111 by Modou, Glasgow: ‘A banging recipe for a great place’ – restaurant review

‘Our waiter is terrific at what becomes a shared venture, not an us-versus-them competition’: 111 by Modou, Kelvinside, Glasgow. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

111 by Modou, 111 Cleveden Road, Kelvinside, Glasgow G12 0JU (0141 334 0111). Total Trust menu (Sunday/Monday) £25, Explore menu (Thursday-Saturday) £40, wines from £23

There’s one thing guaranteed to make a great restaurant experience even better: a great story. Glasgow’s 111 by Modou has a terrific story. When rabid right-wingers, sodden with rhetoric, are attempting to cast all immigrants as feckless spongers, it’s one that needs to be told. Senegalese-born Modou Diagne spent much of his childhood in Spain. When he was 18, he came alone to Glasgow in search of something better. He had just £200 and at first slept rough. Eventually he found sanctuary in a church and then got into a hostel. In 2014, after a year of applications, he landed a job as a kitchen porter at 111 by Nico in Kelvinside.