Bar Budda (restaurant review)

Restaurant Name: Bar Budda
Location: 400 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Date Visited: 7/06/13
Deal: 50% off food and discounted drinks with Nifty Fifty Card.


We all love a good fancy meal out now and again but sometimes you just want a nice simple meal out that's tasty and won't break the bank. Enter Bar Budda!

It had been about a year since I had last visited Bar Budda so  thought it was about time for a return visit, with my boyfriend and some of his family in tow.

I have to say that when I first saw the menu, I was a bit gutted: the menu used to be a massive card with a big selection but now, it was much more compact with less than ten main course options. However, I then noticed the free Nifty Fifty cards on the table. These cards are supposed to cost £3 but they are now being handed around for free. The Nifty Fifty card is valid in Bar Budda and the nearby Campus and O'Couture and will give you 50% off your food bill and discounted drinks. Valid till the end of August, 2013 I recommend you pick one up! This is the deal that we made use of for our visit.

For our starters, we shared chicken nachos and breaded mozzarella sticks: pretty standard starters but great sharers and very tasty! We also started making use of the discounted drink offers with a selection of cocktails costing only £3 each! We all opted for French Martinis.

For main course, I opted for Penne Arribiata with garlic ciabatta and the others went for Balmoral Chicken with chips or the classic Budda Burger. Everyone really loved their food and the portion sizes were very generous, especially my pasta, which I couldn't quite finish. My only fault would be that Arribiata shouldn't have peppers in it but this a pub, not a posh Italian so I'll let that one slide. All our main courses cost under £7 before even including our discount which is great value for money.

As for dessert, I was way too full for that! Everyone else however managed to make room. The choice was small: sticky toffee pudding or chocolate brownie. The others ordered and I had a nibble of both desserts. The sticky toffee pudding (my favourite dessert) wasn't that impressive, it had an alcoholic taste which I didn't really like all that much. The chocolate brownie however was very, very good!

 



After the meal, we were all pretty stuffed and the food and drink bill we only £45 for four of us (2 starters, 4 mains, 3 desserts and a lot of cocktails and other drinks) so we were pretty impressed.

Yes Bar Budda's menu has shrunk in the last year and yes, most of the food options are standard pub grub choices but sometimes that's exactly what you are looking for. The food (and drink!) in Bar Budda is cheap, generous in portion size and the majority of what we had was very tasty. I'll be going back soon!

La Lanterna (restaurant review)

Restaurant Name: La Lanterna
Location: 35 Hope Street, Glasgow
Date Visited: 30/05/13

Having grown up surrounded by Italian food and been on several trips to Italy, I think it's fair to say that when it comes to Italian food, I can be a harsh critic.
Since moving to Glasgow in 2010, I have tried quite a few Italian restaurants and while most were okay, or even reasonably nice, none of them had me ready to text all my friends to recommend it and have me rushing to review it on TripAdvisor. This one did.

I had booked a table for myself and my partner online after seeing rave reviews about it on TripAdvisor. My mother had also known a  great restaurant years ago with the same name so I took this to be a good sign.

The restaurant has a great location, right beside Central station in the city center and a reasonably short walk from Buchanan bus station and Queen Street station. The restaurant is in the basement, which immediately made me think that it would be really dark inside. However, I was pleased to find that instead the restaurant had a lovely warm glow about it and lovely traditional decor.

On arrival, my partner and I were quickly seated at a cosy little table near the back of the restaurant and were soon brought menus and a free glass of prosecco each (a nice freebie offered when you book your table online). Ordering our food took a while, the menu was very extensive and varied, making it difficult to choose. We decided to go for the a la carte menu on this occasion, rather than the pre theatre deal, which we will most likely be trying at a later date.

After ordering our food and drinks, we tucked into the complimentary bread basket. These bread baskets really are a nice touch in an Italian and I wish more restaurants actually offered these free of charge.

The service in the restaurant was very fast, friendly and efficient and the glasses of prosecco (we ordered more after we had finished our freebies) were going down nicely!

As for the food, I was very impressed. All three of our courses were incredible. For starters, I had the Insalata Caprese (a simple salad of tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oil) and my partner went for Gamberoni alla Sicilia (king prawns in a lemon, white wine and sweet chilli sauce served with garlic bread). Caprese was one of my favourite things to eat when I visited my Grandparents in Italy as a child and holds very fond memories for me so I was pleased to see the dish done well. The portion was generous and it was just perfect to eat. My partner's Gamberoni was also amazing, the flavours perfectly balanced and the garlic bread still managed to be crunchy rather than soggy despite the generous topping of prawns and sauce.

The main courses didn't disappoint either. Both my Saltimbocca alla Romana (veal with a white wine sauce, topped with parma ham and mozzarella) and my partner's Rigatoni con Filetto e Salsiccia (pasta with sliced fillet steak and Italian sausage) were full of flavour. My main also came with a side of tasty vegetables and saute potatoes included in the price. Not bad!

It was at this point, after gobbling up all the food put in front of me that I realised that I had forgotten to take any pictures! Oops. Still, I will definitely be returning to La Lanterna to try their pre threatre menu so will make sure I remember to take more pictures next time!

I did take pictures of our lovely desserts though: strawberry cheesecake and Amorini al Cioccolato (a warm chocolate muffin with oozing chocolatey center).

After just managing the last spoonful of my cheesecake, I was stuffed and ready for the bill. I thought £58 for 3 courses each and 2 glasses of wine wan't bad really and I was feeling flush after payday at work! However, this is more than I would usually spend but it's reasonable enough for a special occasion. Next time I come here (there WILL be a next time!) I'll be trying the pre theatre menu which seems very reasonable.

So, I think after nearly 3 years in Glasgow, I have finally found an Italian restaurant that I want to rave on and on about. I literally can't recommend it enough!