Andre’s Bistro is a new restaurant on Glasgow’s Argyle Street. Open since April, it serves French/Mediterranean food on a monthly changing menu which you can see here.
It’s a 5pm member so you can book a three course dinner plus a glass of kir for £11 at Andre’s. If you don’t go through 5pm then £11 will score two courses. Either way, those are the sort of democratic prices that make eating out affordable to most people. At lunch, a dish of the day is £5.50 which is what I used to pay for a takeaway soup and sarnie from a deli on Edinburgh’s High Street some fifteen years ago.
Speaking to the chef owner, I asked if he had set his prices to be recession friendly. Not deliberately, he said. Instead, it turns out that he had been a head chef in one of Glasgow’s Pierre Victoire restaurants back in the day when Pierre LeVicky’s value for money bistro chain ruled the restaurant roost. The Pierre Victoire chain is long gone (LeVicky’s tale is a cracker) but the underlying idea of a set meal at an affordable price is still a good ‘un as far as many restaurateurs are concerned. Interestingly, LeVicky launched his empire in the teeth of the last recession and, for a while anyway, flourished.
On a separate note, a couple of 5pm members have introduced new menus. At The Rutland Hotel in Edinburgh, head chef David Haetzman has introduced a new Spring menu using Scottish veal, rabbit from the Scottish Borders and North Sea lemon sole all treated with the head chef’s trademark Mediterranean touch.
On the other side of the M8, just behind Glasgow Airport, R34 Restaurant & Café @ India of Inchinnan has introduced a children’s menu. The menu features the sort of food that kids recognise and won’t turn their noses up at but it’s also healthy.
Head chef John Shields said, “As every parent knows, kids can be fussy eaters. That’s why our children’s menu features such popular dishes as bangers and mash and ice cream. But what sets us apart from some other establishments is that parents can rest assured that all our dishes are prepared using only the finest, fresh ingredients.”
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