Bar Soba

The 2012 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2012) edition.

One of the first restaurants in Glasgow to serve fashionable ‘fusion’ food, Bar Soba serves up a mix of Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese influenced dishes including the soba noodles that the restaurant’s name suggests. Bar Soba claims that its pan-Asian street food will ‘kick your ass’ and it is often busy with shoppers and those beginning a big night out – the extensive and imaginative cocktail list making it a popular pre-club hangout. To begin, a wonton soup is a large bowl of deep-red hot and sour stock with floating pork dumplings that packs a real fiery punch. However the California maki for a sushi starter sadly looks like it has been sitting in the fridge for a while and is a little soggy. The nasi goreng, Indonesian fried rice, lacks both the required chilli heat or tamarind twang, but is served with a well executed fried eggs and skewers of soft chicken in an sweet satay sauce. The classic Japanese sauce of the katsu curry is both sweet and peppery but the strips of coated deep-fried chicken it accompanies lack the necessary crunch.

• High point: Fiery wonton soup
• Low point: Soggy sushi