A Meal Out With Mini-M

A couple of weekends back, we had a Mac store mission to undertake, meaning a day trip to Glasgow to pick up our old laptop which had been in for some surgery with the Mac doctors in the Apple shop.

As well as exploring the transport museum, delivering some table cloths (long story) and generally running around like loons after Mini-M, we paused for lunch at Stereo Cafe/Bar which is tucked away very unassumingly down Renfield Lane. It was fantastic!

Oh yes, and the day started with some 06:30am face painting after which Mini-M spent the rest of the day as an increasingly grubby tiger/cat. (There's a limit to how realistic / artistic / creative I can be at a) 6:30am on a Sunday morning, and b) within Mini-M's standing still window!)

06:50am - still in PJs, face paint relatively un-smeared!

And why was it such a big hit? Because the food is vegan, which is a HUGE blessing, with a dairy intolerant toddler who suddenly seems to be transitioning from scoring 10 on the fussy eater scale (i.e. eats only spaghetti hoops, bananas, soya yoghurts, raisins and toast) to wanting to "try some this one Daddy".

The sudden change in Mini-M's food outlook is fantastic, however it has started to lead to the inevitable "No you can't try that one it will make your tummy sad". She's really good about it. She kind of understands. The other morning she asked to have some of my cereal but before she dived in asked "Having cow milk Mummy?"

But I digress - back to Stereo. Yep, the food is all vegan, so the menu was fair game for me (yippee! I'm getting kind of sick of there only being one dairy free option, and it being a sodding baked potato with tuna mayo...) and Mini-M was free to try some of whatever she fancied from our order.

Mini-M wasn't for waiting to have her photo taken before tucking in...

They do a range of tapas style dishes as well as mains and daily specials. We played it fairly safe and went for things we thought she might like, trying to keep the whole "trying" experience as positive as possible: veggie haggis bites, spring rolls, hummus and flat bread, and the old failsafe - chips!

She tried them all. The haggis was a fail, the jury remains out on the spring rolls - she didn't want to eat them, but she didn't want Mr E to eat them either, the chips were unsurprisingly a hit, but the real winner was the hummus. She loved it. In fact she almost cried when the waitress took the plates away, and there was still a small scrap of half chewed hummus-y flatbread on hers! And Mr E and I thought it was all delicious - particularly the haggis.

Making sure every last scrap of hummus is mopped up!

And to top it all off... there was soya ice cream for pudding!

Grubby tiger/cat concentrating hard on her ice-cream scooping

Om-nom-nom

So if you find yourself in Glasgow (with or without a dairy intolerant toddler!) and fancy something different, then Stereo is worth the detour for. And if you live within a 50 mile radius with a dairy intolerant kid, it's worth the trip especially. Being able to eat all together without having to ask the waiting staff a million questions about what is or isn't dairy free and being able to let your little one be as adventurous as they want is just such a refreshing experience. Thank you Stereo!

And of course, come the evening, it is also a great bar and music venue - it's got all bases covered!

Gratuitous mucky tiger/cat pout!