Rab Ha's

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.

Rab Ha’s is a well-loved and fairly busy Merchant City pub (and small hotel), and over the past 20 years or so its basement restaurant has meandered up and down market, with varying critical and commercial success. Currently it feels like an afterthought – the menu is exactly the same as that of the bar above, and the restaurant is only open three evenings a week, so it’s effectively an additional room rather than a destination in its own right. This seems a shame – with perfectly decent food and good-value prices in an excellent location, the management could surely make a little more of the place. The kitchen provides dependable, simple pleasures like a fine piece of haddock with chips and mushy peas, together with honest Scots dishes like mince and tatties, Cullen skink, and chicken Balmoral (a breast of chicken stuffed with haggis). The tongue-in-cheek decor mixing tartan and antlers with Oor Wullie is quite fun, but it’s looking a bit tired these days.

• High point: Hearty food at decent prices
• Low point: A bit half-hearted (the bar's a better bet)