Glasgow Restaurants

Glasgow’s vibrant restaurant culture is constantly renewing itself. Some of Britain’s best-known chefs have opened kitchens here, including Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi. More recently, the city has responded enthusiastically to the small-plate and sharing-platter trends, but there are still plenty of fine-dining options on the one hand, and steak houses and burger places on the other. The city continues to present the best that Scotland has to offer: grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, wild seafood, venison, duck, and goose, not to mention superb fruits and vegetables. The growing emphasis on organic food is reflected on menus that increasingly provide detailed information about the source of their ingredients. Around the city, an explosion of coffee shops offer artisanal macchiatos and mochas.

You can eat your way around the world in Glasgow. A new generation of Italian restaurants serves updated versions of classic Italian dishes. Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani foods, longtime favorites, are now more varied and sophisticated, and Thai and Japanese restaurants have become popular. Spanish-style tapas are now quite common, and the small-plate trend has extended to every kind of restaurant. Seafood restaurants have moved well beyond the fish-and-chips wrapped in newspaper that were always a Glasgow staple, as langoustines, scallops, and monkfish appear on menus with ever more unusual accompaniments. And Glasgow has an especially good reputation for its vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

Smoking isn't allowed in any enclosed space in Scotland, but more restaurants have placed tables outside under awnings during the warmer summer months, some of which permit smoking.

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  • 1. Babbity Bowster

    $$

    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
    0141-552–5055

    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
  • 2. Cail Bruich

    $$$$

    A Gaelic phrase that means "to eat well", the restaurant known as Cail Bruich certainly lives up to its name as evidenced by its many awards, including a coveted Michelin star (currently the only eatery in Glasgow with one). Run by two brothers, the ambitious and innovative menu makes use of local, high-quality Scottish ingredients, but it's really the delicate and clever cooking style that takes the menu to higher heights. Tasting menus of 5 or 7 courses are available (with vegetarian alternatives also available on request). 

    725 Great Western Rd., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8QX, Scotland
    0141-334–6265

    Known For

    • Glasgow's only Michelin star
    • Multicourse chef's table experience
    • Elevated Scottish cuisine

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Closed Sun. and Mon. No lunch Tues.–Thurs.
  • 3. Chaophraya

    $

    You can experience dining at its most sumptuous and elegant for a good price in the grand surroundings of what was the Glasgow Conservatoire, where today golden Buddhas sit comfortably beside busts of great composers. The delicate flavors of Thai cooking are at their finest here in the chef's wonderful signature Massaman lamb (and beef) curry, flavorsome Fisherman's Soup, and fusion dishes like scallops with black pudding. The ballroom, with its chandeliers and balconies, offers dining as theater; or you can book the tiny two-person table on a balcony looking down for an intimate experience.

    Nelson Mandela Pl., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 2LL, Scotland
    0141-320–0241

    Known For

    • Massaman lamb curry
    • Luxurious surroundings
    • Extensive menu of Thai classics

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
  • 4. Crabshakk

    $$

    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
    0141-334–6127

    Known For

    • Local and sustainably sourced Scottish seafood
    • Art deco decor
    • Reservations essential

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
  • 5. KoolBa

    $$

    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
    0141-552–2777

    Known For

    • Indian-Persian fusion cuisine
    • Wide-ranging menu
    • Weekend reservations a must

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
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  • 6. Mackintosh at the Willow

    $

    Miss Cranston's Willow Tea Rooms were the ultimate place to be seen in Glasgow in 1903, not only for the tasty tea but for the beautiful art nouveau decor and furniture designed by a young architect by the name of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The original tearooms have now been fully restored here, and you can lunch on traditional Scottish cuisine or take an elegant high tea in the exquisite surroundings of the Salon de Luxe.

    215–217 Sauchiehall St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G2 3EX, Scotland
    0141-204–1903

    Known For

    • Traditional high tea in a stunning location
    • Historic Mackintosh furniture
    • Great steak pie and haggis

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: No dinner
  • 7. Mother India's Cafe

    $$

    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
    0141-339–9145

    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
  • 8. Mussel Inn

    $$ | 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
    0141-572--1405

    Known For

    • Delicious seafood pasta and chowder
    • Famed Queenie oysters
    • Mussels Moroccan style

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
  • 9. Opium

    $$

    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
    0141-332–6668

    Known For

    • Creative Asian-fusion food
    • Great cocktails
    • Excellent dim sum
  • 10. Ox and Finch

    $$$

    This immensely popular restaurant shines at every level—service, presentation, and taste. The stripped-back, rustic decor encourages chatter and the sharing of the eclectic small plates that are its specialty. You choose perhaps two or three plates—larger than tapas and beautifully presented—from meat, fish, cold starters, vegetable, and vegan lists, which then arrive as they are ready. The chef combines colors and tastes in often surprising ways, like poached hake with red pepper and capers, lamb and bone marrow kofta, and confit duck with Thai yellow curry and rice. The desserts continue the theme with options like raspberry and olive oil millefeuille. The service is relaxed, friendly, and informative, and the wine list is enormous. Booking ahead is essential.

