Black Mamba — Restaurant in Scotland

A good tapas style experience with excellent flavours if you are not too hungry and you are willing to pay a bit more.

Black Mamba goes for an interesting Spanish/Asian crossover that leads to some very tasty and well executed dishes.

It's a tapas place, so you should pick 2 or 3 dishes per person. Otherwise, you'll still be hungry afterwards.

We got 10 between 4 people, and that was just about enough. And everything we got was lovely. The brisket samosa and burnt pork belly were favourites, and the two potato dishes were excellently flavoured.

To top it off, the place was lively and clean, yet the staff on service were still attentive and friendly.

But it all comes at a price. These small plates run around £8 each, and that can run up a big bill very quickly, especially when you add in some of the great cocktail options.

The other thing to keep in mind is that for a style of dining that lends itself to sharing, they don't make this easy as they don't have any side plates for you to squirrel away your share of the meal. You either cut a small bit from the communal plate each, straight to your mouth, or you do as we did and use napkins as very papery plates! (Staff did notice this and brought us over some plastic drinks plates as an alternative.)

Very enjoyable food and drinks, great service. Tapas sized portions at near full sized prices,...

The seating felt awkward, very small high tables placed just a couple of feet apart in a cramped, enclosed space. Service was okay overall, though having three different servers giving us conflicting information was frustrating. That said, each was friendly enough.

Unfortunately, the food is where things really fell apart. The menu suggests mid-range ambition, but the execution simply wasn’t there.

We started with the Gunpowder Bravas, which were nicely plated and flavours seemed considered — a promising start. These came alongside the White Crab Claw and Nduja Croquettas, which disappointingly showed no sign of crab or nduja, aside from a pale orange colour.

The Yuzu Udon Noodles were a huge letdown seemingly made from pre-cooked packet udon, then overcooked in a flat, flavourless sauce, resulting in a mushy, homogeneous bowl.

The Mongolian Crispy Oyster Mushrooms were actually decent, though the sauce could have been thicker to preserve the crispness instead of quickly saturating the batter. Very basic but safe.

The low point of the meal was the Bunnychow Scallops. At £11.10 for two scallops (one barely larger than a Malteser), the plural “scallops” felt misleading. They were SWAMPED in an overpowering sauce that tasted like pure chipotle paste, smothering the delicacy of what were, frustratingly, almost perfectly...

Me and my partner went to both Black Mamba & the Giddy Goose (which I assume are both owned by the same people as when I booked for both venues the reservation payment went to the same company), and we found a similar experience within both venues. Firstly, the food is really tasty and the menus are quite unique, with exciting options. The venue is clean and aesthetic, and the staff are lovely. BUT - the big thing we experienced in both venues is as soon as your food is on the table, the staff no longer take interest, we enjoyed our time so much that we were wanting to stay longer for more drinks after our meal - but no one was interested in extending our stay. That being said, both venues were unable to take tips on card - which is probably why the staff are not motivated to extend service beyond food being dropped. Think the staff were lovely, all young folk just doing their thing, but when they’re not solely motivated by just a genuine desire for good service (cos they’re students doing degrees, and deciding what they want to do with the rest of their lives) , maybe let them take a tip on card - it costs the company a few pennies, but matters a lot to the front...