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This warm and welcoming old merchant's house in the heart of the Merchant City offers excellent Scottish food, a barbecue menu, and a lively charming bar area. On Wednesday or Saturday traditional musicians gather for an impromptu session in the bar; the rest of the time there is just conversation. The vibe is friendly, particularly in winter when there is an open fire in the grate; there's also an outdoor terrace in summer.
16–18 Blackfriars St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 1PE, Scotland
Known For
- Classy Scottish pub with rooms upstairs to stay the night
- Traditional Scottish food with a French twist including saddle of Highland deer
- Convivial bar atmosphere
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Anything but a shack, this intimate dining room has heavy wooden tables and chairs, an elegantly ornate ceiling, and a bar so shiny and inviting that it seems to almost insist you have a drink. The food comes from the sea—oysters, lobster, and squid—and you can have your choice served iced, grilled, roasted, or battered. The fish varies daily according to the day's catch, and only local and sustainably sourced Scottish seafood is featured. The fish sandwich and crab cakes are favorites on the lunch menu. In the evening, mussels and scallops draw the eye. The buzz of conversation and the perfectly modulated music create the right atmosphere. Reservations are essential.
1114 Argyle St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G3 8TD, Scotland
Known For
- Local and sustainably sourced Scottish seafood
- Art deco decor
- Reservations essential
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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Thick wooden tables, tapestries, and soft candlelight make you feel at home in the comfortable dining room of this atmospheric haven serving an intriguing mix of Indian and Persian fare. A family-owned restaurant, it's all about healthy, flavorful cooking; chicken tikka masala in a yogurt sauce or lamb korma with coconut cream and fruit or the Persian shashlik are good picks. Accompany your meal with bowls of basmati saffron rice and fluffy naan bread. You could start with a shared plate of Indian starters for three or four people. This popular place continues to win award after award; reserve ahead on Friday and Saturday.
109 Candleriggs, Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 1NP, Scotland
Known For
- Indian-Persian fusion cuisine
- Wide-ranging menu
- Weekend reservations a must
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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The brand known as Mother India really covers four adjacent restaurants rather than just one location, all highlighting small plates of impressive Indian cuisine. What makes this place across from Kelvingrove Art Gallery so popular is the combination of high-quality cooking and an extensive range of tastes, from the vegetarian dal to spicy ginger chicken. The style is casual, although the interior is an opulent mix of dark wood, heavy cloth napkins, and luxury silverware. It's usually crowded, so don't expect much intimacy, but do expect the finest Indian food the country has to offer.
1355 Argyle St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G3 8AD, Scotland
Known For
- Casual small-plate Indian food
- No reservations, which means there are crowds and usually some wait
- BYOB policy
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations not accepted
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$$ | City Centre |
West-coast shellfish farmers own this sleek restaurant and feed their customers incredibly succulent oysters, scallops, and mussels. The pots of mussels, steamed to order and served with any of a number of sauces, are revelatory, and scallops, prawns, and oysters come together in a wonderful seafood pasta. The surroundings are simple but stylish, with white walls, cool ceramic tiles, wood floors, and wooden furniture. Another plus is the staff, who are helpful and unpretentious. This is where locals take their favorite out-of-towners, including for lunchtime specials and pretheater menus that are a very good value.
157 Hope St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G2 2UQ, Scotland
Known For
- Delicious seafood pasta and chowder
- Famed Queenie oysters
- Mussels Moroccan style
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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This eatery has completely rethought Asian cuisine, taking Chinese, Malaysian, and Thai cooking in new directions and using sauces that are fragrant and spicy but never overpowering. Subdued lighting, neutral tones, and dark wood create a calm setting for specialties including superb dim sum and crisp wontons filled with delicious combinations of crab, shrimp, and chicken. Leave room for the main dishes, especially the tiger prawns and scallops in a sauce made from dried shrimp and fish. Familiar dishes like beef in black bean sauce are astonishingly delicate and aromatic. The vegetarian menu is adventurous, too, and the cocktails are captivating.
