Emma
Section 33 jump into the Guerilla Dining trend (come on Glasgow this was 2006 USA!) with a pop up restaurant located inside Govanhill Swimming Baths.
For £5 (seriously why are we paying an entrance fee to pee in a warehouse?) you got a glass of warm Echo Falls wine or a soft drink. Cut the cheap plonk and make the entrance free – cheap plonk or a watered down cocktail might work for a wee while but….even events in Newcastle and Berlin are free entry!
Inside the pool was cosy looking, certainly not temperature wise. Jackets on all night in here. The tables looked great, proper dishes, cutlery and candles (unlit though). We were advised on what had sold out (this was the. 5pm sitting on Sunday). Lots of things sold out, no beef cheek, no lamb, no Malbec, no pistonhead lager…basically anything a little different.
After around an hour and then staff started turning up offering us pretty much every dish off the menu – apart from the ones we ordered if course!
Burrata, Clyde tomatoes, vincotto £6.50
It’s difficult to get excited by something like this – a disappointingly small portion of tomatoes with mozzarella cream cheese, which you can’t really go wrong with it, but did it look the part and was it worth £6.50?
Mackerel with charred cucumber, apple purée and smoked cod roe cream. £6
Crisp skin and moist meat. The taramasalata and salad went well with the fish, the charred cucumber was mushy. One fillet served which for the price…. The apple purée seemed an afterthought, and tasted as much.
Roast half Gressingham chicken, espelette pepper, lemon and sage curd £8.50
Moist and tender chicken, we asked for the sauce to be placed on the side so inspire if this is the usual presentation. Sauce went well with the chicken, livening up what is a dull meat.
Pork, ginger & shrimp toast £6
Two slices served. Very tasty, didn’t get much ginger flavour through.
Fresh salad with spicy srinacha?
Venison mole empanadas £6
3 empanadas, these were tasty. Filed full of meat, the mole appeared to be seasoning rather than a sauce. Not much of a chilli flavour to this mole, which helped keep the meat from being overpowered. However, the pastry was greasy.
We had to ask for our dessert order to be taken. More waiting.
Lotus biscuit & chocolate ganache, smoked sea salt & honeycomb £5
Nice chocolatey and creamy smooth ganache. The honeycomb didn’t taste of salt never mind smoked salt.
Chewy peanut butter cookies, Nutella cream £5
Soft cookie more like a whoopie pie with a Cream cheese sort of cream, none of us could taste any Nutella but we saw a girl carrying a jar of it so it must’ve been in there somewhere…just a teaspoon’s worth?
Blackcurrant & lemon balm meringue £5
Soft gooey chewy meringue, would’ve preferred crisper pieces. Tart blueberries, and was too strong a flavour to mix with lemon balm as we couldn’t taste it at all. Far too many berries.
Overall we were all underwhelmed, the food was a mixed bag and the prices high considering the temperature of the building, lack of cohesive service and the amount of food you got for the money.
Nipping into McDonalds on the way home for the teen isn’t the sign of a good night.
Guerrilla events like this are a great idea but they need to priced right and organised correctly, especially in Glasgow as this isn’t London where there is a never-ending supply of hipsters to entertain.
We will keep our eyes peeled for the next Section 33 event and hopefully they take on board feedback.
