Nur Restaurant

Just before Christmas I went along to the new Egyptian restaurant on Bridge Street. I'd passed it quite a few times but hadn't had a chance to get along. A few friends and I were going along to see Tron Legacy at the Imax (Looked amazing, so so story) and we wanted to find somewhere to eat on the way. We weren't really sure what Egyptian food would actually be like, possibly everything would be in wraps? (sorry) As it turned out its actually quite similar to Greek food with lots of kebabs, mousaka, flat bread and houmous. Interestingly they serve Pasta which according to the waitress was originally an Egyptian invention, though there seems to quite a few places claiming pasta as their own on Wikipedia.

Our first impressions on walking in were very positive, the inside is really lovely and the lady that greeted us at the door and served us was super friendly, talking us through the menu, offering us some dish suggestions and giving us a glass of deliciously warm Egyptian style festive wine. It was amazingly tasty and really warmed us up on what was a pretty miserable grey day outside. Actually the whole restaurant was ideal for a day like that, its all dark wood, cushioned seats and warm flickering lamps. It makes you feel toasty and warm and far away from the rain and cold.

It was early evening and it was reasonably quiet so we were allowed our choice of seats. We chose the mezzanine  level where large cushioned chairs and a long low table allowed a comfy and social eating space. Our waitress explained that they don't have an alcohol licence but that you can bring your own, or purchase from the Spar across the street with corkage £3.95 for wine and 75p for beer. We decided to opt out of any more alcohol and gave their selection of fruit drinks a go and I can vouch for the Mango juice being very tasty.

After a bit of guidance we decided to get the following items and have a little share around:

Foul Sausage (A lot tastier than its sounds.), Falafel, Charcoal Grilled Kofta, Grilled Chicken and Chicken ; Spinach Tagine. My dish was the tagine served with a pyramid of rice and it was pretty tasty but when the food  arrived I wished I'd gone for some of the grilled meat, I managed to pinch a bit of both the chicken and the lamb and they were really juicy and nice crispy on the outside. We were running a bit tight for time so we had to forgo the deserts and get ice-cream at the Science Centre but will try and give them a go next time.

All in all a good addition to the Southside restaurant scene. Egyptian food is rich, hearty and full of flavour but I don't think its going to knock Italian and Indian from the top of the Glasgow Food Culture list. While I'm not sure I'd go every night, for a evening trying a few new tastes or if your on your way to the nearby Citizen's theatre its worth a visit. If you really want to get into the spirit of things you can take part in some belly dancing classes on a Saturday morning at 11:30am - see their website for details.

Nur
22 Bridge Street,
Glasgow, G5 9HR
Phone: 0141 418 0990

http://www.nur-restaurant.co.uk/