Scottish Scran | The Black Dove

The Black Dove Scallops and Stornoway black pudding with a Glayva and cream sauce 

The Black Dove beef tartare, tarragon aioli capers and toasted bread 

The Black Dove Sushi of the Day 

 Hi guys,

For my birthday meal with friends, we went along to the newly opened The Black Dove in Shawlands which is a Scottish Tapas restaurant. When we arrived we were asked to sit at the bar area until our table was ready. Being typical of Liam and I, we arrived 30 minutes early so were happy to wait and grab a drink before our friends arrived. The setup of the restaurant is lovely, it has dark interiors with a downstairs section to both drink and eat and then an upstairs area too. By 5pm, we were expecting to be seated but no-one came over to us until 5.15pm where we were told the table was ready but we had to leave by 7pm! Considering we were early, the table was booked for 5pm and we were left for 15 minutes before anyone told us to sit, I thought this was a bit rude.

We quickly realised that three people were unable to attend so one of the staff moved one of the tables and then the waitress took our drinks order. They have a delicious selection of drinks and the cocktails menu was equally impressive.

The menu did look inviting but I did expect more variety within the a la carte menu as there was a limited selection. Any of the small plates can be bulked out to be made into a main meal but none of us took up that option. Liam ordered the Sea Bass dish, he said that it was delicious but for the £18.50 price tag he would have liked a side dish rather than just fish and peas. For that price, you want to be satisfied with the meal and contemplate whether you want a dessert or not. Most restaurants in Glasgow offer the same prices, especially in the decent restaurants but you always have a full plate. We usually go to an amazing restaurant, Peters Seafood, which has amazing food for similar prices but its full meals and the flavour combos go very well together.

I ordered small plates, I started with the Scallops with Black Pudding and a Glayva & Cream Sauce, which was delicious but the sauce was a bit sickly! The scallops were very tasty and so plump and juicy. I also ordered the Beef Tartare which I had never had before but let me tell you, this was stunning. One forkful of this was like a mini flavour explosion in the mouth, it was so fresh and the textures were on point. The last dish I ordered was the Sushi of the Day which should have been called the sushi of yesterday as it was so dry and had no taste to it whatsoever. The soy sauce pot was too deep to fit the sushi into and the wasabi paste was a watered down version of its gorgeous self which I was not impressed with at all, when I get sushi I look forward to the hot wasabi paste but this variation was a disappointment. The tuna on top also didn't taste of tuna, it had been marinated in some kind of beetroot coloured sauce which then left pink marks on the rice but it just wasn't up to par. Liam`s brother commented about the sushi being dry too but apparently the prawn tempura, beef tenderloin and the mussels were gorgeous, I didn't like the look of them myself, but the rest of the group raved about them.

Both of our waiters were quite sour faced and hardly raised a smile all evening, I have worked in all different varieties of customer service and it doesn’t take much to raise a smile to paying customers. Once we finished our food we left quite quickly as we wanted to move onto a livelier atmosphere with friendlier staff so we vacated our table before the 7pm mark.

Food: 6/10

Drinks: 9/10

Service: 4/10

Atmosphere: 5/10

Would I go back? Probably not, it wasn’t to my taste at all. For scallops, mussels and beef tartare there are far more impressive restaurants in Glasgow who offer similar prices but better quality produce and more pleasant staff. 

Have you tried The Black Dove?
Where else would you recommend?

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