La Tasca

Spanish cuisine is becoming more popular in Glasgow, and La Tasca, situated at 39 Renfield Street, is among the best. Upon entering you're struck with how tastefully decorated the place is, with traditional Spanish music quietly playing above the din of happy customers. La Tasca is predominately a tapas restaurant, though there are a few traditional Spanish dishes if tapas isn't your thing.
The staff in La Tasca are very friendly and willing to guide you through the mysteries of tapas if you've never tried it before. Our waiter recommended ordering three dishes or four, and sharing to see what we enjoyed. We opted for some king prawns in batter, some calamari, and instead of more tapas, we gave the seafood paella a try. Other options included chicken, Spanish sausage, but we were on a bit of a seafood binge. We were warned that it would take up to an hour to make, as paella rice soaks up water slowly while cooking, but we were content to wait, drink some San Miguel lager and enjoy the atmosphere.
The tapas dishes were excellent. The calamari was served with rock salt and lemon, and a nice sauce, and was cooked to perfection. Not rubbery, not dry, very nicely prepared. The king prawns were the same, cooked in a light batter and was very tasty.
The paella arrived forty minutes later, in a huge round dish, filled with calamari, prawns, king prawns, mussels and tuna. There was only two of us but this could have easily fed four people. Again, everything was fresh ingredients, cooked to perfection and very enjoyable. We wasted little time in devouring the dish, and made a decent attempt at finishing it, but it beat us. If you're hungry the paella is excellent value for money.

La Tasca has a lot to recommend, and I can't think of anything to fault it, aside from the length of time to cook paella, which can't be helped. I'll definitely be back.

The Catwalk Review

The Catwalk, formily The Underground, is the latest addition to CPL's growing list of pubs and clubs, and acts as a feeder bar for the Cathouse, Glasgow's premier rock venue. The night I visited was Rock Karoke night, where anyone can sing their hearts out to a wide of rock and metal songs in the hope of winning £50. Some regulars even take it further and dress up for it, as I witnessed when the Blues Brothers look-a-likes took to the stage.
Behind the bar is the usual array of beers and spirts, reasonably priced, with an intriguing cocktail menu which I didn't risk trying. There is a very nice display on the bar wall too, with lines of bottles of beer lit up from below giving a nice warm glow to the place.
The Catwalk has a decent atmosphere to it when busy, but I can see on a quiet night how vacant it would appear. Unfortunately on a busier night there just isn't enough seats in the place to hold more than about 30 people , and so most of people ended up standing when I visited. There is a pool table if you fancy a game, but only one, so getting on it could be a challenge.
The Catwalk is a decent enough bar, and if you can get a seat you'll be happy enough before heading off to the Cathouse, if that is your pleasure. If it's a quiet night though you may find yourself longing for somewhere with a bit more buzz.