Four Seasons
Glasgow
It’s not quite high summer in the city but the sun still shines, the streets are busy and we duck in here just before the shutters come down for last orders at the heady time of 8.30pm.
The Four Seasons, then, not a pub obviously but a tidy little restaurant tucked round a corner from where Argyle Street’s pedestrian bit starts to stumble and flag.
There’s a steady stream of people heading for those bus stops opposite the St Enoch centre and I’m pretty sure I could jump a No38 from there and slink home to the heady delights of the south side and maybe more Race Across the World on the telly.
But I’m here to try those slash-cut spring rolls someone emailed about or one of those homemade fish cakes I see on this big, bright and bouncy laminated menu. I’ll end up having two of those fish cakes incidentally, which will turn out to be huge and omelette-like, rather than crispy and predictable, but that will be down to an ordering blunder. By moi.
That eternal human desire for crispiness anyway is satisfied by the Nem Chien or rice paper rolls, stuffed with fresh vegetable sticks, packed with prawn and chicken and deep fried til bubbly outside before being cut diagonally and brought straight out. We like, we agree, before moving onto to a sprawling plate of the very first fish cake of the night: I detect dill, ginger, mashed prawn. These are also slash-cut but this time into strips. I get an unusual first bite texture shock moment, ooh, I regroup and try again before deciding this gets the okay-yeah-different nod.
Now, it’s a momentarily confusing place the Four Seasons. The decor is very clean, plain, the odd Vietnamese flourish here and there but not in the way of the tiresome and fake theme restaurants currently popping up at a city centre near you.
The feel at first, on seeing the counter, is of walking into a fast food takeaway. And there are Banh Mi sandwiches with bbq pork and Banh Mi sandwiches with more of that damn fish cake and Viet Crackers and even mango salads.
The latter, I have and it’s consumed in a sweet, salty, fish saucy moment, leaving the distinct impression it was, and this is going to be a theme, made from actual fresh stuff. Today. This evening. Hurrah.
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Rewinding for a moment: when we ordered at the counter I was struck by the three women zipping about behind it; taking orders, checking bills; plating food; heading out to tables to deliver that food and also doing the cooking.
But it’s more than fast food really. For a start, the young pair sitting opposite us are in no hurry. Mooching over their big bowl of, well, something soupy. The group further up, I’m guessing, have come out for this city’s second shift when the shops shut, the sun bolts and Glasgow goes completely gaga. And are maybe grabbing a bite here because they were passing.
We’ve polished off Summer Rolls by now, Iain and I chatting about, well, work. Yawn.
That translucent rice paper wrapping containing avocado, fine noodles, more vegetables, and lots of fragrant coriander. Bits of which will eventually fleck the homemade peanut sauce that the rolls are being repeatedly dragged through.
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Normally, these leave me cold, but somehow the crunch, the snap and the fact they’re served at room temperature (instead of from da chilla) just seems right in this weather.
Iain’s gone for the curry meal which is awash in coconut flavours, contains lemongrass and galangal that can actually be seen and tasted. Plus jasmine rice. This can also be had with the Banh Mi baguette.
I’ve got a big bowl of aromatic Pho, so layered with noodles and herbs on top, prawns under that, that at first I don’t see the broth and when I do I realise - d’oh - it wasn’t just prawn I ordered but prawn and homemade bloody fish cake. It’s light and fresh though - as is this whole restaurant.
Four Seasons
23 Stockwell Street
Glasgow
Menu: It’s Vietnamese. Phos, Banh-Mi, summer rolls, curries and paper spring rolls. Little homemade bits too. 4/5
Service: They’re not here to chat but they’re polite, ferociously efficient and very hard-working. 4/5
Price: Summer rolls £8, Spring rolls £8, those damn fishcakes £9, Pho £14, I’m guessing probably cheaper in Vietnam but okay. Plenty too. 4/5
Atmosphere: It’s got a clean, well-run vibe. They haven’t gone bananas with the decor, and it's borderline canteenish, but comfortable. 4/5
Food: I’m joking about the fish cakes. They’re worth a try, everything else is artfully prepared, made fresh, zinging with flavours. Good. 8/10
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