Lupe Pinto’s Chili Cook Off

Great fun this, highly recommended!
Always something I fancied doing, but have never got round to doing, I really enjoyed my day doing this. Essentially an excuse to go on a bit of a pub crawl, a tenner gets you a scoring card, and a list of half decent to really good pubs and restaurants to go to. You can dress up in fancy dress if you want, do a speed run, or take your time and have a drink at each stop. No matter what you do you’ll have a great time. Most of the places make a bit of an effort, and put on drinks deals and other things to make you feel part of something. You do feel part of a wee community doing something fun, and it’s kind of funny to see half-​cut folk in chilli fancy dress costumes staggering about Great Western Road.
In terms of things to watch out for there isn’t that much, although if you are vegetarian or have any intolerances forget about it, as there is a good chance your options are going to be a little limited. In terms of time, we did a bit of a speed run and got it done in just over 2 hours. At each stop you don’t get a massive amount of food — only a wee tasting tub, but it really does add up over time.
Getting tickets is a bit difficult, especially if you don’t live close to Lupe Pinto, but it’s well worth doing.

My first ever Chili Cook Off experience! I only vaguely knew how the day worked so was well chuffed that Tracy W looked after us and plotted a map that took us from The Crafty Pig, via Gibson St & Woodlands to end up at The Squid & Whale as our last stop.
It’s £10pp and tickets will sell out within a week, so you really need to get in fast. Your ticket gives you a 50g tasting pot at 10 venues in the West End (mostly either on Great Western Road, or just off it) which is easily doable in a few hours. We started at 2pm and lots of people told us it couldn’t be done, but if you have designated drinks stops then it will really be fine.
For me, there was a few highlights. The Left Bank was my favourite — they had an epic chili topping bar and gave you a really decent portion (some places were only doing ½ cups which felt a little stingy). I really liked the Hug & Pint as well as theirs was a vegan option and it was really nice to have something so different by stop 8. I loved the crispy corn topping, even though it was really sticky in your teeth it was lovely and sweet. Inn Deep was the other really good one which actually came equal first for me in terms of scores, but I had to give it to The Left Bank just because of the extra effort they put in.
The actual winner of the day was Tribeca/​Smoak — some people in our group really liked it, I didn’t and I was surprised they won. The Left Bank was 2^nd, and Inn Deep was 3^rd.
It was a really fun day. Pretty much every stop had gotten into the spirit of it with drinks specials, decorations and cheesy music. It was nice to wander around the west end and I would totally recommend doing it next year.

My first time doing an event that seems to have become a bit of a Glasgow institution. I believe it’s being going for several years now and tickets sell out exceptionally fast. This year I was lucky enough to get a ticket and take on the Mexican Glaswegian chilli eating crawl extravaganza.
The premise is straightforward enough. You pay a tenner a ticket and journey along a route that takes you to ten pub/café/restaurant’s. At each place you get a small portion of chilli and you score it on taste, texture and originality. By the end you will have a favourite and you submit your score card to Lupe pintos deli where it is added to all the other scores handed in that day.
Throughout the day you will pass people in full fancy dress, wearing sombreros or wrestlers masks and even be serenaded by a full on mariachi band. People really get into the spirit of the day and it’s what helps to make it such a great event.
This year smoak at TriBeCa won which being honest is not a result I agree with. For me leftbank, inn deep and hug and pint were all better. Leftbank was my favourite overall, but it seems I was out voted by my fellow Glaswegian Mexicans.
Good day out which I would recommend trying it you have not done it yet. Big thanks to Tracey for arranging the route and making sure we got round in good time. Trying every chilli and having a few beers along they route. Enjoyable day doing something completely different.

The was a fun event, despite the fact that only five of ten locations offered gluten free chili. Note to all: chili does not need gluten!
Of those I did get to try, my favorite was third place winner Inn Deep. I was unable to try the top two, Smoak (1) and Left Bank (2).
I enjoyed the pub crawl-​style event — most venues had a fiesta vibe, with music and drink specials to complement the event. Lots of people were out in costume and a wandering mariachi band added to the fun day.
It was a good day of chili eating and margarita drinking!