Five March Review
If you are looking to enjoy one of the darlings of the food scene in Glasgow you won’t go far wrong with Five March. It’s as cool as a cucumber, and the ever changing menu is brimming with intriguing and unusual ingredients.
Vibes: Five March, located on Elderslie Street, is where the cool kids dine. As Coolio himself once said it’s a hipsters paradise…or he said something like that I am sure! Lots of wood, vintage style school chairs and plants. Think under done and minimalist, with a smear of scandi chic.
I’m not going to lie the first time I went I thought ‘Christ I am not cool or hipster enough to be here’ but that feeling was put to rest within about 6 seconds of the lovely staff welcoming us.
This is my favourite kind of spot - everyone is welcome, on the average night you will find everything from tables of 20 somethings laughing to 60+ couples enjoying an intimate date night...it is the quintessential neighbourhood restaurant. And best of all I can walk in on a Saturday night in jeans and trainers and no one cares or bats an eyelid.
Eats: As seems to be more often the case now in Glasgow the menu here is based on a selection of medium sized sharing plates. Beware tho you better know your dining partners reasonably well if you are going to share dishes because a fork and knife are often involved in splitting them.
The food is kinda epic, and although sharing plate restaurants can be a bit hit and miss on a dish by dish basis, but I’ve always found Five March to be pretty consistently excellent. The dishes sound super interesting with a heavy emphasis on fresh, local, seasonal produce. You will come across some ingredients you’ve never heard of - I have been known to google ingredients just to find out what they are, I don’t mind that though.
On their menu you will find on average 4 fish, 4 meat and 8ish veggie / side dishes to choose from. I don’t want to single out too many dishes because their menus and dishes change out pretty regularly. But I will say that each dish is like a work of art and consists of layers of flavour and texture. It is very very rare that I would get a dish here that I didn’t like. ( you can check out the current menu here)
What I will say though is that their Veggie dishes are especially brilliant. And you can’t really talk about Five March and not mention their incredible Fried Spuds with Aioli. In the years since this spot opened this is the only dish which I think has been on since day one. The dip sometimes changes but the fried spuds, which are crispy golden fried nuggets of deliciousness, always remain.
I would also give a shout out to their delicious Fried chicken burger, which is a regular menu item. At the moment it is being served with katsu mayo, coriander, mint, pink ginger. And although the chicken burger stays the toppings change often. I tried the Katsu burger recently and it was absolutely fantastic. The Katsu mayo was almost like a coronation sauce, which I was digging, and the zing of the pink ginger cutting through the mayo for me really made the burger.
What It’s Gonna Cost You? In line with other sharing plates restaurants I tend to find this a reasonably expensive way to dine, that’s not to say it’s not worth the money, but being a grazer I always over order because I want to try a little of everything. With dishes ranging from £4 – £16 you can rack up a pretty sizable bill accidentally. However the portions are pretty generous, and we have found the 4/5 plates between 2 is about the right amount. I would say it’s not cheap but 100% well worth the money and priced well for the location and quality.
This is a thoroughly awesome restaurant with a beautiful well curated menu, lovely staff, and most importantly utterly fabulous food. It’s no wonder they have been one of the big food stars in the city since they first opened their doors, and continues to be one of my favourite restaurants.
140 Elderslie St, Glasgow
G3 7JR
0141 573 1400
