Tuk Tuk

Glasgow

TO Tuk Tuk then and Indian street food that maybe hasn’t arrived directly from the mystical east but has certainly spluttered very recently down the M8.

Let’s get up to speed as Gordon and I sit here in a brand spanking new restaurant – yes, that really is a mini-tractor at the door – crunching little crispy puffs of puri with taste bombs of yoghurt and mint. In Edinburgh, Tuk Tuk has been a huge hit with its homely decor and shoe-horned hustley-bustley Indian street corner feel, chicken lollipops on the menu and bish-bosh-buzz.

Now the whole small plates, authentic feel gig has been transplanted to Sauchiehall Street. Which if you’ve not been there recently is rapidly turning into Glasgow’s culinary Blackpool with the gaudy lights of endless eat-me-quick joints winking endlessly from pedestrian precinct end to Charing Cross-ish end.

Yes, you’re right. The least original thing on planet restaurant right now is the small plate gig – which usually equals big bills – but at Tuk Tuk these at least contain things like golgappa, chatt and puri from Mumbai; bhel puri – more of those tasty puffed rice shells but with tomato onion and tamarind this time and even hakka chilli noodles from Kolkatta.

It’s Indian food but possibly not as we traditionally know it, unless you’ve been to Babu Bombay Kitchen not much more than a pakora throw from here. Or Balbir’s where the bhel poori doesn’t look the same but tastes very similar.

So anyway we’re munching our way through a selection of these dishes brought, very quickly I have to say, from the open kitchen over there. And I like the fresh, crunchy bhel poori, the yoghurty things, too, while the fiery spicy noodles are quickly finished. The potatoey Tuk Tuk samosa and bland Bengali fish cakes maybe a bit less interesting.

But Houston, we have a problem. And it goes like this. Gordon, who is perhaps more of a flock wallpaper man than he realises, is expressing the view that this is all mildly pleasant food-wise but also rather dull. Who would come here for a night out?

Actually, he may have a point, and it’s probably because of the decor. It’s big and boomy in here, not hugely street-foody apart from that tractor and worst of all, on this cold Tuesday night, almost completely empty.

This is certainly not the same vibe as the Edinburgh restaurant. In fact this feels like the first faltering footstep of a global franchise masterplan that no one else is yet in on. McDonald’s meets Mumbai anyone?

Nothing wrong with that. On paper. It’s the chain restaurant after all that occupies the peak of the culinary evolutionary scale and not its Michelin starred equivalent. I don’t think I’ve been in a traditional Indian-Scottish-Indian restaurant since the last time I was at a Scotland game at Hampden, and that wasn’t yesterday, but I quite like the food here and the way it's served.

We’ve moved on to small plate curries now. A dark and heavily sauced lamb kholapuri that is OK, a reasonable aloo gobi with North Indian tomato gravy, whatever that is, and something called a Tuk Tuk wallah staff curry.

To me this is by far the best dish of the night, though I am a sucker for the taste of fresh curry leaves through anything. In this thin yet still rich gravy that permeates the chicken it’s all good distinctive flavours.

There’s an ice cold mango lassi to finish off as we chat briefly to the waiters – nice young guys – about how long this has been open. Ten days is the answer. About whether it’s always this quiet. Mobbed at the weekends apparently.

They ask whether we enjoyed the food. Pretty much is the answer. But would we come back? Not sure about that one. Has the trip down the M8 knocked the spirit out of Tuk Tuk? Early days yet.

Menu: Edinburgh’s famous Indian street food restaurant comes to Glasgow with puffy bhel pooris, golgappas and small plates for everything. 4/5

Atmosphere: Maybe better when busy but on a quiet night pretty much devoid of any atmosphere. Have they made it too big or too fast foody? 2/5

Service: Very quiet Tuesday night so the staff were almost falling over themselves but pleasant, helpful young guys. 5/5

Price: As always with small plates it quickly adds up but some dishes are £4 or so and curries around £5. Reasonable. 3/5

Food: There’s the occasional taste sensation such as the bhel pooris and other street dishes. The curries are a bit more ordinary. Worth a try. 6/10

20/30

Tuk Tuk

426 Sauchiehall Street

Glasgow

0141 332 2126