Feasting with the Old Farts

They asked for the title and they got it!

Before they jetted off to the slopes I went out for dinner with my Dad and a couple of his pals and with holiday spirits high the red wine flowed!

We decided to go to the Ox and Finch. I'd been dying to try it for a while and as it was just round the corner from my new flat it was ideal. We toasted the new home with a bottle of Bollinger before heading round the corner to fill up on a massively tasty selection of plates.

This end of Sauchiehall Street has a growing foodie reputation and the Ox and Finch aids this greatly. It was a relaxed, contemporary place, with walls of wine glasses, music and chatty loud tables. The menu made all of our mouths water and it was all served tapas style, which was great as we could all try a little bit of everything. However, it wasn't tapas as you know it and it was more unconventional, updated traditional ingredients cooked up in a deliciously new way and presented impeccable. 

Let's take a little outfit break... 

It was a pretty casual evening and a soft grey polo, black draped waistcoat, dark jeans and boots were the perfect combination.

I've found myself living in polo-necks recently and H&M have a great selection. I really like the soft grey though as a change to black and as someone who is permanently cold it's easy to add a slim longline vest underneath to keep the chill out. 

The waistcoat is actually a button up shirt. It's made to look like a black silk shirt with a light black, shawl-style waistcoat draped over the shoulders, but I've discovered it looks just as nice left open and styled as a waistcoat with the light-weight material water-falling over your shoulders. It's so great when you can wear items in loads of different ways and make them something different with each outfit.

I love gold and grey so some accessorises were needed to add an accent in and perfectly compliment the wooden heeled boots, with the gold button poppers - it's all in the details with a plain colour palette.

But back to the food - I know you want to see what we gorged ourselves on!

It's the type of place that does 'arrives-when-it's-ready' style small plates, but we decided to have a go at some cheeky ordering, only so we could match the wine to what we had, of course. 

To go with the white we first ordered the fish and starter style dishes - salt and pepper squid, blood orange, chilli and saffron aioli, this one was delicious and the blood orange gave it a really unusual element that I for one really enjoyed. The salmon must have been a special as I can't find it online - but just look at it! It was gorgeous and definitely a favourite!

Now I'll confess it was hard to get a picture of everything as the holidaymakers dived in and I also found it hard not to as plates of gorgeous food carried on arriving in front of me! We also tried the crab and crayfish with chilli, mango and glass noodle salad, as well as the seared scallops, ramsay's black pudding with cauliflower and cider vinaigrette. All as amazing as they sound, however four of us did have to fight over three scallops!

We took a break and then ordered our 'meats' so that we could match them to a bottle of red. Venison, pancetta and jeep scotch pie - slow-roasted pork belly, white onion puree, golden raisins and capers-  mushroom, tarragon, spinach and tallegio tart, all accompanied with some deliciously golden chips with truffle salt and roast garlic aioli. 

As you can imagine our plates were scraped clean.

The other two waved the white flag, but my Dad and I weren't ready to give up yet! What harm could a couple of desserts to share really do and I was very glad we made this decision!

We really couldn't say no to a portion of rhubarb, yoghurt and pistachio pavlova halved with a pot of white chocolate panna cotta with passion fruit and kalamansi. They were just as irresistible as the rest of the meal tasted absolutely amazing.

I would really recommend a visit, just book well in advance to guarantee a table as it's always busy, especially Saturday nights. It's great if you like the tapas style of dining, but if you want to be more careful about how the dishes arrive just order seafood first, take a break then order more! The staff were more than happy with this arrangement too. 

A wee gem in a new foodie neighbourhood!

Polo - H&M
Black top, worn as waistcoat - Topshop Boutique
White vest - H&M
Jeans - Miss Selfridge
Boots - H&M
Earrings - Topshop
Watch - Fossil