'Babs kebabs are indeed tasty
We've been waiting with baited breath for 'Babs to open. Kebabs in Glasgow don't have a good rep but we're big fans of the Turkish-style kebabs you find in Berlin. After talking to the owners and hearing of their dreams, which involved numerous research trips to Turkey we were looking forward to see what was on offer.
Tonight, we attended a preview to see if they really would offer "kebabs. Done right!"
Decor
Think of all the bits you like about dining in Greece or Turkey, mix in some hip decorative touches and you have 'Babs. Classic meets contemporary or Halloumi meets hipsters or Santorini meets Shoreditch or something along those lines!
Modern Turkish-style copper lighting hangs from the ceiling. Near the entrance, there's a water feature. The tables here are disabled-friendly and there's a disabled toilet too, but the majority of the seating is up a couple of steps where the room is separated by a tiled partition. On the walls there are mirrors, jars of preserved vegetables, a giant clock...
Menu
The menu has a mix of styles heavily influenced by the Balkans.
Food
We started with some dips and a selection of bread. Hummus, tzatziki, oil & vinegar and some tasty Ajvar.
Ajvar isn't something you come across in the UK much but we've had it a few times on our trips to the Balkans. It's a mix of roasted red peppers, aubergine and garlic. It was really soft, creamy and full of red pepper flavour.
The tzatziki was creamy and refreshing with lots of cucumber and dill.
We then tasted Tomato pomodoro - smokey and very tomatoey - followed with spicy nduja arancini and creamy spinach and feta arancini. There's wall very easy to munch.
The top plate here is: chicken shish with carrot purée, aioli, pickles and chicken breast. While at the bottom we have chicken souvlaki with chicken thigh, tzatziki, grilled tomato and roasted red onion purée. Served with homemade pickles. Both plates were cleared quickly with the chicken souvlaki just edging ahead as a winner.
the skinny fries served alongside were crisp and very addictive like mini chips. I bet you end up ordering two bowls!
Next up Babs burger...would this be tastier than BMB?
Simple stuff actually but dare we say it, it tops the mothership Bread Meats Bread burgers. Moist medium-cooked meat and fluffy bun with no complicating flavours just char-grilled meat - and it's that cooking style which gives it the edge over BMB.
Pretending to be healthy, and needing to clean the palate after all that we shared a watermelon and feta salad. This is not your usual feta, it was specifically sourced to complement the sweet watermelon drizzled with pomegranate, so it's perhaps a bit closer in texture to kaymak. Just what was needed to perk us up after our meat sweats!
We were now struggling and that was splitting these dishes between three of us.
'Babs has a lot of promise with some tweaks in Mediterranean classics. We really enjoyed the bread and dips - the focaccia reminded us of the bread served with Serbian Pljeskavica burgers which soaks up all the juices.
'Babs opens at lunchtime Thursday 15th June.
'Babs also gets bonus points for playing a couple of Goran Bregović songs on the night. Anyone familiar with the movies of Emir Kusturica should be pleased to dine here!
Come say hello
