Merchant City, Mediterranean Restaurant Guide

“We went because Jay Rayner wrote [in 2023] Gloriosa made some of the best Focaccia in the UK and came away having had one of our meals of the year!”. This bright, Mediterranean-inspired café-style venue is very ‘in’ amongst Glasgow’s fooderati and scores well in our survey too as a consistent favourite, including of those from further afield. The sunny flavours of the Med infuse the eclectic dishes on an enticing menu which span pastas and small plates to a few more substantial dishes (for example a whole partridge). The Times’s Chitra Ramaswamy went doolally for it on her December 2024 visit, and agreed the aforementioned bread is “the best in the land… chewy yet light at its hole-ridden centre with a thick, undulating crust, crispy little rosemary needles, and the ideal amount of sea salt (ie almost too much)”.