Arden Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “A little jewel” – Masterchef competitor Julie Lin made her debut in Shawlands on the Southside in 2017 with this 16-seater serving fabulous and highly affordable Malaysian scoff. She also now has a pop-up at SWG3’s popular Acid Bar diner in Finnieston.

Occupying an interesting looking Edwardian landmark (built in 1914 as a tram stop), this “classic Italian” wins praise for its “well-cooked Italian food” (pizza, pasta, plus classic Italian staple dishes). “It can be crowded, but is very friendly”. It generated national headlines in 2023 (including in the fun-filled Sun), when owner Marco Giannasi ‘secretly’ sold the business to waiter Alex Matheson and his wife Jen Doherty (although Giannasi and his wife still own the freehold). Top Tip – “good value lunchtime offers”.

“A clear recommendation when visiting Glasgow” – Ryan James’ comfortable, old-school fixture occupies an extremely characterful Victorian building (the site is thought to be Glasgow’s oldest culinary establishment) filled with “awesome antiques”. The “very good” and “not overpriced” dishes draw on the rich Scottish larder (and there’s a “separate vegetarian menu, so worth a visit if you’ve got veggies in your group!”). RIP its West End sibling Two Fat Ladies in the City, which was still listed on the website as we went to press, but has been put up for leasehold since 2022.

“The Gannet is towards the top end of Glasgow’s gastronomy scene” – a chilled Scotch fine dining venture, in Finnieston, whose “superb food, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian” has won it a firm reputation over the past decade – although “it comes at a price of course” (tasting menu £90 per person, and multi-course lunch nudging £40 per person).

John Macleod’s original venue – this quirkily laid out Finnieston fixture is one of the best-known destinations on this foodie strip and you can eat either at the counter or in the small warren of seating areas. Reports this year still included some “outstanding” fish and seafood cookery but there was also the odd “disappointment” – perhaps the strain of managing two places at once?

Glasgow chef Nico Simeone’s distinctive concept has grown into a national chain with 11 restaurants (including Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) in just six years, offering a quick-changing succession of themed six-course menus for under £50 a head. It’s widely seen as “fantastic value” and has a sizeable fanbase amongst reporters (“every six weeks, the menu renews and for me, it is something to look forward to…”; “we simply love it and we’ve yet to miss a menu!” – “the Tokyo menu was so good we went back a second time”). Only a tiny few say, “you can feel you’re on a conveyor belt with lots of upsells”; or that the whole thing is “a dystopia of where restaurants will evolve”.

Home-style Punjabi dishes arrive in “astonishing quantities and variety” at Monir & Smeena Mohammed’s West End curry institution, which has provided “thoroughly decent and tasty meals” for nearly 35 years.

“Tasty tapas-style food” to share at “very reasonable prices”, plus “laid-back and friendly service” draw a “great crowd” to Jonathan MacDonald’s “vibrant and funky venue” in Kelvingrove. Top Tip – “try ordering 2 or 3 dishes at a time, as they are brought out as soon as they are ready and arrive in a random order”.

This two-year-old Finnieston venture is the debut as patron from Graeme Cheevers, winning instant acclaim for his “excellent cooking” – he’s a “fantastic chef, I’ve followed him from his days at Martin Wishart’s Cameron House” (he also ran the kitchen at the Isle of Eriska Hotel). “The fish courses are particularly good” and there’s a “generous and well chosen accompanying wine flight”.

This “treat of a seafood restaurant” in a centrally located basement is thriving after 25 years on the strength of chef-patron Derek Marshall’s “tasty and generally faultless” cooking – no wonder “there has been little attempt to change the basic formula and experiment with new techniques and flavours”. Top Menu Tip – the famous “fish soup is superb”.

2023 Review: Shuttered in September 2020 and marked as ‘Permanently Closed’ on Google, this city-centre fish and seafood institution is one of the city’s best-known restaurants thanks in large part to its Art Deco interior, created in 1935 by the same craftsmen who fitted out the Queen Mary. According to an August 2022 report in the Glasgow Evening Times, it will re-open… but no-one seems to know when.

With the “lovely decor” replicated from the Theatreland icon for which they are branded, Richard Caring’s “always buzzy” spin-offs have found a gigantic audience nationally. But “these places live off the name for sure” and “it’s the ambience that keeps them going” – while fans say the food is “reliable”, more sceptical types dismiss it as “conveyor-belt cooking”; and say service is merely so-so. Some branches are better than others: best in London is ‘Chelsea Garden’, which has the same “distinctly average” standards as the others, but reliably offers an “uplifting” atmosphere and “great people watching” (and “on a sunny afternoon there is literally NO WHERE ELSE TO BE but its large garden. HEAVEN!!”). Also worth mentioning is the outlet by The Thames in SE1: “excellent views of Tower Bridge”, “even better if outside in summer and convenient for The Bridge Theatre”.

There’s a “wonderful buzz” around Sugo owner Paul Stevenson’s city-centre pizza joint – also with a West End spin-off; cooked in artisan-built, wood-fired ovens imported from Naples, the pizzas are “exceptional”, while a “limited menu ensures quality” – and is rounded out, in any case, by “always amazing specials” (e.g. pancetta, roasted violet potatoes and fior di latte).

“Continuing its outstanding reputation in the West End, Stravaigin has been given a recent facelift, which adds greatly to the ambience” – this thirty-year-old landmark of the West End was sold to new owners the Metropolitan Pub Company in 2022 and their investment is breathing new life into this Glaswegian foodie icon. Both The Scotsman and The Times reviewed it after the change and according to Rosalind Erskine of the former, “the food and drink… is a lot like the new look, it’s a refresh but still recognisable for what it always was, which will be a comfort to regulars and new visitors alike”.

This large, rambling West End institution was an early-days pioneer of ‘Modern Scottish’ cuisine and “still represents great Scottish food and character”, making it a “fantastic setting for a special occasion at any age”. Owned since summer 2022 by Greene King, the UK’s largest pub group, it was founded in 1971 by Ronnie Clydesdale, who taught himself to cook while on all-night sentry duty during national service. It quickly became “the first Glasgow restaurant at a standard which you would accept in London”, and after Ronnie’s death in 2010 was run for a dozen years by his son Colin.

“Just a home from home” for its many long-term fans – this Merchant City institution (est 1979) provides a cosy setting, characterised by its paneled walls and custom-made furniture (by Tim Stead). The fare is straightforward rather than of any huge aspiration, but it makes for an affordable destination.