Glasgow Burgers, Nantes

It’s perhaps the Glasgow embassy we didn’t know we needed

In the winding city centre streets of Nantes, the historical capital of Brittany on the west of France, sits Glasgow Burgers. Amid alfresco French cafés, creperies and world cuisine from India to Spain there’s a burger joint representing Scotland’s biggest city.

But this isn’t just any deep-fried takeaway, its menu options being vegan and promising to be gourmet. When we stumbled across it we knew we had to investigate further.

With a logo of a saintly burger that nods to the city’s 1980’s Mr Happy “Glasgow’s Miles Better” campaign on the tables and prominent in the street outside, they’ve got the knowingly retro feel of a classic fast food destination just right. But the art on the walls by local artists lets you know you’re not in just another faceless chain restaurant here. There’s a commitment to community and an eco-awareness that runs deep, with a curated range of organic and vegan products for sale at the counter where you place your order and a feeling that most of the customers are regulars, friends or neighbours.

There’s a rotating range of burgers, with the ‘Glasgow’ burger – their most popular – a constant. It’s a vegan patty adorned with onion rings and a whisky sauce.

Others available when we were there included the Athena, with vegan feta and tzatziki with mint and cucumber, and the Bamako with fried plantain with a lightly spiced mafé peanut sauce.

If the 15-euro meal deal – burger, fries and a drink – puts it in the gourmet price range, it’s still a happy meal given the quality of what’s delivered freshly cooked from the kitchen. When you order you get a buzzer to let you know when your food’s ready, it only took 5-10 minutes which is practically instantaneous by some French restaurant’s relaxed approach. The kitchen might be readily visible from the small dining room and ordering area, but being France the seats outside are the ones that fill up first.

The bun’s light and fresh – they do make good bread in France after all – the burger tasty and with real texture from the cooking. If it used to be a challenge for vegan food to avoid blandness or have to resort to being ‘fake meat’, there are no issues here. It’s tasty and substantial, the whisky sauce adding a warm smoothness and sitting comfortably within the onion rings on top of the burger.

There might not be any Irn Bru on the menu – even though it is actually vegan – but there’s a range from Karma Drinks available. Their Gingerella seemed an appropriate can of ginger to accompany it.

We chose vegan mayo with the fries, which were thin, hot and freshly cooked as they should be, with some bonus texture by being made from actual potato with the skins on rather than the processed potato-flavoured sticks that come from lesser burger establishments with Scottish-sounding names.

In a country where finding vegan or vegetarian food was once a challenge, Glasgow Burgers raise the game and offer a wholesome alternative to the corporate chains.

In short, Glasgow Burgers are miles better.