Tempus Bar and Restaurant

The 2013 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2013) edition.

Wrapped around Central Station is the four-star Grand Central Hotel – a beautiful Victorian behemoth of a building, which was bought over and refurbished to a stylish high standard in 2010. The interior is dressed to impress: an immense mural depicting old Glasgow life stretches out across the walls, while graceful cornicing and classic chandeliers may make you think you’re in the first class dining room of the Titanic. The menu includes a range of contemporary European style dishes, with a whole section devoted to steak. Starters include light, slippery little woodland mushrooms with black pudding, although sadly the overdone poached egg and cardboard-like Serrano ham accompaniments let the dish down – but the combination could have been brilliant. A main course of a single fillet of bream is made complete by sweet and crunchy stir-fried vegetables and spiced basmati, and a moat of lightly spiced coconut cream flowing around the dish and binding the flavours together on the tongue. Desserts include Baileys cheesecake, presented with a graceful flourish of mango salsa, tangy coulis and big-fat flakes of crunchy toasted coconut: truly delish.

• High point: Little flashes of excellence from the kitchen
• Low point: Service can let the experience down