Photo of
October 31, 2016

achaltainn

We realise that you may not want to think about Christmas quite just yet but, for Scotland’s restaurateurs, the starting pistol has already been fired.

Most operators will have their Christmas dining menus in place while others are rushing to make sure that they will be up and running for the festive period.

Having officially opened last weekend in Glasgow’s Calton, A’CHALLTAINN @ BAaD should be well bedded-in by the time that most of us get round to hunting out the tree decorations.

Glasgow’s food quarter

Located in the heart of the Barras Market, in the Barras Art and Design centre, A’CHALLTAINN aims to be ‘a brand new, multi-purpose venue concept dedicated to Glasgow’s booming food scene’.

The brainchild of Ricky Scoular and Brian Traynor – familiar to many from Glasgow’s dance/clubbing scene – it comprises a 120 seat restaurant, internal courtyard and event space, coffee shop, cocktail bar, beer garden and a variety of independent food vendors.

The idea is that A’CHALLTAINN @ BAaD will be Glasgow’s first ever Food Quarter.

Mssrs Scoular and Traynor were the driving force behind the 2014 pop-up Fish Plaice and Heverlee at Tontine Lane.

The launch menu focuses on seafood with lots of meaty alternatives. As well as hot and cold seafood sharing platters, there are veggie platters, seafood stew pots and warm meat platters with 35-day-aged Scotch rib-eye, venison fillet and corn-fed chicken.

One section of the menu is labelled simply done and comprises around half a dozen plainly labelled dishes such as ‘halibut, wilted spinach and sesame’ or ‘venison fillet, smoked celeriac purée and baby carrot’.

Ingredients speak for themselves

The 5pm Dining blog has yet to eat there but the menu reads as though the quality of the base ingredients will be the star of the show.

There are hints of cheffy flourishes with ingredients such as ‘truffled snow’ and ‘curry foam’ but, in the main, the kitchen seems content to let the ingredients speak for themselves with one or two witty supporting acts on the plate.

We wish them every success.