Glasgow Restaurant Guide

Opening August 2021 in Glasgow's Cathedral House building, from Darby's head chef Dean Parker and his wife Anna; Italian small and sharing plates from a low-waste kitchen.

This Merchant City legend, with its custom-made furniture and stained-glass window, still wins a good number of nominations, particularly for brunch, and it’s often held out as a “casual and relaxed” landmark of local life with “always reliable” cooking and a “good, somewhat unusual wine list”. One sceptical report, though, has some ring of truth to it: “Long held up as a Glasgow highlight, it can now seem a bit dull. The food is absolutely fine, but without any particular interest. But the room, with its wooden furniture seemingly made from driftwood and fallen trees, is great!”

“I’ve been back more than 40 times, which says it all!”. These “truly excellent” and “really buzzy” pizza-stops in Glasgow’s city centre and West End are “really hard to beat” – the dough uses both yeast and sourdough and is proved for 48 hours for maximum Neapolitan-style authenticity. In August 2019 they announced a new sibling, Sugo, to launch in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Herald Building, specialising in fresh homemade pasta.

Opened in summer 2019 after the survey’s conclusion, Glasgow’s outpost of the ever-growing brasserie chain (in the works since 2017), is housed in a former Nationwide bank and features over 220 covers, plus two bars, a private dining space and ‘Parisian-style outdoor seating’.

“Such an institution” and “a true throwback to the 1930s” – even reporters who hadn’t visited in a quarter of a century were delighted to find that “little has changed” at this “timeless” dining room, where “the menu is biased towards seafood and, where the genuine Art Deco interior (created in 1935 by the same craftsmen who fitted out the Queen Mary) is a joy to behold”. Naturally the big draw is the room itself, but the food is well-rated too.

“Simply cooked” but “superb” Scottish seafood has long been the hallmark of Derek Marshall’s “consistent and wonderful”, if fairly low-key basement veteran in the city-centre: one of Glasgow’s best destinations for a high quality meal, but one with a “friendly atmosphere and reasonable prices” to boot.

“In a quiet Glasgow backstreet” (between the M8 and the SECC) and with an “unassuming” exterior, Ryan James’s “splendidly preserved institution” is one of the city’s oldest venues, complete with an “unexpectedly beautiful interior” (of the tartan-clad, vaguely baronial variety) lined with booths – a “fine destination that has maintained standards for many years” (especially for Scots seafood).

Cail Bruich’s new sibling occupies narrow premises with a mezzanine in Finnieston. It’s a bar as much as it is a place to eat, but has a serious food offering too: sharing plates of locally-supplied meat, fish, vegetables, shellfish, cheese and charcuterie. It opened in July 2019, after the survey had concluded, but critiques in the Scottish press are very upbeat.

Famous for its “fabulous-quality, carefully seasoned Indian dishes” – this West End institution “can be loud and… well Glaswegian, but the food is delicious”. “Prices are modest”, too, and there’s a “great view of Kelvingrove Museum from the window”.

“Adventurous taste combinations, very consistently delivered” via a good selection of “innovative small plates” score top marks last year for this Finnieston gastropub. Service is “lovely too” and the only gripe is that some seats are “a wee bit cramped”.

It’s “very crowded”, but there’s no knocking the “consistently fabulous fish and seafood” (which comes at “amazing” prices) at this idiosyncratic Finnieston fixture. You eat either counter-style at the front, or at a “closely-packed table” in one of the many nooks at the back or in the small upstairs section.

Now in its 26th year, Colin Clydesdale’s well-known local operates on the principle ‘think global, eat local’, serving an eclectic selection of dishes on world food principles using Scottish ingredients in its basement restaurant. Many regulars just go for a burger or other bar snacks in the popular ground floor bar, however (same kitchen).

Peter McKenna & Ivan Stein’s stripped-back Finnieston venture has made waves since opening six years back; “the cooking (modern British) is perhaps more serious here than the bare-brick walls décor suggests” (being “full of interesting small dishes, but not too ‘out there’”). In fact, more than one reporter notes “it deserves a Michelin star” such is the quality of the food but – perhaps as prices are not supercheap – stops short of awarding it full marks for value.

“Still with a buzz about it” – this sprawling West End legend is fast approaching its 40th anniversary and still manages to be both “different and classical”. Its many fans agree that it’s “wonderful for both food and environment”, not to mention its bible of a wine list and “awe-inspiring malt whisky selection” (of which “the staff have a remarkably broad and deep knowledge”). Now run by Colin Clydesdale, son of founder Ronnie, the ‘Chip’ has a more casual brasserie upstairs.

“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.