Tam Cowan reviews Clark & Sons - The Daily Record, December 2010

SO Jesus stands up at The Last Supper and says: "I shall now turn the water into wine." And a voice at the back shouts: "Aye, right! Get your tenner in the kitty like the rest of us..."

The amazing big booth we bagged at Clark & Sons could easily have played host to that famous dinner with the disciples.

I've told you before about one of my mates who, when out for a bite with his missus, always requests a "four for two" to guarantee a bit of elbow room at the table (essential in a curry house with all the bread, rice and side dishes).

Well, we certainly had plenty of space at this week's restaurant.

In fact, we could even have extended an invite to that old witch Mary Bale as, yes, there was definitely enough room to swing a cat.

Billed as a cafe-bar-restaurant, Clark & Sons is the East Renfrewshire "wee brother" of Citation in Glasgow's Merchant City (a hugely impressive place I reviewed glowingly when it first opened three years ago).

A sprawling, spacious bar leads into a stylish, contemporary dining-room with marvellous big booths up the back (I suggest asking for one when you phone to book a table).

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week (just the way I like it), Clark & Sons offers a daily wine & dine menu - two courses and a glass of vino for just £9.95 - and the a la carte line-up was also sensibly priced.

The full works for the three of us (with two decent bottles of pinot grigio) worked out at about £90 and it must have been decent value as Gerry - tighter than a second coat of paint - didn't even inch when our waiter delivered the bill.

Gerry's not long back from his honeymoon with lovely Nicola and it was candlelit suppers every night... courtesy of supermarket groceries from the Spar shop across from their villa. At this rate, a fiver says the miserable sod's already planning to put a parking meter on his roof in time for Christmas Eve...

Gerry's ambition is to appear on Come Dine With Me (he obviously knows Channel Four pick up the shopping tab) and this keen foodie certainly waxed lyrical about his starter of aparagus with Parma ham.

Served with broad beans, shards of pecorino cheese and fresh mint, the asparagus was perfectly cooked. Just one wee grumble - not enough Parma ham for proper balance. I think this is because most of it was on my plate. I'd gone for the continental charcuterie platter for one, but it could easily have fed two. Two hippos.

Looking like an explosion at a deli counter, my heaped plate was packed with Parma ham, salami and all sorts of cooked and cured meats.

The sundry items - plump pickled capers, spicy chutney and garlic toast - also hit the spot.

But Nicola's con t chicken still stole the show. Very tasty - not too greasy, not too fatty - the meat slipped effortlessly o the bone and it might even have been on a par with the con t duck I recently raved about at Balthassar.

Her main course? Well, it was billed on the menu as beer-battered haddock - but it looked more like the creature that terrorised Chief Brody and Amity beach in the 1970s.

Yep, Nicola had bother getting her Jaws round this great white slab of fish but it was crispy, crunchy and 100 per cent boneless. Room for improvement with the chips, though.

They were handcut, sure, but whose hands are we talking about? Desperate Dan's? Too thick and wedge-like alongside such a mega bit of haddock, I'd urge the chef to serve the sort of thinner chips that wouldn't choke a Clydesdale horse.

My main course? Well, after watching my mate foaming at the mouth a few weeks back while savouring the braised beef at the excellent Angels With Bagpipes in Edinburgh, I couldn't resist Clark & Sons' version.

These slow-cooked dishes are perfect in this weather - the ultimate comfort food in my book - and, yes, the beef was truly delicious. Ditto the silky smooth mash on the side.

The grilled fillet of salmon ticked all the right boxes for Gerry - fresh, crispy skin and I was paying - and he really liked the rumbledethumps on the side.

A strange word, rumbledethumps, but a lovely creation - crushed potatoes with cabbage and spring onion. Try it.

He finished with a white chocolate cheesecake that looked and tasted homemade, while Nicola just about found room for a lemon posset, with berries and homemade shortbread.

I ordered a few bits of Mull Cheddar with a handful of Arran oaties. Perfect.

By the way, folks, not only is Clark & Sons child-friendly it's also granny-friendly.

Yep, they do "Sip & Knit"- a wee knitting club that "brings all things woolly" to Glasgow's southside. Regulars might be interested to know police track are still searching in the area for a man who stabbed six people with knitting needles.

They believe he's following some sort of pattern..

Food: 4/5 - fresh produce, plenty of it; Service: 5/5 - couldn't have been nicer;
Decor: 4/5 - relaxed, stylish interior; Toilets: 4/5 - clean and smart;
Value: 4/5 - very reasonable

Total: 21/25

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