191 Hope St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G2 2UL, Scotland
Known For
- Creative Asian-fusion food
- Great cocktails
- Excellent dim sum
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A 19th-century inn turned into an elegant restaurant, the Finnieston retains the dark wood and narrow cubicles of earlier times, but today it is one of the new high-quality seafood restaurants that have transformed the faded Finnieston area into a fashionable district. The menu allows you to choose the fish and how it is prepared, the sauce, and salad or vegetable sides. You can also eat in the bar, but wherever you sit, choose from the enormous menu of fine cocktails including 15 variants on gin and tonic. Lobster Tuesday offers half a lobster and a glass of champagne at a good price. Booking ahead is highly recommended.
1125 Argyle St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G3 8ND, Scotland
Known For
- Impressive seafood cuisine
- Stunning array of cocktails
- Comfy wooden booths
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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A welcome addition for East End diners, BAaD occupies a sprawling campus of spaces, including a stylish glass-roofed courtyard, a large beer garden split over two levels, several refurbished shipping containers, and a central courtyard space within the heart of Glasgow's original flea market, the Barras. The fashionable space hosts a series of pop-up kitchens, bringing various street food options to a crowd of trendy East End residents and visitors alike. The hipness of the venue is a reflection of the area's changing personality. With its long tables and airy atmosphere, the space was designed with sharing in mind, but there is also a more intimate balcony dining area.
54 Calton Entry, Glasgow, Glasgow City, G40 2SB, Scotland
Known For
- Excellent pop-up kitchens
- Stylish design
- Good selection of beers
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues.
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Originally built in 1827, this attractive hotel restaurant often has a piper by the door to greet hungry travelers ready for a Scottish setting and some Scottish fare. Tartan carpets, dark-wood paneling, and buck heads mounted on the walls set the mood, and the bar is a shrine to Robert Burns. The surrounding gardens overlook the Brig o' Doon as well as a small, rushing river. The food keeps to the Scottish theme: try panfried scallops with citrus butter to start, and venison casserole with juniper berries and creamed potatoes or the haggis with neeps and tatties (served with a dram) as a main course. There are several rooms for rent upstairs.
High Maybole Rd., Glasgow, Glasgow City, KA7 4PQ, Scotland
Known For
- Riverside location
- Scottish food and decor
- Great venison casserole
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An early arrival in the redeveloping Finnieston area, Butchershop occupies what was once a pub and overlooks the bowling greens in Kelvingrove Park. Modern, open, and airy, it preserves the sociable atmosphere of its predecessor, though it is now a quality steak house offering a range of cuts from rump to T-bone. There's a well-priced, popular Sunday-roast menu, as well as good-value lunch and pretheater menus.
1055 Sauchiehall St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G3 7UD, Scotland
Known For
- Steaks of every variety
- Good value fixed-price menus
- Publike atmosphere
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With Iberian flair, this lively basement eatery located on the cobbles of Cresswell Lane is beautifully decorated using Spanish tiles throughout. The first tapas place to make an impact in Glasgow, it has been followed by others (and has opened a second location in the City Centre) but remains one of the most successful. This is an ideal way to dine with friends: sharing the dishes as they arrive and as you down some good Spanish wine. (Rioja is always a reliable choice.) Booking ahead is strongly advised.
2 Cresswell La., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8AA, Scotland
Known For
- Nice Spanish wine selection
- Lively but intimate atmosphere
- Delicious paella
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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Occupying what was once the tea market, this trendy café draws a style-conscious crowd and can justly claim to have launched the dining renaissance of the Merchant City. The café opens early, serving its wonderful signature breakfasts, and the main menu is varied but resolutely Scottish; don't miss the scorched mackerel, the roast rack of Dornoch lamb, or the smoked haddie and Stornaway black pudding. Wooden tables and chairs crafted by Scottish artist Tim Stead are so impressively built, it's hard to believe they're inanimate. The bar on the second floor is more intimate, much less busy, and lets you order from the same menu—but that should remain a well-kept secret.
64 Albion St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 1NY, Scotland
Known For
- Stornaway black pudding with mushrooms
- Unique, locally made furniture
- Intimate second-floor bar offering the same menu
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$$ | East End |
This amazing Italian delicatessen and restaurant is located on Alexandra Parade, one of the East End's busiest thoroughfares. The beloved spot has been family-run since 1982, when it first opened in the heart of Dennistoun. It can be difficult to get a table because the place is so popular, especially on Sundays.
