Lounge – Kris Munro

383 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8AU

Visit Date : 22nd January 2017

I have been doing the Rum scene ,and one area that is going to be very big this year is the Gin scene. I have probably only taken Gin in a cocktail, but don’t know much about it or have tried Gin on its on.

This year I would like to learn more about Gin, brands, flavours etc

I was recently contacted by someone at beGin as they knew I would like to learn more, but I was at Byres Road and saw beGin and decided to go in for some food and drinks.

Visit Date : 22nd January 2017

This place has a very cool and relaxed look, and a modern fresh design inside and outside. There wasn’t many people in tonight, which I liked as I could get a good look about and see the place.

Food :

I didn’t want to have big dishes tonight, as I wasn’t very hungry so small snacks was what I had in mind.

Cheesy Haggis Nachos £4.00
Sour Cream

I love Nacho’s and I like Haggis so when I saw this I had to give it a shot.

This was a large portion for £4.00, so it was very good value for money. I expected maybe half this size, due to its cost.

For me there was maybe not enough cheese and haggis, but I knew I was also having another dish so it was ok. Then again it was £4.00 so can I really fault this? probably not.

Overall I enjoyed this and it’s the perfect size for a snack with a drink, and to share.

Trio of Vegetarian Samosa £6.00
Onion Bhaji / Pakora / Minted Yoghurt (V)

Again just like the first dish, it was a perfect snack size and this was good for just one person. You could potentially share, but it depends on how hungry you are.

Each Samosa was very flavoursome, and the little sauce added to the flavour.

The Gin :

So as I have mentioned above I don’t know anything about Gin, well ok that it can be mixed with cocktails….but that’s about it.

Tonight I wanted to try Gin on its own, and see how one or maybe two taste.

I didn’t know where to start, so I asked one of the staff members her name was Maryam. I told her I have a sweet tooth, and to suggest two.

Maryam suggested :

Hoxton : Coconut and grapefruit – ABV 40%

Edinburgh Raspberry : Edinburgh Gin enriched with raspberry – ABV 20%

I decided to let Maryam choose one and surprise me.

Maryam returned with the Hoxton and Lemonade, she didn’t pour any lemonade into the glass so I could taste the Hoxton on its own first.

This was nice, a little strange at first and then left me with a coconut aftertaste which was ok. Mixed with the Lemonade it reduced the flavour a little, but not by much which I was surprised at.

I would like to try the raspberry one next time as the Hoxton was nice, but I still needed something a little sweeter. I know I could have it in a cocktail but I would like to see if I could find a nice sweet Gin on its own, well sweet enough for me.

Overall :

Overall my first visit was good and the staff were very friendly, chatty and helpful.

The music that night did have a lot of bad language, for me I didn’t mind but maybe some others it wouldn’t have liked this…..this would be my only issue from tonight.

I would like to thank Maryam for her help tonight, and I will be going to here to try a few more Gins as there were lots on the menu.

Any visits I will keep you posted on how my Gin experience is going.

Cheers