There's occasions when I have a big back log of restaurants and cafés to review. Today is one of those occasions. I'll usually post them in chronological order, but today I'm choosing to prioritise a fabulous restaurant in Glasgow I tried at the weekend that should be on everyone's to-eat list. It's Nippon Kitchen on West George Street.
Nippon Kitchen had been on my to try list for some time. It's a favourite of the owner of the Vegan Meet Up Group in Glasgow I'm a member of, but I've always been busy every time it's been chosen. However, when I met up for dinner with Hayley and Charlotte on Sunday I jumped at the chance when it was suggested.
Inside Nippon Kitchen there are dark wood panels on the wall which suggests it was possibly a British pub at one point, whilst the Japanese art on the wall adds oriental charm. Upon receiving our menu, we all had to sit there for a good 20 minutes picking. It's not everyday that a vegan struggles to choose a dish in a non-vegan restaurant. We were a bit quicker to order our drinks though: Hayley and Charlotte when for the ice tea (I'm not a fan, but I was informed that it was on point) whilst I went for an unfamiliar sounding tea (sorry, I can't remember the name and their drinks menu is not available on the website).
For my mains I was confident I wanted the chili vegetable noodles, however picking my starter took a bit longer. There was options of veg tempura, agedashi tofu, seaweed salad and edamame, however I settled on the vegetable gyoza. Even though I wasn't particularity hungry, I wasn't able to resist the temptation of the sushi menu. The vegetarian part of the sushi menu was only a small percentage however the tempura sweet potato maki mono was not something I've ever come across before so I added it on to my order.
The food was all round delicious. My stir-fry was on point. It was sweetly spicy and the chillies were sliced thickly so were easy to push to the side if you didn't want one to accidentally end up in your mouth. The gyoza was also special, but admittedly I love gyoza and don't think you can ever go wrong with that. The tempura sushi tasted like regular vegetable sushi, however the tempura added an extra crunch to the texture. My share of the meal (including the tea) came to £18 which is not too shabby.
Charlotte and Hayley also both went for stir-fries and spoke very positively about both, whilst they shared a chicken gyoza which they stated was of average quality. Perfect place to keep both meat eaters and veggies happy!
If it's not been obvious at all yet, I highly recommend Nippon Kitchen as somewhere all Glasgow foodies should tick off their list.
And next week I'll be reviewing either the other two restaurants I tried at the weekend - JellyBear and Antipasti - or my regular monthly trip to Mono this weekend (think I'll be ordering the Pho!).
