SMAC

«I hereby pledge allegiance to all things macaroni regardless of creed, consistency or topping. So help me SMAC.»
All good events should have a motto, and this one has it down.
I had my first SMAC experience this year and found the evening incredibly entertaining and a really quirky way to eat an often overlooked food choice.
We were seated at a table which was perhaps a little to hidden away, but it had it’s benefits being right next to the table with the food. Nom, nom, nom.
After pledging our allegiance to all things SMAC, we were give leave to join the fastest forming que I’ve experienced (obviously the hardcore SMAC goers knew the drill.) We then got a plate with the three main types of macaroni and while they were all of the same base, each portion had it’s own unique flavour and the portions were more than generous.
But enough room was saved for the illustrious mystery mac, which in our case turned out to be bacon frazzles flavour. I can only say that I was glad the portions of the mystery mac were significantly smaller, while it was fun to try, the aftertaste was quite unpleasant and lasted for a long time after the event.
I would perhaps like to see the macaroni a little less over cooked as it detracted from the three main dishes which I rather enjoyed. The presentation could also be given a little thought as the plate of food was literally just one heap of three different dishes, which made choosing one dish as a winner a little more challenging.
Despite this I had a wonderful evening and would very much like to go again. I would also whole heartedly recommend truing this event, but remember places go fast so if you want to go, get your places quickly.

‘I hereby pledge allegiance to all things macaroni regardless of creed, consistency or topping. So help me SMAC.’
And so it was that with a swift pledge to the SMAC allegiance, we were joining the ranks of the Scottish Macaroni Appreciation Club. Meeting monthly in Sloans and serving up four different servings of macaroni, they’re mad for the mac. Sloans is just beautiful and, as a ‘Weegie, I’m embarrassed to say it’s taken me this long to pay a visit. I’m sure I’ll be back!
So allegiances pledged, we were presented with three macs to begin; the legendary, the goats cheese and asparagus, and the pancetta and tomato. Unfortunately, I’m really not a fan of goats cheese so I stuck to the other two, my favourite being the pancetta and tomato. The macs were tasty and generous in portion and if you wanted a little more there was some going spare for second portions.
We were all very excited for the mystery mac and were a tad disappointed when there was limited availability. It seemed like they had made more of the others and were rationing portions of our final taste of mac. So, the portion of the bacon and frazzles bacon crisps (ooooh?) mac was teeny tiny. It wasn’t to our tastes, so after trying, we were thankful for the small portion.
Whilst I’ve had my fix of SMAC, it was definitely a fun and different way to spend the night in Glasgow. A must-​try for mac-​aholics!
PS. If you’re quick on
, you can get discount tickets like we did.

I purchased reduced price tickets for this on itison a couple of months ago as I had seen it advertised before and thought it sounded fun. I am not the biggest mac n cheese lover but my boyfriend is so I thought we could go for his benefit.
We arrived quite early and were told to go upstairs where we got drinks from the bar. We sat down with some prosecco (which was yummy) and waited at our table which we could tell we would be sharing. I like the idea of sharing with strangers as it is a good opportunity to meet other people and it is something different.
When everyone arrived we had to all stand up with our wee mac n cheese cards and pledge alliegence to mac n cheese. This was very cheesy (excuse the pun!) but it was good fun.
We were to have 3 different mac n cheeses and a mystery mac. Our were the legendery Sloans mac, chilli mac and primavera mac. We all had to queue up to be given huge spoonfuls of each kind on our plate. I was slightly scared by the size of the mountain of food! The chilli mac was delicious, a bit like chilli con carne with a crumb topping which was good against all the mush of mac n cheese. The primavera was nice. bit of asparagus and other green veg to add a bit of texture. I felt the legendary mac was a bit too saucy and wet. I couldn’t even finish half my plate and I didn’t think I could face mac n cheese again for a few months. However they then brought out the haggis pakora mac! I took a wee bit but thankfully it wasn’t very good so I never ate it. It was basically the legendary mac with pakora on top. and not very well made pakora.
I was happy that you also got chips and salad as a side with the mac because you definitely need some different textures to go with the pasta.
I would recommend going but I don’t think il be back for a while!

