Glasgowist: New steak restaurant Gost to open in Glasgow

Gōst will take over the space vacated by Viva Ristorante on the corner of Bothwell Street and West Campbell Street.

The menu has been devised by John Molloy, development chef for a group of venues that includes The Duke’s Umbrella gastropub and experimental pizza and cocktail joint Nonna Said.

I first met John when he was plating up a fish dish at a photoshoot in Hutcheson’s Bar and Grill for The Glasgow & West Coast cookbook I wrote four years ago. He was soon telling me about his current favourite ingredients from Scotland’s larder.

Chef John Molloy

How did he end up in the kitchen in the first place? “I wanted to be a chef when I was at school. I got really good exam results and was persuaded by everyone to go to uni. I still wanted to be a chef, so after I graduated I got into the Chardon d'Or and just sort of went from there. I trained and consumed as much knowledge, read as many books as I could” John says.

“I think the breakthrough for me, having just completed a degree in science, was understanding the technical aspect of seasoning, the concentration of ingredients, pairing flavours, adding depth.

“You can cook something the best way possible, transform it into whatever shapes you want, but if it’s unseasoned, that’s pointless. That was the first eureka moment I had.”

Chef John Molloy

John went travelling in Southeast Asia, a well-trodden path of inspiration for the new wave of top Glasgow chefs. He came back and was in the kitchen for the opening of Hanoi Bike Shop alongside Australian Tad McLean. “I was exposed to a different way of cooking on my travels, which remains an influence on my food style, which I would say is a hybrid of classical French and Southeast Asian. Tad came from Melbourne and I was just back from Vietnam so it was something fresh for Glasgow at the time.”

The Duke’s Umbrella, launched during lockdown, has shaken up perceptions of Glasgow pub food. I got the sense that it was quite a personal project for John. “It’s the sort of food that I like cooking in the house” he says. “Super rich dishes with butter and fat and slow cooked meats. I was looking at it as filling a gap in the city centre. We didn’t want to be anything other than a pub that serves really great food. We have taken out fine dining elements, micro herbs and swipes of sauce on plates. It’s about the quality of the ingredients and simplicity” John says.

Lockdown also allowed John to experiment with a pizza oven, starting a delivery service that’s grown into a permanent home at Candleriggs in Nonna Said. “I knew I could make pizza, but there are plenty of people already making authentic Italian. I was interested in bringing in different flavours. Again, it’s probably the things I like to eat, then creating a pizza out of that. It’s not about doing what everyone else is doing, it is finding your niche and I think we’ve done quite well with Nonna” John explains.

Chef John Molloy

“It’s fun but at the heart of it is proper, solid cooking. We have butter chicken pizza going on the menu. Ross, our head chef at Nonna Said, previously worked at an Indian restaurant and he had the idea of a butter chicken sauce, mixed with the sugo sauce, finished with masala spices. It’s good” John states with a smile. “You can then top with hash browns, mac and cheese or fries for the loaded option” he says. An unexpected escalation but his dishes tend to be fully committed.   

He is building a team of enthusiastic chefs for Gōst: “I like to work with people that care and understand food from the customers point of view, that want the dish to be as good as it can possibly be on a plate.” The restaurant will have a bar and dining room, fulfilling what John sees as a gap for a high-end steak restaurant offering distinctive cuts of beef in the city centre.

We take a look at the opening menu. I ask John, what would he order? He provides a comprehensive introduction to his favourites. “I’m going to start with the octopus, fennel and squid ink aioli. I know how to cook octopus so that you can basically touch it with a spoon and it falls apart. The Orkney scallops with celeriac puree, apple, morcilla and whisky mist are fantastic. I have to point out the beef sliders, which will be made with the ex-dairy beef we will use for the grill dishes and have this massively deep flavour that you can’t replicate in younger animals.”

Chef John Molloy

His choice for main is a wildcard: “Order the spiced charcoal roasted duck. We are currently sourcing some Scottish-bred Peking duck breed, which we are bringing in whole and we will use the leg in a confit terrine and then use the whole animal.”

On the grill, the star of the show is an ex-dairy grass-fed Friesian stock prime rib. There’s also a Mangalitsa pork chop from a rare breed: “it’s a Hungarian big, woolly pig designed to see itself through winters and because of that you end up with a marbled pork chop that’s not what you will normally see.” You will also find pure-bred Angus beef cuts and charcoal grilled monkish tail for two. For dessert, John picks out vanilla panna cotta with maple syrup as a highlight.

To sum up the intent for Gōst’s debut, he says: “This restaurant is about showcasing the amazing produce we have access to in Glasgow and the food that we enjoy, I think people will respond to that.”