As if we needed any more encouragement to stuff ourselves with steak and chips, Glasgow’s newest restaurant Bar + Block is offering 25 per cent off food to celebrate its launch. Enthusiastic carnivores can sign up on their website to receive a voucher, which is valid for six months.
This all-day restaurant is part of the five-year-old Bar + Block brand that has 16 other branches in England and Northern Ireland, including Birmingham, Bath, London and Belfast. Owned by Whitbread, it’s a contemporary iteration of their Beefeater chain, which was especially big in the Seventies and Eighties - the heyday of steakhouses.The only Scottish branch has now opened at 24 Howard Street.
Expect something very different from a Beefeater or Whitbread’s other pub brand, Brewers Fayre, thanks to a light and bright premises with lots of pale wood, copper finishes and the brand’s signature cow, rendered in neon.
Although it’s family friendly, and kids can eat the cooked breakfast for free, this is their bid to attract a younger crowd.
Check your post lockdown diet at the door, as the menu features steaks, burgers, Sunday lunch and unlimited breakfasts (the full fry up or a continental) for just £8.99, as well as cocktails, including a Gordon’s Gin lemon drop, craft beer and Pravha pilsner on draught.
Individual dishes include the 10oz Spiral Cut Fillet (£28.50) marinated in garlic and parsley, Surf + Turf (£25.95) - an 8oz sirloin with a half lobster tail - or the Steak Sampler (£27.95) – three 4oz steaks, sirloin, fillet and rump. As a statement of its wannabe trendy status, instead of, say, peas, each steak comes with samphire, as well as a choice of sauce (including a stroganoff version), house salad or the triple-cooked chunky chips that have been fried in beef dripping.
Another signature is the Mighty Block Burger – an 8oz beef patty with melted mature cheddar sauce, crispy onions, pulled beef brisket, a pickled cucumber spear and burger sauce, served in a brioche bun with fries on the side. Also, just in case anyone ever goes back to the offices in central Glasgow again, they’re also doing an Express Menu, with a choice of dishes under £10, to be served in 10 minutes.
