There's a few hiccups but this new £25 Six by Nico meal is a bargain

Then there’ll be a moment or two when waiting staff keep arriving one after another asking the same question. And I’ll say: uh, we’ve already ordered or, ooh, our drinks have been taken.

And finally, near the end, a waiter will bounce by and announce the Irn Bru Soft Serve has been replaced. With Mango Sorbet. What? Eh? Ugh. Boo, I’ll think. Then remember I’ve been in the Irn Bru Soft Serve movie many times before in other Nico Simeone restaurants. And know what it tastes like anyway.

Now, I’ve got to be upfront here. Apart from the above? This meal swishes along like an Olympic standard synchronised swim team.

Sole Club, Glasgow (Image: free)

The first of four courses will be touching down at almost exactly the moment we’ll have finished gazing at that fabulous burnished and reflective ceiling; have fully discussed the pretty cool and cleverly lit fish paintings adorning those blackest-of-black walls and have even grown bored with the secret door that looks like a fridge full of drinks cans.

Luca will lift and tip-slurp his oysters with variously: hot sauce, lemon, and shallot migonolette.

I’ll breeze through some very crisp, clearly just-fried and made from actual, real, and also fresh squid, stopping occasionally to ask my son this: try one, they’re good, proper handmade batter.

That done, we’ll get on to our chat about, well, what a shift it is working in hospitality. And then before we know it we’ll be staring down the barrel of two super-pretty and giant Korean Fish Cakes. Like caramelised puff balls, still hot but not oily and decorated with wisps of glass noodles, tiny little textured cubes of Mooli too. This fairy dust texture topping with a discernible tang counters a light, cheery fish cake, that has potato, yes, but importantly also contains genuinely pleasant full-fish flavour moments. Hurrah.

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It being a Tuesday night, because this is the Tuesday Club - an option on Sole Club’s bewildering website - it’s not the busiest in here.

A couple swooning at each other at that top table, four ladies near the door. Kind of a shame because Tuesday is not only the night to attract fat food critics (day before deadline) but the night where nowadays, what with leccy costs and Post-Covid realism, most other decent restaurants are firmly shut.

Cunningly, and realising the latter, what they’ve done here is bang out four courses, two choices, light, fresh, fish theme for a pretty spiffy £25. Bargain. Though the word’s clearly not out yet.

Moving effortlessly on, a Crayfish Risotto with aged Pecorino is here now, plus a Black Pepper Glazed Coley with Sticky Rice and Kimchi and Mango Hot sauce. Or at least that’s what the menu says. It’s more kimchi (a proper fiery seductive version I imagine they make themselves in the group this restaurant is part of) and sticky rice.

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I eat my Coley, big, fat and ocean-white flakes falling to the fork, semi-successful skin searing, ignore the Mango sauce (nothing notable and about reappear as dessert) and take a moment to fully savour the Kimchi and Rice. It’s that good. Luca simply describes the risotto as “better then the one I made last night”. I saw him make that and he took his time so I know where he is coming from.

Then there’s that sorbet. It’s OK, a little frost burnt I would say but we’re not complaining. As in all the children of Six By Nico restaurants I’ve been to over the years, and I can tire of their constant reinvention, the commitment to highly professional presentation does not mean they forget the stuff’s still gotta taste good.

Generally, it really does. And at twenty five bangers a head? Ooft. Bargain.

Sole Club

1132 Argyle Street

Glasgow

0141-611-9222

Menu: It’s a fishy theme: oysters 'n’ hot sauce; proper Thai fish cakes, risotto, blackened Coley. Interesting. 4/5

Atmosphere: Money’s been spent and it shows with leathery booths, spotlighted art and a seductive, clubby atmosphere. 4/5

Service: There were a few awkward moments at the start then…clickety-click, the food started coming and it gelled perfectly. 4/5

Price: At £25 a head for four intriguing courses, a total bargain, And they did not charge for the un-chilled water. Bonus point. 5/5

Food: They can make something as ordinary as a fishcake seem special, fresh oysters, even some quality Coley. 8/10

Total 25/30