Gin 71 , Glasgow

01. GIN 71

Actually, there was quite a lot of gin, because last Thursday, Terry and I headed to Glasgow for dinner and drinks at Gin 71 in the Merchant City. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen some of my Instagram Stories of this place, but if not, the restaurant is located in the prettiest little courtyard, all fairy lights and tubs of flowers – so it’s like arriving in Blogger Nirvana, basically. Inside, it’s all rustic charm, cute little private booths, and, of course, GIN. As the name suggests, gin is kinda this restaurant’s thing, and as well as a huge selection of gin-based cocktails (The one in the photo above is the ‘Edinburgh Cannonball’ and it was HOT.), the menu itself is also very gin-centric: so, for instance, my Botanical Mac & Cheese came with a selection of botanicals like juniper, thyme, rosemary, etc, which are all used in gin-making. (Oh, and it was amazing, by the way!)

Terry, meanwhile, had the d-cut Orkney rump steak (Which, again, was flavoured with juniper and thyme), before tucking into the dark chocolate salted caramel, while I had the cheeseboard:

Everything was absolutely delicious (Especially the gin, needless to say: I’d reeaally have liked to have stayed longer and worked my way through that list!), but it was the knowledge and obvious passion of the staff that really impressed us at Gin71. Our waiter, Sam, was an absolute wealth of knowledge about gin and how it’s made, and it was so interesting to speak to him about it, and get his recommendations from the menu: you can really tell when people love what they do, and everyone we met at Gin71 seemed to fall into that category, so if you’re a gin enthusiast (or just enjoy a good mac n’ cheese), it comes highly recommended – and we will be back for some more of those cocktails!