Well after missing July and having to wait until August for my first taste of SMAC, I’ll never get tired of the puns you can associate with this, I was well and truly desperate, missing an exciting night of European football in the process.
I love mac, so to go somewhere you can get 4 lots of mac in one go is amazing. The plate and portions looked small, maybe because I’d starved myself but in reality it was more than enough.
The three macs were chilli mac, traditional mac with chilli mince through it, legendary mac, Sloans version of traditional mac and cheese, and primavera. The primavera being mac with some delicious vegetables like asparagus, spring onion and peas through it.
The chilli mac was great and the primavera was unsual but also tasty. Sloans need to up their game though, if you’re going to call something legendary I’m expecting parts of my body to tingle when I eat it. They didn’t, not to say that the legendary mac wasn’t good, it just wasn’t great and I have most definitely had better in other Glasgow establishments not holding themselves out to produce legendary mac.
The mystery mac was haggis pakora, I love haggis pakora but I feel they missed a trick here as haggis through the mac, like they did with the chilli, would have made it so much better. Instead it just looked like a half hearted last minute attempt at something different. The haggis didn’t permeate into the maccy goodness and it really was just like eating two separate things. From the host asking for suggestions on potential future macs at the end I gather they are running out of original ideas for the mystery mac but I don’t think adding a non related product to the top of regular mac really counts as an idea.
The chillie mac won the nigh, as you vote at the end, and with good reason as was it not only unusual but tasty too, if only they had done that with the haggis.
All in all a good event, doing the pledge at the start is fun, if a little CHEEESY (waaaaaay). I had a good night and will come back, but with the «legendary» mac being a staple and the unpredictability of what you’re going to get I’m not sure I’ll be making it a monthly occurrence.

Aye, so I’m off for a SMAC night then. There’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever say. Yes, this was an evening of the Scottish Macaroni Appreciation Club held monthly within the beautiful venue of Sloans.
I had noticed SMAC a good few months ago on Twitter. I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, an actual club for appreciating good mac ‘n’ cheese. Oh hell yeah! I wanted to go over the last few months but the dates always ended up clashing with my busy life. I had already planned to attend the June event but fortunately before I paid Briony C. put forward a Unilocal Edinburgh Vs Glasgow SMAC night out. So this was to be the ultimate mac challenge.
I thought we might have been in the ball room but we were in a smaller, still beautiful room, upstairs. There was many mac lovers so the room was a mighty squeeze. The Unilocal crew took up the biggest table, ready waiting, anticipating what kinda night lay before us.
We all had to stand to pledge to the mac, right hand in the air with wee SMAC cards in the other, with the written pledge to read out. It was certainly up there with my many weird life experiences.
At each end of the room were trays of 3 different kinds of mac ready for us to try. Normally at tasting sections I find that the portions are small, well this was mega mac portion size, you will not be disappointed. There was the legendary mac, pea and ham mac and a four cheese mac. There was lots of queuing and squeezing so I decided to hang fire and go up last, which I’m glad I did, I got served straight away and there was still plenty of the macs left.
They were all delicious but my fav was the legendary and the four cheese a close second. After struggling to devour so much mac, we were presented with a mystery mac called the Macanesca based on the puttanesca dish. To me it was more of a normal tomato pasta dish, I think the mac was lost within the ingredients and also I’m not a fan of olives and capers.
A vote was held and the four cheese was the landslide winner. Sadly the Macanesca didn’t do well, so I didn’t feel too bad.
The only downfall was the room and it’s tinyness and extreme hotness. Unfortunately they couldn’t open the windows, so it was a hot mac experience. This event was sold out, probably us Unilocalers helped with that, and it’s maybe not as usually crowded. The event didn’t go on as long as I thought. It did feel it was over quite quickly and most people had left by 8.30pm.
It was a great wee night to meet even more Edinburgh Unilocalers and hopefully we’ll see more of them soon. Well, all I can say it’s definitely an experience and you should try at least once. Thanks again to Briony C. for arranging for us mac lovin’ Unilocalers.

