Bamboleo Bearsden, Spanish Steak Bar
We wrote about the opening of Bamboleo Bearsden here, and about how Six Company who operate Beat 6 in Bearsden were reopening the site as Bamboleo. As Beat 6, Six Company recently reached a £1 million fundraising goal and have now set another target of raising £2 million for Beatson Cancer Care.
If you’re of a certain age, like us, then you’ll be familiar with the Gypsy Kings’ hit Bambolero, or possibly you’ll know the Umboza song Sunshine, which sampled it. Either way you may find yourself singing Bambolero as you enter the restaurant.
Bamboleo means ‘wobble’ in Spanish, and you can easily wobble out of here to Hillfoot railway station just across the road. The train line is served by regular Milngavie to Springburn, and Milngavie to Motherwell services, allowing an easy way to reach the restaurant with no parking worries as space is limited.
Spanish Sunday Roast Menu for Bamoleo
What we ate and drank
A couple of glasses of wine started off the meal: Reserva do Colchagua – Soleca Cabernet Sauvignon
had an earthy aroma, and was dry and fairly acidic with cherry and raspberry flavours, while the Primitivo Salento IGT Qvid – Tenuta Guistin had more of a cocoa/mocha aroma but was again dry and acidic with flavours of cherry and plum.
Padron peppers were on the menu as a snack, so they had to be ordered. They were cooked perfectly and tasty but more salt was needed to make them ‘mwah’.
We shared a starter of Serrano Jamon with grilled plums, mint and EVOO. We wrapped the ham around the plums and ate them like devils on horseback, or Don Quixotes on horseback perhaps. The plums were soft and ripe, with the mint providing a fresh, cleansing taste and high contrasted with the gorgeous Spanish ham.
We visited specifically for the roast and there is a choice between roast sirloin of beef with barbecure ox cheek stuffed yorkie, or barbecued cauliflower steak with mojo verde and garlic & caper butter. Both sounded tasty as we love roasted cauliflower, however we were here for the meat!
Served with fried potatoes, romesco and manchego cheese; roast garlic and chilli tenderstem; honey glazed carrot plus, Manchecho mac and cheese.
You can add extras of these garnishes including the ox cheek yorkie.
We each received a great slab of meat for our steak, which looked very pink/red at first but veered more towards medium as we cut into it. The carrots and tender stem broccoli, so often overcooked in restaurants, had a welcome crunch.
Look at that Yorkie – none of your frozen Aunt B’s pap here. to some it may look a bit deformed and ugly but these are the best, as uniform Yorkshire puddings always taste of boredom. It had a good balance of air and spongy batter for soaking up gravy. An ideal Yorkie in our opinion.
Now, we both love mac & cheese, and this…would make us return. The macaroni was simply top notch.
Mac & cheese can so often be overcooked and mushy, but not here, this had a strong cheesy, mustardy taste and great thick consistency.
The fried potatoes with Romesco sauce were great too. Soft, delectable tatties in a peppery (as in bell pepper) and nutty sauce, covered in more cheese.
We were stuffed….so much so we only had space for a shared dessert. On the menu is a traditional burnt basque cheesecake; merlot poached pear and vanilla ice cream; or vanilla creme Catalan.
Perfectly fine, the pear was softly poached but needed something else to truly stand out, maybe some nutmeg and cinnamon, or a glug of Pedro Ximenez?
Overall verdict
Bamboleo did a great job filling our belies, and it’s one of the better Sunday roasts we’ve had in the Glasgow area. They did not scrimp on the meat, and the Yorkie and mac & cheese were both top notch. The plate wasn’t warm though, and there was a lot of food, so it got cold quite quickly. Price-wise it’s very good for the standard of food on offer so only a few tweaks here and there could make it truly excellent.
The food was also delivered promptly, staff were attentive without being intrusive, and the toilets were in good working condition (but note that they are upstairs).
Where
Bamboleo, 149 Milngavie Rd, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 3DY
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Author: Glasgow Foodie
Writes for here and Foodie Explorers website. Usually found napping.