Eating Out: Riverside Museum Cafe

Sep 8 2011 By Joe McGuire

Address: 100 Pointhouse Place, Tel: 287 2720

THE Riverside Museum has proved a massive draw with more than half a million visitors in just two month.

The fascinating exhibits, the presence of the Tall Ship Glenlee and the stunning Zaha Hadid-designed building are, of course, largely responsible for attracting 10,000 visitors a day, but I have another theory - the food.

First off, unlike the old Transport Museum's cafe, you are ushered to your seat by a friendly member of staff who informs you it's table service.

I took in this information as I savoured the first-class view from my seat at a window table - the majestic Tall Ship resplendent in the sun.

As we were dining next to the Clyde I felt I had to try one of the many marine options on the menu, and chose the smoked haddock fish cakes (£4.25) to start.

Served on a nice crisp salad with a sour cream and chive dressing, the fish cakes were delicious and plentiful and the dressing was an unusual but successful complement to the subtle flavour of the haddock.

My companion opted for the Scotch lamb and vegetable broth (£4.25), which he assured me was very tasty, with a surprising kick to it.

For a main course, I decided on a well-seasoned cheeseburger with crisp and dry chips (£7.95).

Across the table a generous helping of haddock with chips in a crispy beer batter (£8.25) was being consumed with gusto.

I'd heard good things about the cafe's cake selection, so we decided to round the meal off with a slice of carrot cake (£1.95) and a white chocolate and raspberry chip cookie (£1.70).

I'm a man who knows carrot cake (my nickname carrot top being both a reference to my gingerness and penchant for the cake) and the cafe's version did not let me down.

The cookie combination also proved a winner and was soon reduced to nothing but crumbs.

Overall, the Riverside Museum Cafe was a very pleasant surprise.

In fact, I almost feel the cafe label does it a disservice because of the impressive service on offer and the restaurant-quality food.