The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Indian street food Small plates? Yawn. But this fusion of east and west might have legs
TO Tuk Tuk, then, and Indian street food that maybe hasn’t arrived directly from the mystical east but has certainly spluttered very recently along 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 yogurt 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 smallplate 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 Kolkata.
It’s Indian food but possibly not as we traditionally know it, unless you’ve been to Babu Bombay Street 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.
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 yogurty things too, while the fiery, spicy noodles are quickly finished. The potatoey Tuk Tuk samosa and bland Bengali fish cakes are 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 footsteps of a global franchise masterplan that nobody else is yet in on. McDonald’s meets Mumbai, anyone?
Nothing wrong with that. On paper. It’s the chain restaurant after all that sits at the peak of the culinary evolutionary scale and not its Michelin-star equivalent. I don’t think I’ve been in a traditional IndianScottish-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 place 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 along the M8 knocked the spirit out of Tuk Tuk? Early days yet.
This feels like the first footsteps of a global franchise masterplan that nobody else is yet in on. McDonald’s meets Mumbai, anyone?