3 Park Street
SE1 9AB
Tel: 020 7357 6060
***PLEASE NOTE GLAS MOVED TO UPPER STREET IN ISLINGTON IN THE AUTUMN OF 2006***
Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, August 9, 2005
The Victims: Vincent, Vid, Nils
Vincent was in town from Chicago, so it was time to go out to dinner. And Nils is Swedish. And well, we all know a lot of Swedes. So Glas sounded intriguing. And it’s located in my favorite place in the entire world–Borough Market.
Glas is pretty. It’s very Swedish inside. Martha Stewart would love it. The walls were this pretty yellow, and the art and lighting were just right. There was no music though, which I found disconcerting, particularly because our booking was for 6:30 and you know no one here eats until 8.
We started with the "herring three ways," and although I am not a herring fan (early memories of dad and the jar of herring and mayo–uggghh), I was quite surprised by the tastiness of it all. Then we ordered some smoked salmon (which I was surprisingly not sick of after my sojurn in Alaska), and it was of very high quality. Scandelicious! (OK, I should note that Scandelicious–the Borough Market stall–is associated with Glas.)
Nils spoke Swedish with our waitress, but that didn’t get us anywhere. She was a bit spacy and not very attentive. Also not so informative about the menu. But we managed.
The pigeon was good–the lentils or whatever they served with the pigeon were REALLY good. The salmon (yes, more salmon) was even more delicious. Then we had some sort of pork, which looked like very thick bacon, and that was very yummy. All this was washed down with some very nice Australian white. Those Swedes, they don’t make wine. (Well, some Swede probably does. But I don’t know him/her.)
For dessert, we went with chocolate fondue-like stuff and berries and cream. Good stuff. And the Swedish coffee was on-target. Love the Swedish coffee! Oh, and lest I forget the most important part of all–loved the BREAD BASKET. The Swedes are good at bread. The Germans are good at bread too, but the Swedes are really good at it. And I love that knäckebröd!!! Good, good, good.
The Verdict: I say go. But then I also say that they won’t entirely knock your socks off. It’s nice food, and a pretty environment. The seafood selection is great. The loos could use a little cleaning, but I’ve seen much worse in establishments of around the same caliber.
