Whilst I lived in Dundee I probably sauntered past the Phoenix Pub on Perth Road several times but never took much notice as it honestly looks like an old man's pub from the outside. However, when in Dundee last week it's where my friend suggested going for lunch and assured me that it wouldn't be full of middle aged men watching football (and mentioned that it one of his favourite places for a chilli burger).
See? Has the decor of an old man's pub. But the people were a mix of ages with students and non-students there and my friend (who's a political geek) told me that he's seen local councillors having lunch there.
I was a bit of a hungover sod that morning (well, technically it was the afternoon) so I kept it simple with a veggie burger. There were plenty of other veggie options on the menu (generally the suggestion of a pub lunch makes me shuffle my feet and mutter something about being a vegetarian) but quite a lot of it was based around veggie chili and my wee hungover belly wasn't quite ready for that (though if I felt I could handle more food I would have added the garlic mushroom starter to my bill).
This, obviously, is not my veggie burger but is my friend's chili burger. He's a big chili fan and has been a regular here for over ten years and compliments the facts that they pretty much pour a whole bowl of chili on the burger haha. I remember eating these at a golf club I used to work at a few years ago when I still ate meat and they are the messiest thing ever to eat (this looked just as messy).
Pub lunches are never going to be where you go for a romantic soirée or your parent's diamond wedding anniversary (or it might be!) and they're rarely my first choice (they're only my first choice when I'm in a city I don't know and instead of Googling restaurants I find my nearest Weatherspoon's). But this wasn't an old man scene like I had anticipated and I could eat plenty of what the menu had to offer and, yeah, I'd recommend it.
Morag x