Pub Review - Rab Ha's, Merchant City, Glasgow

This old Merchant City stalwart still packs 'em in, and you feel cocooned in friendliness when you enter this cosy, smoky, slightly Dickensian bar, with its wooden tables, candles and open fire.

The central bar is always bustling and with lagers such as Erdinger and Furstenburg on tap, 28 wines, and a selective choice of single malts on offer it's not surprising. The upstairs bar also serves quality pub food, with staples such as steak, mushroom and ale pie or battered cod steak. There are a few unusual items too, with a 100% organic beef burger and stir-fried chilli with bok choi.

At weekends Rab Ha's goes "modern" with Sunday night DJs replacing the jukebox. So, it's almost a disappointment when you descend the stairs to the cold, rather dated basement restaurant with its gloomy lighting and even gloomier staff. Dark burgundy paint has been slathered on the walls, and in a futile attempt to bring light into the windowless cellar there are lots of mirrors and reflective surfaces.

However, the restaurant food will make you want to stay, and like 19th-century "Glasgow Glutton" Robert Hall (the pub's namesake who was said to have eaten himself to death after gobbling three chickens and a whole calf in one meal) it's easy to overeat here.

The menu has recently been given a more traditional slant thanks to new chef Jamie Walker and there's plenty of carefully-sourced produce. There's no á la carte menu as such, but you can choose two courses for £17.95 and three for £20.95, with starters like scallops from Oban with sweet confited cherry tomatoes and citrus dill vinaigrette, Scottish oak smoked salmon and diamonds of seared tuna loin with a baby Caesar salad. And though its been done to death in Scotland's tourist-pleasing bars, there's also haggis, neeps and tatties. The difference here: a show-how-it-should-be-done mix, which the pub is rightly famous for, counterpointed by creamy potato and swede, in a Drambuie jus.

Mains such as pot-roasted breast of free-range chicken with glazed baby vegetables, or honey and thyme glazed barbarie duck breast with pressed lyonnaise and a clutch of sweet 'n' sour braised red cabbage are eminently memorable too, swimming with harmonious broths and jus.

Fish also features heavily on the menu with sole fillets lightly poached with a fennel and basil blanc on a bed of mustard seed mash, or steamed fillets of sea bream (most likely plucked from the West Coast that morning) on a lemon thyme and tomato risotto, with sauce hollandaise.

And should you feel a Robert Hall-style attack of gluttony coming on, you can sleep it all off in one of four rooms in the upstairs boutique hotel, wrapped in a fluffy bath robe.

PubChef Rating (out of 10)

Ambience 6, Value for Money 7, Flavour factor 9, Overall impression 7.5

BEERS: Furstenburg, Heavy, Budvar, Best, Erdinger and 28 bottled beers

MAIN COURSES: Two courses for £17.95, three for £20.95, pre-theatre dinner for £11.95

WINES ON LIST: A Grüner Veltliner from Austria and Guelbenzu Azul from Spain are among 14 whites, 14 reds, three rosés and four Champagnes

ANOTHER THING: Rab Ha's is owned by Glasgow restaurateur Colin MacDougall (probably better known for his marriage to celebrity designer Anna Ryder Richardson)