I liked it. A lot. More importantly, it was so popular that people were genuinely trying to gatecrash the reservations list.
We wish Riverhill West Nile Street every success.
