Sunday Lunch at The Honours – Glasgow
We have enjoyed the food at Martin Wishart’s Edinburgh Honours restaurant a couple of times in the past so an invitation to try out the The Honours at Malmaison’s new Sunday Lunch offering in Glasgow wasn’t to be missed. Malmaison hotels are always situated in interesting buildings and the Glasgow one is no exception – it’s the former site of St Jude’s Episcopal church and The Honours is located in the crypt.
Our first stop was the Chez Mal Bar also located in the basement but flooded with natural light from skylights above. It’s a fun, pop-art space that reflects the quirky cocktail menu and is overlooked by a wall of beer barrels that nod towards the impressive array of international craft beers available on tap and by the bottle. We chose the refreshing Camden lager and it went down very well indeed.
We were invited into the restaurant where others were enjoying the Sunday Lunch deal of 2 courses for £19.95 or 3 for £24.95. The plush décor with its twinkling chandeliers and flickering candles feels more glamorous Hollywood cruise liner than Episcopalian church crypt.
Martin Wishart’s famously high levels of service are very much in evidence here and staff are knowledgeable, friendly and professional in quite a relaxed way. What about the food? The Sunday Lunch menu has lots to choose from, some making it on to the menu from the Edinburgh Honours. For starters I opted for the spring vegetable salad with pea gazpacho while Donnie went for the Martin Wishart smoked salmon tartare with cucumber salad and mousse.
My starter was as described with a variety of crunchy peas, beans, baby leaves and pea-shoots topped with toasted almonds served with a delicious pea-green shot. It tasted as fresh as it looked and it was a lovely light starter. Donnie’s starter looked colourful – the mound of finely diced smoked salmon with chives surrounded by cucumber shavings, cucumber mousse topped off with a quail’s egg. The smoky flavour of the salmon went really well with the clean crisp cucumber and Donnie was left wanting more.
For main course I had the poached fillet of cod, parsley crust, tomato fondue and a grain mustard sauce. The tricolor fish looked striking with its white, red and green layers and although I was expecting a crunchier crust, it was deliciously moist and flavoursome. The dish was served with buttery new potatoes.
I did have major food envy when Donnie’s main arrived. The roast sirloin of Donald Russell beef was Sunday lunch nirvana; a big slab of sirloin steak with crunchy garlic and thyme potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables and a large steaming jug of gravy. The beef didn’t disappoint – it was cooked medium rare on our waiter’s recommendation and was devoured in a reverential silence.
Desserts weren’t really on our agenda after the satisfying mains but after a rest it didn’t take much to tempt us to try the Honours Sundae (what else on a Sunday?) and also the soufflé du jour. My sundae was a lovely crunchy sweet honeycomb end to the meal. Quite often sundaes can be off putting by their size but The Honours one was perfectly balanced with a delicious combination of ingredients.
Donnie’s soufflé arrived standing proud in it’s sugar syrup lined ramekin. The soufflé was light and fluffy and had a really distinctive cherry flavour to it. All too often, flavours can be wishy washy and difficult to determine but not this one. An absolute highlight to the dish was the chrystalised sugar syrup coating on the ramekin itself. This is added before the soufflé mixture so takes on the flavours of the cherry and had Donnie’s little spoon tinkling away trying to get every last drop. The pistachio ice-cream was an added bonus.
We had an excellent lunch at The Honours in Glasgow and it’s lovely to see that the restaurant has a personality all of its own. We would definitely recommend a visit for Sunday lunch and found the service to be first class and the menu great value for money. Keep an eye on The Honours Facebook and social media pages as they have lots of special events coming up over the next few months.
Thank you to The Honours for inviting us along to try the new Sunday Lunch menu.
The Honours
Malmaison Hotel
278 West George Street
Glasgow
G2 4LL
Tel: 0141 378 0384