Head along early doors for a treat - Marianne Gunn

When it opened last year, Citation was the venue of choice for most of my friends’ celebratory meals. It was so lovely in March that we returned in May and by October there was really nothing else for it but to go back to the Parisian-themed upper dining area of the former Sheriff Court.

But like everything in Glasgow, places have their moment in time and new restaurants – perhaps more recessionista friendly – entered our 2009 horizons.

Speaking to a few people about Citation it was clear they considered it a very expensive place to go: the place to take the visiting boss or the ideal venue for a romantic, but special, meal.

However, until the end of September (and let’s urge them to continue it longer) Citation are offering their Early Doors Menu on Fridays and Saturdays, which means you can dine in the heart of the Merchant City for under a tenner – including a glass of house wine. (This is the two course price; three courses plus wine is a meagre £12.50 and the only proviso is that you dine after 4pm and before 7pm.)

Being a formerly loyal customer, I was on their emailing list and the virtual prod was enough to get me to book a Friday evening table for a post-holiday girlie catch-up with Ashleigh.

Cutting it fine with a 6.30pm table and getting there by the skin of my teeth for 6.45pm (I blame my taxi driver) Ash had already ordered a bottle of white wine, with their house prices starting at a reasonable £12.95 for a palatable South African Chenin Blanc.

The Early Doors Menu is quite a standard three options per course offering (with an additional tempting main course available with a £4 supplement) but the choices within each course are pleasingly diverse. The marinated herrings with warm potato salad, beetroot relish and lemon was perhaps the most comforting and adventurous of the starters, but both Ash and I opted for that old favourite, chicken liver parfait with toast and chutney.

When it arrived, we realised the parfait to toast ratio was quite significantly amiss so ordered some more bread, which made us start when it arrived.

A huge basket of bread was placed before us and when I asked if they could take some of it away, I was given a ‘you know you can do it’ look from the attentive waitress. We couldn’t finish it, but it was nice of her to inspire some confidence.

For main course I had pushed the boat out and ordered the Rose Veal Stringberg, the supplement dish. It was another mammoth portion (not typical pre-theatre sizing) and was served with saute potatoes, pickled cucumber and leaf salad.

The mustard-seed sauce was similar in taste to the dressing on our starter’s side salad but the perhaps odd combo of rich sauce and fresh pickled cucumber actually worked very well.

Ash had opted for a grilled pork chop with champ, apple compote & grain mustard jus, and apart from the mustard again being a common theme her plate was so clean it was almost ready for the next customer at the end of the meal.

Other main course options were a pan roast fillet of salmon or a herb and parmesan polenta, so there was pretty much something for everyone there.

The dessert list proved too tempting and we swithered between Bannoffee Brulee or Sticky Toffee Pudding but the winter warmer won out and its accompanying vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce were divine.

Having sunk the bottle of wine by this point, we had an epiphany: we’d not yet had our complimentary glass of wine! Without any sighs at not being able to turn around the table, we were furnished with two ice-cold and rather large glasses by our waitress. Who needs coffee anyway?

Service-wise you’ll get more than you ask for at Citation, as almost everyone busying behind the upstairs bar must have a catwalk day job; and yet they’re never too coolly cold like nearby trendy establishments. What Citation has managed to do right this month, however, is get its price point just right. And the ambience they’ve created means you’re likely to stay and spend on in one of their various bar areas: their ground floor taverne, the first floor balcony or the ‘terrace’ on Brunswick Street if the Autumnal elements are on your side.

29/09/2009 © Sunday Herald

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