Bread and Butter

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

Ducking down the fairylight-festooned alley off Buchanan Street that leads to Bread and Butter makes you feel like a real in-the-know local. By night, it's a chill-out zone for the nightclub downstairs, but by day it's the place to hit for a nourishing lunch served with the minimum of fuss. True to its strapline – 'the city canteen' – the food is dished out school-dinner style from stainless steel trays lined up in catering trolleys by cheerful staff in chefs' whites. Don't be fooled by the lack of pretension, though. The operation is part of an extended family that includes Rogano and the Grill Room at the Square; this is quality food. Pot pies are this place's, well, bread and butter. Ceramic dishes house various meat fillings topped with crisp puff-pastry lids, sharing plates with chips or herbed mash and a vegetable of the day. While the steak pie has decent chunks of tender beef and the occasional mushroom, the chicken pie is the star. Its unctuous, creamy sauce enrobes fork-sized pieces of prime white meat – advertised as free-range – and may have you shamelessly licking the bowl.

• High point: A top-notch pie and soft drink for a fiver
• Low point: Huge flat screen televisions showing Sky News