][1]Continuing our look at the finalists in this year’s Scottish Restaurant Awards brings us to the contenders for the Best Oriental Restaurant of the Year.
They’re an exciting bunch with a veteran representative of the Chinese restaurant scene; a hip new Vietnamese joint and a sushi restaurant which has form in the Scottish restaurant awards.
Ho Wong
Showing proper reverence to our elders, we’ll kick off with Glasgow’s Ho Wong. The York Street restaurant has been serving exquisite Chinese food for just under thirty years. While it may have a good few years under its belt, the Ho Wong has not let the grass grow under its feet.
While seafood is not all the restaurant serves, it is prominent on the menu. If you have a hankering for scallops in chilli sauce; steamed seabass with ginger, spring onion and soy or even Scottish lobster baked with black bean sauce then the Ho Wong should be on your speed dial.
Hanoi Bike Club
If the Ho Wong has fed generations of Chinese food lovers then the Hanoi Bike Shop in Glasgow’s Ruthven Lane is winning new converts to Vietnamese cooking. The premises used to house the Stravaigin 2 restaurant. While that operation has gone to the skies, the Hanoi Bike Shop is still owned and run by Colin Clydesdale of the original Stravaigin and the Ubiquitous Chip.
And the food? It’s exciting stuff. Think aromatic noodle broths; fresh, juicy spring rolls stuffed with herbs and delicious Banh Mi – the French baguette which the Vietnamese have made all their own with pickled veg, chilli, coriander and pork paté.
][5]Yatai Izakaya
Aberdeen’s Yatai Izakaya is no newcomer to the Scottish Restaurant Awards. In fact, Chef John Jones and his team won the Best Oriental Award at the first Scottish Restaurant Awards back in 2009.
Things went a bit quiet after that as the Yatai team moved premises a couple of times and dropped off the radar. Happily, the now seem firmly ensconced on Langstane Place where they are delivering the most beautiful sushi and sashimi alongside other classical and contemporary Japanese dishes.
Check their Facebook photo albums for a glimpse of the place where art and food meet.
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