The Top Deck @ The Ferry

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2009 – in the shops now or buy online.

A popular venue for gigs and club nights, this floating Glasgow institution does a good line in lunches and early dinners before the entertainment begins. There is a certain indefinable pleasure in eating on water, and when the sun shines on the outdoor deck with its great view of the city, it can feel like there's no better place to line your stomach. The quirkily written menu is standard in content with pizzas and jacket potatoes aplenty, but the dishes are attractively presented and the quality really is high. A starter of vegetable pakora finds more than a half-dozen crispy nuggets piled high with dipper pots of minted yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce and side of tasty spiced onions. You can taste each individual flavour of the fishcake main course: smoky haddock, potato, coriander and ginger. Even the side salad is thoughtfully prepared with fresh green leaves, crunchy slices of red and yellow pepper, onion and chives. This tightly run ship appears to be a genuine labour of love for the warm staff. There's no gain without pain, and though the ferry has been hidden behind a wall of construction work on the Clyde in recent years, it can only benefit from the on-going waterfront regeneration scheme.

• High point: Waterfront setting
• Low point: Limited dining times