    920 Sauchiehall St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G3 7TF, Scotland
    0141-339–8627

    Known For

    • Small-plates dining with a wide variety of options
    • Relaxed and buzzy atmosphere
    • Huge wine list

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
  • 11. Stravaigin

    $$$

    For many years Stravaigin has maintained the highest quality of cooking, creating adventurous dishes that often combine Asian and local flavors and unusual marriages of ingredients. You can try the piri piri quail (the seasoning is used in Africa) or the restaurant's famous haggis and neeps (turnips), symbolizing its commitment to local produce. A wide variety of wines is available, including some uncommon ones. The café-bar is abuzz with conversation; the downstairs restaurant serves the same menu, but the environment is quieter.

    28 Gibson St., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8NX, Scotland
    0141-334–2665

    Known For

    • Buzzy bar with a quieter restaurant downstairs
    • Classic haggis and neeps
    • Daily-changing curry option
  • 12. The Finnieston

    $$

    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
    0141-222–2884

    Known For

    • Impressive seafood cuisine
    • Stunning array of cocktails
    • Comfy wooden booths

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
  • 13. Anchor Line

    $$$

    Occupying the former headquarters of the Anchor Line, whose ships sailed from Scotland to America, this bar and restaurant near George Square has been impressively refurbished to create the sense of fine dining aboard a luxury ocean liner. The menu reflects the voyage, too, including Scottish seafood and lamb, and a full range of steaks and their sauces to represent America. Wine and drinks follow the same transatlantic theme. Dine in the bar for more casual fare, such as salads and steak sandwiches. The slightly less expensive but equally elegant basement restaurant, the Atlantic, is French-themed. If you are visiting during the holiday season, the Christmas decorations here are a thing of beauty: the building's pillared facade is wrapped in lights, bows, and greenery, wtih the theme continuing into the luxurious interior. 

    12 St. Vincent Pl., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 2DH, Scotland
    0141-248--1434

    Known For

    • High-end cocktails
    • Luxurious fine dining
    • Steak of all kinds
  • 14. Barras Art and Design

    $$

    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
    0141-552–4931

    Known For

    • Excellent pop-up kitchens
    • Stylish design
    • Good selection of beers

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues.
  • 15. Bread Meats Bread

    $

    One of a new breed of burger joints that has emerged in the city, this casual spot with long wooden tables, stools, and benches is also a meeting place for coffee or a drink. The many creatively stuffed burgers and sauces are accompanied by different poutines and cheese toasties, a variation on the British classic known as rarebit. There's a good vegan and vegetarian menu, too. The West End branch is strategically located a block from Byres Road and the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

    701 Great Western Rd., Glasgow, Glasgow City, G12 8RA, Scotland
    0141-648–0399

    Known For

    • Creative and delicious burgers
    • Best poutines outside of Canada
    • Cheerful sociable vibe
  • 16. Brig o' Doon House

    $$

    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
    01292-442466

    Known For

    • Riverside location
    • Scottish food and decor
    • Great venison casserole
  • 17. Butchershop Bar and Grill

    $$

    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
    0141-339--2999

    Known For

    • Steaks of every variety
    • Good value fixed-price menus
    • Publike atmosphere
  • 18. Cafe Andaluz

    $$

    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
    0141-339–1111

    Known For

    • Nice Spanish wine selection
    • Lively but intimate atmosphere
    • Delicious paella

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: Reservations essential
  • 19. Café Gandolfi

    $$

    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
    0141-552–6813

    Known For

    • Stornaway black pudding with mushrooms
    • Unique, locally made furniture
    • Intimate second-floor bar offering the same menu
  • 20. Cafe Le Monde

    $

    This Italian-style café with alfresco seating for good weather serves lunch and smaller bites to a mainly day-visitor crowd. The ciabattas and soups are well made and substantial, if not enormously adventurous, and the staff is attentive.

    36 Newmarket St., Ayr, South Ayrshire, KA7 1LP, Scotland
    01292-611219

    Known For

    • Tasty soups and toasted cheese sandwiches
    • Good coffee
    • Outdoor seating

    Restaurant Details

    Rate Includes: No dinner

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