Urban have launched a brand new menu to lead us into this year’s party season. We headed along to the big launch last night to see what it was all about and, more importantly, whether it’s worth your time to check it out. Located on St Vincent Street, between George Square and Buchanan Street, Urban’s a city center staple these days, positioning itself towards the higher end of the market, both in terms of pricing and general ambience, with a sophisticated “piano bar” kind of vibe.
The event was executed to a tee. There must have been 200+ people there over the course of the evening, but the food and drinks flowed easily, and you were never left feeling like you’d overstayed your welcome. The staff were professional, friendly and attentive and the 3-piece lounge-jazz band in the corner really created an ambience that an iTunes playlist never could. To eat, there were a number of platters available with samples off the new menu, including fish cakes, smoked salmon, fish goujons, mackerel pate, mackerel caesar salad… are you noticing a trend? Yes, there was A LOT of fish. I came away from the event last night assuming that this place is a seafood restaurant and they just haven’t got round to telling anyone yet, although there were a couple of alternatives including cute little cheeseburgers, a ham hock terrine and individual portions of macaroni cheese served in tiny teacups.
In terms of the food’s quality, I feel it would be unfair to focus on that too much, as it’s not easy to cater for so many people when your staff are traditionally used to the standard “sit down” restaurant arrangement. The highlights of the night were the ham hock terrine, the amuses-bouches and the desserts (a lemon posset and a boozy banana ice cream). It’s worth noting that these are all things which can be prepared in advance and just served up on the night, so the chefs clearly know how to make tasty food, however everything else we tried (and we didn’t hold back!) was either overcooked, poorly seasoned (in both directions), or just not particularly successful. The fishcakes, for example, were stodgy and not particularly pleasant. The burgers tasted good but were on a dry bun with an overcooked pattie. The mackerel caesar salad contained overcooked fish to the point of chewiness, and was so salty that none of the individual flavours could possibly be distinguished. I could go on, but you get the picture.
That all said, I wouldn’t be put off returning to Urban - it showed potential and these kind of evenings are extremely difficult to pull off successfully. The atmosphere was lively and convivial, the space is stylish, the entertainment was on-point and the staff were excellent - we had a really pleasant evening, it’s just a shame that the thing the whole night revolved around, the food, fell just a little short.
bang on! we were there last night too, had a great time but a lot of the food had to be givena miss…