This time last week I was invited along to the Hilton in Glasgow city centre to take part in their launch of the new menu in the Morblas Restaurant. Morblas is a seafood and grill restaurant that serves locally sourced meat and fish in a modern yet simple way.
We arrived to the event to be presented with champagne, or berry daiquiri cocktails for the teetotal/designated drivers. The cocktails were absolutely delicious – blended fruit over ice with fresh mint leaves. The champagne was lovely too – and there was plenty of it going. A few people switched to the cocktail to avoid getting drunk – they were that generous!
The theme of the eventing was ‘eat and tweet’ – my Twitter followers will have seen this and a few of you commented about the food you saw. We had to taste the tapas/canape style mini portions of the upcoming dishes and tweet our views about them, and our tweets were broadcast on a projected display on the wall.
There were several different dishes and I did get to try most of them. Some greedy journalists/bloggers helped themselves to more than one of each dish and the trays didn’t make it as far as our table, so some of us were left without – tut tut! The food was amazing so I only half judge them.
Starters
Scallops
I love scallops and these were absolutely beautiful. Cooked to perfection with a crispy outside and a tender inside. They were served with what looked like a crushed tomato and basil combination. It added a lovely tang to the dish. I’d definitely order this!
Funny story: made a bit of a boob of myself. Our tweets were projected on the wall and I’d made a typo – I tweeted saying the scallops were served with ‘pee purée’. I’ll understand if the Hilton don’t ask me over for dinner again. An attempt at a humorous apology/corrective tweet was of course sent!
King Prawn Bruschetta
I wasn’t a fan of this, purely because it was dry and a little bland. There was very little of the garlic sauce that should’ve been on it. The prawns were fresh and juicy – the only saving grace. It has potential to be a lovely starter but I think a basic lack of ingredients is the problem. Some chilli and coriander or something to flavour it wouldn’t go amiss!
Loch Fyne Oysters
I’ve never tried oysters before. I’ve never had the opportunity, but I also didn’t necessarily seek the opportunity out. They look really, really, really gross. And it annoys me how weirded out I feel. I felt like I owed it to myself and House of Herby to JUST DO IT. The waiter found my panic, dilemma and wilfulness hilarious and even stood by to watch me try them, as he’d never tried them either. It was odd. It’s a lot to swallow in one go, but the after taste was pretty good! The sauce was as picky vinegary drizzle and it went down a treat!
Highland Mushrooms
This was a great little dish – and funnily enough most people thought it was an interesting dish. Not long ago this very dish was an exam starter for Intermediate 2 Hospitality! So I was very familiar with it. The mushrooms were gorgeous, enveloped in the well seasoned garlicky sauce and served on a charred toast. I loved it.
There was also a pork terrine but I sadly didn’t get a bit. Gutted is the word!
Main courses
Spring Pea Risotto
This was absolutely delicious, and I’ll be honest, risotto usually bores me. The risotto was rich and creamy but had gorgeous flavours from the peas and herbs. It was served in a Parmesan basket – effectively a poppadom – which added a deep cheesy flavour. The basket was tricky to eat but I think that was due to us not having a full set of tools and standing up. I’d definitely order this.
Steaks
The steaks rotated the room all night – you could sample them all: fillet, sirloin, rump and ribeye on skewers with a choice of peppercorn or béarnaise sauce to dip. I could get used to that. The steak was cooked medium and was SO juicy. It was gorgeous.
Seabass
I love my seabass anyway, but this was something totally new for me. The seabass was served crispy on a bed of butternut squash and pickled onions. Bizarre, right? No. Genius. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t have ever come up with this. It was really tasty and the flavours totally complimented one another.
Smoked Haddock
My favourite by far! This was a spin on Eggs Benedict. Sautéed potatoes with wilted spinach on top, a cutlet of delicious smoked salmon and topped with a poached quail egg and hollandaise sauce. It was simply wonderful. Everything just pulled together and gave you this rich, smokey, creamy bundle of joy. It’s at the top of my ‘to order’ list.
Pork Belly
This wasn’t great, but I won’t write it off totally. The piece I got was totally fat, no pork. I tasted the sauce and its beautiful – a lovely smokey, sweet oriental taste to it. Almost like spare rib sauce. I’m sure that if I ordered it from the menu there wouldn’t be that fat:meat ratio.
There were mini burgers and also a Scottish vegetable tagine buy I didn’t get a chance to try them.
I nicked this photo of the burgers from someone on Twitter (I can’t remember who, sorry!) – don’t they look awesome? Everyone eating them stuffed them in their mouths and nodded. I’m gutted I missed them!
Desserts
Rhubarb & Vanilla Crumble
I don’t see myself as a huge rhubarb crumble fan, but this wasn’t to my taste. The rhubarb was caramel/brown colour which seemed a bit odd, and the dish generally tasted salty and savoury rather than sweet. It doesn’t get my vote!
Sticky Toffee Pudding
I love sticky toffee pudding, but this one was different to the rest. I’m not sure I can compare it to most others, it had a really dark toffee taste rather than the sweet buttery taste I’m used to. The ice cream was nice and creamy and sweet which offset the richness, so I did enjoy it.
The final dessert was a lemon tart but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Lemon tart is a dessert I often find isn’t great in restaurants, and I mean good restaurants(!), so I did want to try it. I’ll give it a try when the menu is live.
When the food had been served the chef, Jim, came out to speak to everyone about his menu and kitchen, and gave us the change to ask questions. He explained that his style is simple, well seasoned, fresh food. A man after my own heart!
What I found really interesting about Morblas is that they don’t order their meat from a butcher as they have their own – they order the carcass and it is jointed ‘in-house’ to ensure the best possible finished products. The steak I tried was absolutely beautiful, so I’d say they’ve got it right!
The staff members representing the Hilton Glasgow – from managers to PR associates to the waiters were all absolutely lovely. They were friendly, approachable and very available to us. Nothing was too much trouble and they were keen to chat and get to know everyone. Simon Magnus spoke to us at length and he is visibly proud of the restaurant and beckoned us to ‘come and dine’ with them. I felt that they were all very much a team and were proud of their work – I look for and admire that.
When the menu is launched I’ll definitely be going to have a meal. The food was absolutely gorgeous and the staff made a real impression on me. im excited for the new menu to go live so i can browse and order. Such wonderful dishes in such tiny sample portions was torture, I need a big plateful!
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Morblas Seafood & Grill
Hilton
1 William Street
Glasgow
G3 8HT
(0141) 2045555
@HiltonGlasgow
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