The Kitchen Restaurant

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• Average price 2 courses: £10
• House wine: £13.95 per bottle

• High point: Fabulous selection of home-made cakes and pastries
• Low point: With such a high number of children, a more kid-friendly menu might be good
• Food served: Mon-Sun 10am-4.30pm
• Private dining: Up to 50 covers
• Open since: 1998
• Also offers: Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Wheelchair access

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

A sense of 19th century grandeur is unmistakable as you walk up towards Pollok House. On entering, you'd be forgiven for expecting a starched and preened butler to cordially introduce you to a room peopled with tobacco lords and aristocracy. As you negotiate the hallway to the Kitchen, though, be sure to observe another side of Victorian country life: the maids' sculleries and pantry rooms are laid out just the way they would have been in the past. The Kitchen is a bright, green-tiled room filled with solidly old-fashioned wooden tables, topped with vibrant spring flowers. Busy, but incredibly welcoming and good-natured staff buzz amidst the mix of older couples and mothers with their clutches of little ones. The menu is very simple, with a choice of three starters, including a daily soup, which comes with hunks of farmhouse bread. The five main dishes include pork and apple sausages served with a golden-topped leek and potato gratin, and a tomato and thyme tart, which is perhaps a little on the custardy side. There isn't a great variety, but what the Kitchen offers is good and well-portioned. The lack of choice notwithstanding, the place is more than redeemed by its fine selection of scrumptious home-baking. All in all, this is a fine, unpretentious lunch environment, but it shines as a quaint afternoon tea spot.