620 Alexandra Parade, Glasgow, Glasgow City, G31 3BT, Scotland
Known For
- Brilliant selection of meats and cheeses
- Delicious Sunday lunches
- Lots of crowds
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Inside what was once the mansion of tobacco merchant George Buchanan, the Corinthian Club includes two bars, a nightclub, and a casino in its maze of rooms. At the heart of the building, the main restaurant, the steak-and-seafood-focused Brasserie makes a dramatic first impression with its glass dome and statues. You can dine here, take afternoon tea, or sip a cocktail in one of the small rooms that divide this huge space, but don't expect to find a quiet table in a corner.
191 Ingram St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 1DA, Scotland
Known For
- Extravagant central restaurant
- Range of menus and spaces
- Spectacular columns under the roof
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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$$ | City Centre |
Greek cuisine was not well represented in Glasgow until Halloumi arrived to fill the gap. Its large windows onto the street invite you in to a simply decorated interior with white walls and wooden tables, where you will find a reassuringly familiar menu of small plates, or meze. Beautifully cooked moussaka and souvlaki make their appearance along with slightly more expensive swordfish and octopus dishes. Like many other restaurants in the city, it has embraced the small plate/sharing menu in the Greek meze tradition.
161 Hope St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G2 2UQ, Scotland
Known For
- Shared small plates of traditional Greek meze
- Excellent moussaka
- Good lunch deal
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Glasgow's first Vietnamese canteen offers a different style of dining, which is apparent from the moment you walk through the door and see the rustic setting, low tables, and stools. This is classic street food (all cooked on the premises and arriving when it is ready) and choices include blood sausage with razor clam salad, hot-and-sour fish soup, and plenty of pho, the fragrant Vietnamese soup with noodles and sliced meat. There are no starters or mains as such—couples are advised to share three dishes. The seating may take a little getting used to, but it's also part of the experience.
8 Ruthven La., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 9BG, Scotland
Known For
- Excellent pho
- Street food in small plates
- Organic tofu options
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$$ | West End |
A welcome addition to the West End dining scene, this trendy and accomplished restaurant has a thorough menu of Southeast Asian small plates that allow diners to mix and match different dishes. Founded by the team behind Finniston's popular Ox and Finch restaurant, Ka Pao opened its doors to high expectations from local foodies and absolutely did not disappoint.
26 Vinicombe St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8BE, Scotland
Known For
- High quality local ingredients
- Fried whole fish
- Spicy and inventive flavors
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The friendly staff at this huge, popular Cantonese eatery guide you through the dishes here, including barbecued duck, deep-fried wontons with prawns, and more challenging dishes like pork with jellyfish or king prawn with salted egg. On most days you will see local Chinese families seated at the huge round tables enjoying the dim sum for which the restaurant is rightly famous. This isn't the place to come for quiet intimacy, but it's good food in a lively atmosphere.
417–419 Sauchiehall St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G2 3LG, Scotland
Known For
- Glasgow's best dim sum
- Authentic Cantonese cuisine
- Lively family atmosphere
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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This tiny, intimate restaurant serves only the freshest ingredients, superbly prepared, on a constantly changing menu. Halibut is served with choucroute and a passion-fruit dressing—a typically unpredictable meeting of flavors. The pork belly with hispi cabbage is tantalizing as is the red mullet with mussel broth. Desserts are equally seductive. Set-price lunch menus are both excellent and a good value. There's room just for 40 diners so the result is cozy, but curiously it doesn't feel too cramped. It's best to book ahead, especially on weekends.
16 Byres Rd., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G11 5JY, Scotland
Known For
- Excellent set menus
- Surprising flavor combinations
- Cozy interior, so reservations are a good idea
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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Close to Glasgow University, this popular bar and restaurant attracts a more mature student crowd. It's an airy spot with high ceilings, leather sofas, and wood floors, and the specialty is good, eclectic international food at reasonable prices. It covers the spectrum: breakfast, brunch, small plates, lunch, and dinner. The extensive menu is impressively varied, including Goan chicken curry, Vietnamese soup, harissa halloumi, and even fish-and-chips. This is a relaxed, unhurried place, whose casual air belies its excellent cooking.
33–35 Gibson St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8NU, Scotland
Known For
- Delicious small plates of varied cuisine
- Casual atmosphere
- Tasty brunch
