Ron Mackenna

Columnist at The Herald (Scotland)

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They call Elements a special occasion restaurant and it is pretty special

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Elements in Bearsden has its sights set high (Image: Ron Mackenna) Elements Bearsden Listen, hands up, here. I should just have waited. But as the clock ticks down and we are hitting twenty minutes plus of sitting and yapping and still no menu? Lovely, swish and calm as Elements is? I ask for a menu. “Oh, we bring them out after the canapes,” replies the slightly startled waiter. “Keeps the table uncluttered. But I’ll get them now.” I look round. Ooft. My family are staring at me.
Then she says the two words I hate most in the restaurant world: 'Cash only'

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Noodles and Dumplings (Image: Ron Mackenna) Noodles and Dumplings, Glasgow They are actually making the Lanzhou noodles as I stand at the counter ordering tonight; a huge rope of dough being stretched and coiled and folded around the arms of a man just a few feet away. “That’s the ones,” says the lady at the till nodding at him. “And you’ve already ordered them.” Uh, oh, have I, I reply, not exactly sure what I asked for a few moments ago.
No wonder Morrisons is closing some of its cafes - they were awful

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Supermarket Morrisons plans to close of its 52 cafés across the UK, including more than a dozen in Scotland. One of the cafes facing the chop is Morrisons Newlands, on Riverford Road, in the south side of Glasgow. It's sad for staff but no surprise, says Herald restaurant critic Ron Mackenna, who reviewed the Newlands cafe in 2009. Bright ideas? Best left at that. Take this one. Mine. Hey, let’s review a supermarket restaurant.
Everybody is going to this Ox & Finch offshoot Sebbs - and now I understand why

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Sebb's bar and restaurant in Glasgow's Miller Street (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) Sebbs, Glasgow Dad, Luca says to me, as we climb into our high seats at Sebbs, that zippy neon lighting, arched brickwork, plush upholstered booths and fab 60s oh-yeah basement vibe cocooning us. “I was here already today. Upstairs, with Mum.
I like this cafe a lot. It's honest cooking from a mom and pop team says Ron Mackenna

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Alyssa's Cafe on Glasgow's Cathcart Road (Image: Gordon Terris) Alyssa’s Cafe and Sandwich Bar Glasgow So, why not do food from Hong Kong, I ask the lady behind the counter who we have just established is from Hong Kong. At this, her and her husband (I think she says husband anyway) look at me like I am slightly daft and start giggling. “Hong Kong food is already all over the world,” she says, “but we eat Japanese food at home”.
If only this Glasgow Indian restaurant was as good as its publicity blurbs claim

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Kinara Restaurant in King Street, Glasgow (Image: Gordon Terris) Turning the music up at the end of the evening to gently ease stragglers out of a restaurant is the oldest trick in the Bumper Restaurant Play Book. Not sure whether they’re deliberately doing this tonight or it’s just that the waiters, cool, confident young dudes, are enjoying themselves, I can’t rightly tell.
This Edinburgh Michelin-starred restaurant is outstanding, says Ron Mackenna

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Avery in St Stephen Street, Edinburgh (Image: free) Avery Edinburgh If you want to rattle yourself during this meal do what I do: ask what’s in every dish. You’ll end up sitting back in your seat, eyes wide open. Trying to process ingredients that go reeling straight through a sieve-like brain, yes mine, like they’re being sprayed from a trawler’s hose. Then you too will spend the moments as the waiter walks away, asking each other, like Joe and I do: did he say, er, anchovy jelly?
Glasgow is home to UK's best burger. Is it all it is cracked up to be?

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

El Perro Negro Glasgow Ah, so, the UK’s new and national Burger Chef Of the Year is not actually in El Perro Negro on this splishy-sploshy drearily-splashy Glasgow winter night. This we know because I momentarily discombobulate the nice cheery waiter guy by pointing out that, hello, there is no Bacon Cheese Picante burger on the menu. Uh, comes the somewhat confused reply.
I paid more at a London Michelin star restaurant but this place tops it, says Ron

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Ardfern in Edinburgh's Leith is a taste sensation, says Ron@Ailsa Sheldon (Image: Ailsa Sheldon) Ardfern Edinburgh I’ll pay more at Benares in London’s Covent Garden tomorrow night for one tasting menu for one fat food critic than I will for an all-the-options, all-served-together meal-for-two including tip at Ardfern here in Edinburgh’s Leith tonight.
'These pizzas are not normal and neither is restaurant's location' says Ron Mackenna

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Ron Mackenna

Sub Rosa Pizza in Castlemilk (Image: Gordon Terris) Sub Rosa Pizza Castlemilk, Glasgow The irony about Sub Rosa being so hip, happening and hey-kids underground is the fact it’s actually overground. Up a ramp, along a long weird corridor, behind an unmarked door. Of course, we don’t know any of this as we blunder around a closed-for-the-weekend industrial estate on the far edge of Castlemilk.