Restaurant review: Mamasan, Glasgow (takeaway)

Banish January blues with a posher than your average takeaway says Rosalind Erskine.

With blue Monday behind us and, what feels like, one of the longest months of the year (thanks in part to another lockdown) almost behind us, a celebration of the small things seems in order.

With days all running into one just now, I’ve taken to harking back to a childhood tradition of sorts, and making a takeaway the highlight of my weekend. The joy of lockdown baking has been replaced with browsing the online menus and waiting impatiently for the buzzer to go.

One of the newest additions to the Glasgow dining scene is Mamasan - a South Asian inspired restaurant and bar that opened in 2020 and has since had to adapt to the current and ongoing restrictions.

Mamasan was founded by Scottish entrepreneur and Edinburgh-born Brad Stevens (who also founded Bar Soba and Pizza Punks) and is located in a sleek glass fronted building close to Royal Exchange Square in the city centre.

I’ve driven past a few times and can only imagine the buzz of the new eatery - the sounds of cocktails being shaken as guests chatter at the bar and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of a weekend dinner with friends or a loved one.

Until these times come again, and here’s hoping that is this side of this year, we have to soldier on with our own cooking, favourite takeaways and Zoom drinks with friends.

Since the latest restrictions came into place in Scotland, I am not too keen to stand outside in the freezing weather waiting on my dinner, so I am glad to see that Mamasan have an easy ordering system on their website, with delivery available that night.

The extensive menu, which consists of ‘traditional’ takeaway dishes of pad thai, dumplings and curries, also includes much more complex offerings - the types of dishes I can imagine would be on their menu in the restaurant.

It’s hard to overlook these, so we opted for starters of Thai fried chicken, wasabi sriracha and caramel and charred sweetcorn patties with chilli salted coconut with tamarind and lime.

These were to be followed by smoked beef brisket and bone marrow massaman curry, sweet and sticky pork belly, roast salted pumpkin, crackling, crispy shallots with sides of Jasmine rice and Asian greens. To really try and transport myself to Mamasan’s bar, I also ordered a pre-dinner snack of Thai spiced cashews and peanuts.