Food review: Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

Freddy & Hicks food truck takeover at Citizen M

In a bold move, the Glasgow Citizen M is the testing ground for a “food truck takeover” where various street food vendors will be taking over the kitchen at the hotel. Freddy & Hicks are in situ now and will be dishing up vegetarian & vegan street food until 30th May. The food is available from 12 noon until 10pm every day and you don’t need to be a guest staying at the hotel to enjoy it as anyone can walk in to the cool funky restaurant and bar, which a lot of people probably don’t realise (should you be interested in staying for a night or two you can read our Citizen M accommodation review).

But it’s not just the food concept which is impressive, the drinks selection is possibly the best of any restaurant in Glasgow. Yes, really!

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M
A bucketful of Drygate beer

 

Food Truck Takeover menu

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

On entry head upstairs to the first floor and to the right then order at the hatch against the wall. All the food from Freddy & Hicks is meat-free but it’s not just the main courses as snacks at the restaurant/bar are from niche brands and mostly all vegan too. To keep things interesting Freddy & Hicks and future food truck vendors will be amending their menu mid-way through their residency.

Once you’ve ordered they’ll give you a fast food burger restaurant-style buzzer which will of course buzz when your food is ready to collect.

Spicy BBQ burger & fries £10.95

On inspection, the burger doesn’t have quite the same texture as a beef burger, it looks and tastes like a nut burger – the menu states that it contains gluten & soy only. I then found out that it’s made from a mix of chickpea and soy bean.

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

The texture is soft and although it’s missing the delicious fatty taste that you’d get from a gourmet meat burger, it tastes pretty good with the melted cheese, spicy jalapeños, BBQ sauce, slaw, pickled gherkin and coriander so it’s quite tangy and spicy. The sesame seed bun is good too and the fries, as it turns out, are sweet potato and covered in a plentiful amount of sea salt served with 2 dips, BBQ and a rather spicy sriracha mayo. Both dips are vegan-friendly.

Drinks

Back to the drinks as you’ll want something good to wash your food down. On draught they have 4 beers: Brewgooder £4.25, Heineken Extra Cold £4, Birra Moretti £4.25 , Lagunitas IPA £4.50. All prices are for schooners.

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

All canned beers (Brewgooder, a selection of Drygate and Lagunitas 12th of Never and Day time IPA) and Toast bottles (Toast pale ale 5%, Session IPA Bloomin’ Lovely 4.5% or Much Kneaded Lager 5%) are £3.95. Bottles of Wild Beers are £4 (Fresh; Epic Saison; and Millionaire) and they have two unusual ciders both priced at £4.50: Curious Apple with Rubens 5.2% and Maeloc sidra con fresa, a Spanish cider made with strawberries.

They also stock Fitbeer which is low-calorie and alcohol-free.

Freddy & Hicks street food pop-up at Citizen M

Soft drinks include Karma cola, Gingerella, Lemony lemon (all £1.95) Nix and Kix peach vanilla with a little cayenne (£2.75); Tenzing natural energy (£2.50); and various flavours from Belvoir (£2.50), ChariTea (£2.95), Lemon-Aid (£2.96); Dash flavoured waters (£2.75), Bradley’s sparkling juices (£2.95), Jimmy’s iced coffee (£3.50), Fitch cold brew coffee (£3.50) and plain old mineral water £1.50 – £3.75 depending on size. I had the can of Nix and Kix which was very refreshing and only had a mild peppery tingle.

For a sweet finish the have a big selection of Thorntonhall ice cream including raspberry ripple, rum and raisin, hazelnut, ginger and whisky, honeycomb, banana, Baileys and cinnamon and sorbets including apple; and blackcurrant. I opted for pear and candied ginger which was delicious!

Where

citizenM Glasgow hotel, 60 Renfrew St, Glasgow G2 3BW

When

12 noon until 10pm every day. Freddy & Hicks will be in the kitchen until 30th May and then a different street food vendor will takeover.

Contact

Website: https://www.citizenm.com/destinations/glasgow/glasgow-hotel
Telephone: 020 3519 1111

Social Media

Facebook
Google Plus

Twitter

TL; DR

+ Vegan and vegetarian food
+ Food menu changing on a regular basis
+ Great beer selection
+ Great soft drink selection
+ Open to the public, not just hotel guests
+ Cool, quirky and slightly secret location

– No meat options during present kitchen takeover

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary main course, drink and ice cream for writing this review.

Emma

Emma

Hello!

I am Emma and with my husband Mark write Foodie Explorers, which is a food and travel website.

I am a member of the Guild of Food Writers and British Guild of Travel Writers.

We have a wide range of judging experience covering products, hotels and have judged, for example, for Great Taste Awards and Scottish Baker of the Year.

Along the way Mark gained WSET Level 2 in Wine and I have WSET Level 2 in Spirits as well as picking up an award with The Scotsman Food and Drink Awards.    

Usually I can be found sleeping beside a cat.

Recommended Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.