i have many loves in life but one of the greatest is for an awesome plate of macaroni cheese! so when i suddenly had my wednesday night plans cancelled and nikki a. told me there was a ticket still left for this event i was super super excited! an event solely based around all that is awesome about macaroni cheese, could there be a better night out???
hopping on a train with nikki a and alex j we arrived just before the event and headed upstairs to get our seats with the rest of the keen Unilocalers. the event was held in the function room above Sloans and it was a really lovely seating, all old cornicing and big windows overtaken by about 50 or so eager mac and cheese lovers!
we were introduced to the event and then asked to recite the SMAC pledge. after which we were let loose to the two tables were the mac and cheese was being served. the queue was a wee bit disorderly, but i managed to get a heaping plate of the three pastas on offer. the first was their original mac and cheese (i asked to make sure i got a crispy topping bit), next was a four cheese, and lastly a ham and pea option.
returning to my seat with a HUGE plate of food i dug in! all of them were delicious, of particular delicious note was the four cheese which was the overwhelming favourite for the evening. i was super pleased with the enormous portions that we were given as these people obviously understood the mac and cheese love! also we were invited to go up for seconds which i passed on as i was stuffed from my first portion.
the night concluded with the mystery mac revealed and served. it was a taken on puttanesca sauce and while some people liked it i just wasn’t a fan. mac and cheese shouldn’t have tomato sauce in it… i feel like there should be rules against this. so most of my fourth pasta went untouched sadly.
after the last pasta was served and eaten by most the host for the evening asked us to vote which was the favourite. of course this was the four cheese that was AMAZING!!! which she then confirmed would be added to their menu as a special next month. sadly this was the end of the night and most people starting leaving after that.
however, it was an awesome night! loads of good mac and cheese, some fries, some salad, and lovely Unilocalers! all for the low price of £7.95! i’m definitely looking forward to my next SMAC visit!!!

SMAC, or the Scottish Macaroni Appreciation Club to those who think we’re all doing heroin, is a monthly meeting held in Sloans, just off Argyle street. As you can imagine, it is a large meeting of food lovers chewing down on cheesy, delicious macaroni. Could anything be better?
On this occasion, Unilocal Glasgow and Unilocal Edinburgh combined for a Unilocal Scotland meeting of macaroni lovers. The 12 of us had 4 different types of macaroni; the classic, pea and ham, 4 cheese and the mystery mac n cheese; macanesca (macaroni in the style of puttanesca with olives, tomatoes, capers and chilli). I strongly, strongly do not advise coming here unless you are absolutely starving; you’ll be leaving full.
The winning Mac n cheese of the evening was the 4 cheese; the one I voted for! ‘Twas a fun night, and was lovely meeting the Edinburgh Unilocalers. Now it’s their turn to invite us to a fab event! ;)

There is something strangely satisfying about sitting in a room crammed with people… who are all there to eat macaroni & cheese… This is what SMAC is all about!
After pledging allegiance to the SMAC… we were let loose on 3 different types of mac with the promise of a «mystery mac» to come after…
Our menu this evening was Sloan’s Legendary Mac, 4 Cheese Mac and a Cured Ham and Pea Mac… all thrown together on a dinner plate for our eating pleasure… which was fab except they all kinda mixed in together and I had a hard time telling the Legendary Mac from the 4 Cheese. alas. it was all super tasty and gobbled up with no troubles… tho I may have resorted to ketchup (controversial!) but I needed something to cut through the richness of the cheesiness…
The Mystery Mac was a «Macanesca»… where macaroni met puttanesca… which for me was more like pasta with macaroni rather than mac & cheese… not being a huge fan of olives probably didn’t help matters either…
End of the evening, the 4 cheese was the overwhelming favourite and will be going on their menu.
The buffet style serving of the food was a bit of a shambles as the tables were packed really close together, making it super hard to navigate a) to form an orderly queue and b) to return to your seat with a full plate of mac & cheese!
All in all a super fun night!
Nice to meet some of the Glasgow Unilocalers too!