][1]New York may be the city that never sleeps but Glasgow seems to be the city where the chefs don’t get much shut eye. Not a week goes by without word of new openings, expansions and rebrandings.
The most recent development to reach the delicate ears of the 5pm Dining blog is that La Famiglia in Kelvinside has become Simply Fish.
La Famiglia has notched up plenty of glowing reviews since opening a couple of years ago but the switch from Italian to seafood is a sensible one.
Young Seafood Chef of the Year
In 2010, Nico Simeone, chef patron at La Famiglia, was named the Young Seafood Chef of the Year. He was working at Edinburgh’s Balmoral at the time.
Moving the focus to fish certainly hasn’t blunted the kitchen’s skills. Early 5pm customers have given the new venture a warm welcome in their reviews.
Simply Fish runs a daytime menu and an a la carte. The day menu is very competitively priced at £9.95 for two courses.
Dishes include mussel soup, devilled whitebait and peat-smoked haddock as well as the house fish pie.
Main courses from the sample a la carte offer a range of classic dishes like lemon sole meunière, West Coast crab linguine and hake wrapped in Parma ham.
Whisky spray
The starters on the a la carte are, perhaps, a little more adventurous: the Cumbrae oysters are served with a whisky spray while the tempura of Shetland squid comes with a chilli jam.
A la carte starters begin at £5.95 for a bowl of Cullen skink rising to £9.95 for seared Isle of Mull scallops.
Main courses start from £9.95.