Glasgow has a long and happy relationship with Indian food. This generally fits into a particular model, the local curry house. In recent months, the idea of what Indian food is all about has been turned on its head by the mavericks at Horn Please. Critics Joanna Blythman and Ron McKenna were quick to give them the thumbs up and curious locals are starting to explore the menu on a regular basis.
Horn Please is an Indian road cafe transplanted to Berkeley Street in the West End. There are authentic flavours from north and south India with some Spanish twists – there are three chefs, two Indian, one Spanish. The vibe is relaxed and the dishes are designed for sharing. The food is unusual, affordable, quirky and delicious.
Think grilled duck breast in butter sauce (£6.50), bread pakora with fish and meat filling (£5.50) and grilled venison with cashew sauce (£7.50) – not a stodgy chicken korma in sight.
We went to the basement restaurant and quizzed Igne, one of the Horn Please team, on Glasgow’s newest Indian restaurant.
So what’s with the name?
If you’ve been in India you’ll know there aren’t really markings on the road or signposts or traffic lights or anything. The traffic is crazy. Everywhere you go you’ll see trucks, cars, motorbikes with a sticker on the back that says “Horn Please” which is pretty much a way of asking for courtesy on the road and it became part of the culture.
Everything about the interior here comes from India and is trying to recreate the atmosphere of the road café. Colourful, relaxed, very cosy, down to earth. That was the whole idea.
Why try and do this as a concept rather than just open a Glasgow curry house?
I’ve been eating Indian food for years now and I was always cooking myself Indian food. Everyone who works at the restaurant went to India for a three week holiday before we opened. I think a lot of the Indian food you find here is very skewed towards what UK people want.
It’s more creamy, more sweet, not necessarily very traditional. So, for us, it was about the flavours and spices that you find over in India.
In terms of what regions are represented on the menu then, where would you say we are geographically with your dishes?
The vegetarian dishes are probably more from south Indian cuisine, as for the rest of it there’s more of a Northern influence but it’s a mix.
I suppose you would say this is a good place for vegetarians as there’s something on the menu more exciting than the standard mushroom risotto veggie option.
I love meat and I could eat it every day but I believe a lot of Indian cuisine is based around vegetarian dishes and I love those flavours. We wanted to have something for everyone so that’s why we have the same number of vegetarian and meat based dishes.
What’s been the response – have you had to do a lot of explaining about the concept? Do people come in expecting their favourite tikka masala?
We were expecting more people to come in asking for a curry. So far we’ve only had one or two tables that have popped in without looking at the menu, asking for a korma or a jalfrezi.
I think people in Glasgow are very into eating out a lot and are open to trying new restaurants and are into their street food. So, I guess people are actually interested to see what’s there beyond a curry.
We’re a couple of months here and we have very busy days and very quiet days. So far, majority of the customers very much enjoy the food.
It’s an interesting situation because Glasgow has had generations of Indian restaurants, but we do have very particular ideas of what that means.
Well, if you go down the city centre, every street has an Indian restaurant so I think it would be very difficult to stand out so we wanted to do something a bit different. At the moment in India, Delhi in particular, this type of food is super popular. Even Indians are getting bored of the curry. [Laughs]
I saw recently that Benares, which was the first Indian in the UK to get a Michelin Star, they’ve introduced a street food type menu. Then, the small plate idea for sharing is also very popular.
I think that’s the best part of it, that our menu allows you to try many different types of dishes at the same time. So instead of having one massive main dish and afterwards you just think “I need a nap”. In general this is all sharing food. Some people just want to order their own dishes of course.
It’s good when a big group comes in and you see them all talking about the different dishes and taking pictures on their phones. The best thing has been customers who have came in the very first week and they’ve been back two or three times since. That’s always a good sign.
What’s the background of the chefs?
We have two Indian chefs and one Spanish. That’s why you see thinks like the Spanish ham coming with the chicken tikka, or the grapes. Also, the flourwater breads with the cold shots of soup, that originally comes from Spanish cuisine. So there are Spanish concepts there with Indian spices.
It’s gone very well so far and we have loads of ideas coming in from the owner’s family in India.
So there’s calls coming in from his aunts looking to get their dish on the menu?
In India home cooking is such a big thing, they prepare everything from scratch every single day and that’s part of the culture and that’s a great thing for them to be able to influence what we are doing here.
What are the most popular dishes right now?
Everyone likes the lamb rack. The gram flour yoghurt curry with crunchy masala okra. That’s probably the spiciest dish.
How fixed is this menu then, will you be changing it seasonally?
We’re thinking of changing the menu every six months. We’ll see what people are liking and what they don’t really like. We’re open to ideas.
Horn Please is at the basement of 91 Berkeley Street in Finnieston.
