Since being adopted by Michelin-starred Cail Bruich, Epicures has gone from strength to strength, becoming not just a place for weekend brunch, but an up-market option for any time of day, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Their current dinner menu is a celebration of a range of different cuisines, taking inspiration everywhere from France to Japan and Korea. For example, you could, as we did, choose to start your meal with a classic Beef Tartare, with a hefty beef fat crouton on the side and a perfectly oozy egg yolk. Or you could go even more adventurous and opt for the oysters, with strawberry, lime and coconut, but I’ll leave that to the braver diners out there!
I went for the slightly safer option of BBQ Prawns with grilled corn, avocado, cocktail sauce, chilli and cavier, also known as a prawn cocktail on steriods. The prawns were perfectly tender, the corn added crunch and texture and the scattering of fresh chilli gave a perfect, lip-tingling warmth. This is not the retro dish your granny used to serve you in a wine glass, this is an old classic reinvented.
What I absolutely recommend if you’re in the mood for a drink, is starting your evening with a Glasshouse Bellini; a cocktail made with Ben Lomond gin, strawberry, basil and Moscato, which essentially tasted like summer in a glass, even if the weather wasn’t shining.
Moving on to main courses, here we find the more Asian-influenced dishes, like Korean glazed pork with XO cabbage, salted peanuts and pickles, which I’m kicking myself for not ordering. Instead, I tucked into a perfectly crispy buttermilk fried chicken burger, with Asian slaw, hot sauce mayo and pickles. This is my kind of burger, with the satisfying crunch of fried chicken, the warmth of the spicy mayo and the freshness of the slaw and pickles.
If you’re in the mood for something even heartier, I’d go for the black garlic beef cheek with beef fat peas, pickled shallot, kohlrabi slaw and the option to add Cacklebean eggs or Cashel blue cheese, in case you need a bit more indulgence. This dish is not for the faint-hearted, both in terms of portion size and flavour! The fries also deserve a mention, which were some of the most crisp I’ve had recently, paired with either sriracha or truffle mayo.
It’s not just the menu that has had an overhaul though. The entire aesthetic, though not drastically, has changed for the better, creating a brighter, more contemporary feel. While I’m keen to go back for another Glasshouse Bellini and to try that Korean pork, I’ll probably wait for a special occasion, as the prices are on the higher end of the spectrum.
Reviewed by Amy Glasgow @theglasgowdiet
