Photo of
December 11, 2015
Virginia serves chicken and gin, two of the 5pm Dining blog's favourite things.
Virginia serves chicken and gin, two of the 5pm Dining blog’s favourite things.

The 5pm Dining blog is delighted to welcome two new Glasgow ventures to 5pm. Unusually, they both share the same Virginia Court address in the Merchant City.

During the day, Cup Tea Garden is a tranquil spot for a fantastic brunch, lunch or cake and cuppa. As night falls, it transforms into Virginia, a new gin bar and rotisserie restaurant.

Along with the original Cup Tea Room on Byres Road and Cup Tea Lounge on Renfield Street, they are all part of the Cup Glasgow family.

As with the more well established Cup outlets, loose leaf tea is a major part of the appeal at the new Cup Tea Garden.

First Flush Darjeeling

They sell just under 50 hand blended teas ranging from a crowd-pleasing Breakfast Blend to more esoteric First Flush Darjeeling and exotic Silver Needle.

The food menu covers everything from a full cooked breakfast to cupcakes with a wide variety of brunchy egg-based dishes and toasties, wraps, sarnies and panini in between.

In the evening, Virginia Bar and Rotisserie is the focus of all the action. As well as a neat cocktail list and lip-licking gin selection, they serve a straight forward menu of free range chicken cooked on the rotisserie.

Available whole, in halves and quarters, the chooks can be accompanied by sides such as triple cooked chips, beans, slaw, corn on the cob or mac ‘n’ cheese.

Over the last couple of years, it has sometimes seemed as though every third Glasgow restaurant launch has been a variation on a burger joint.

We have no beef with burgers but we are delighted to see someone offer something different.

Single item restaurants

Single item restaurants have been all the rage in London over the last couple of years (see Balls and Company, Chicken Shop and Bubbledogs etc) but we think we are right in saying that Virginia is the first dedicated chicken rotisserie in Glasgow.

And yes, we know the sparkly new Atlantic Bar and Brasserie also has a rotisserie but it’s far from being a single item restaurant.

We wish them all good luck and look forward to chowing down on some crispy-skinned chicken very shortly.