Food Review: Black Dove, Shawlands

The menu isn’t huge — or, at least not as extensive as you might expect a tapas menu to be. However fear not. What this allows is the kitchen brigade of eight to concentrate on quality.

All the dishes are portioned to suit two people and can be ordered as either a small plate or a main meal. I’d suggest against going traditional with a starter and a main and urge you to choose a selection of small plate dishes.

The CO and I chose six from the ‘small plate’ section of the menu, a crispy duck with watercress salad and hoisin dressing, king prawn tempura with a chilli and lime dip, a pate with caramelised onions and toast, vine tomato and mozzarella salad with figs, Parma ham and honey, beef with wild mushrooms and onion purée and the classic haddock with hand-cut Rooster chips and tartare sauce, along with two sides of truffle fries with parmesan and a black pudding with chorizo and potatoes. Prices ranged from £3.50 to £10.95.

The prawns were six large, tender, juicy and sweet little morsels of spectacular seafood, and, teamed with the chilli and lime mayo dip raised the whole dish to another level of joy. The haddock, which the CO had — she’s not fond of seafood, yeah yeah, I know — was, she said, exceptionally fresh. A nice pair of fillets, which flaked well, and partnered with the hand-cut Rooster chips, themselves perfectly cooked, crisp on the outside and when broken, light and fluffy on the inside made for a lip-smacking plate of food.

Onto the next pair of plates. The pate and the beef. Now I’ve tried many pates in my time, not being averse to a slab or two of the stuff — the grey, claggy, bitter tasting versions. Not so at Black Dove. This was a wee jar of pate so light it could have been a mousse.

Light doesn’t come close to describing this pate. And so tasty, made with Marsala instead of the usual cognac which gave it a sweetness on the palate. The beef was served pink, just as I like it, which is a cracking con, as the other half won’t eat rare meat. Oh dear that’s a shame — so I just had to scoff the lot! Tender and succulent, the meat had been aged well and just pulled apart. Put that on top of a bed of wild mushrooms and delicately add some puréed onion as they did, and not a word was heard from me other than an assortment of mmmms.

After chatting with Chris following the meal and asking what behind such rapid success, he said: “Having good staff is key and I invest in them. They have to be able to work in any department. Without my staff I’m nothing other than a name, and you’re only ever as good as your last meal!”

Black Dove Dining

67 Kilmarnock Road

Shawlands

G41 3YR

0141 231 1021