
So I’m sipping a pale green Wasabi Margarita while contemplating the bright white bun that's in front of me. There’s a square panko-coated cut of dry-aged spiced pig’s head inserted into its fluffy middle, topped with wafer-thin slices of pickled cucumber and house mustard, while underneath is a dollop of crunchy mooli coleslaw.
The unusual combo turns out to be a taste and texture sensation, and a clever one; I get the link between the wasabi and the house mustard.
It’s my first proper experience of chef-led pan-Asian cuisine, which may seem strange given the influx of Asian supermarkets and restaurants in this part of Glasgow - Finnieston and Partick, close to the University of Glasgow and its increasing demographic of Asian students and academics.

Now I’m about to find out what it’s all about, courtesy of Tobias Siegel, the Italian-Australian chef who grew up in Sydney, head-cheffing at Nordic/Japanese fusion cafe Edition before moving to Scandinavia work in top restaurants in Copenhagen and Finland, then coming to Edinburgh to Stuart Ralston at Aizle. After seven years in Scotland he has now landed in Glasgow’s Finnieston to open his first restaurant, Extra_Ordinary - taking over Six by Nico’s Sole Club site. It offers a menu inspired by his travels to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong.
'Chef' says he wants to offer the kind of approachable cuisine he likes to eat, noting that our Scottish knowledge of North-East Asian cuisine is lacking.
“I see people being intimidated when in an Asian supermarket or restaurant, but the quality of the ingredients is very high,” he said. “I love to air-dry, ferment, pickle. I dehydrate herbs, pollens and mushrooms to make powders.
“This is the food I like to eat - lots of umami and different flavours.”

The tiny, shiny black-painted restaurant is beautifully fitted out and I immediately spot an air-drier cabinet full of cuts of pork slowly ageing - while artfully uplit - in chef’s own combination of spices. It turns out that everything here is made from scratch, right down to Udon noodles with XO mussels in a warm spicy broth, and a pulled pork and dashi cream pancake - which Tobias makes simply with flour and warm water to help stretch the gluten before adding extra flavours.
Every small hand-crafted dish we taste is loaded - sometimes a tad overloaded for me - with different flavours and textures, and reflects chef's input; I’d describe it as a mix of spicy and earthy.
And back to that Bao bun - a simple mix of flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder, milk and oil, which is steamed rather than baked. I reckon it’s pretty but rather bland with a chewy mouthfeel. But in its favour, it’s a good foil for the extraordinary range of sweet, sour, earthy and spicy fillings it holds within it. I don’t even attempt to try it with the designer chopsticks at my table setting.
Extra_Ordinary’s cocktails dominate the drinks menu, and I can see why. There’s a Yuzi Sour, a Plum Sake Spritz, a Tokyo Negroni (with nori seaweed), a Ponzu Bloody Mary (with ponzu and pickled ginger) and a Pandan Sour. They’re created specifically to match the food and, if they’re anything like my Wasabi Margarita, lighter, with a kick to cut through but also complement the food. Most of the diners around me are ordering them rather than wine.
My pan-Asian culinary discovery complete, all I can find to say as a goodbye to chef is, rather embarrassingly, “Slainte”.
Extra_Ordinary: 1132 Argyle Street, Finnieston, Glasgow, G3 8TD