Restaurants in Glasgow

Stravaigin

The name, meaning ‘to wander’, sums up this Glasgow stalwart’s ‘Think Global, Eat Local’ ethos, using good Scottish ingredients and serving them in imaginative ways. Alongside their famous haggis, fish suppers, and Scotch burger, dinners may find venison with wild mushrooms and whiskey sauce or bacon crumbed mussels.

Two Fat Ladies

This excellent seafood restaurant, one of four across Glasgow, resembles an old-fashioned brasserie, with wooden floors, banquettes and local art. With daily changing fish platters, it does classic dishes very well - whole lemon sole, sea bream, halibut, plaice fillets with brown shrimp, caper and parsley butter - without fuss but with panache. Its desserts, from sticky toffee pudding to crème brûlée, are also worth making room for.

The Butterfly and the Pig

With its whimsical mismatched furniture and shabby-chic feel, this bar and restaurant is a winner for quirky cocktails and simple hearty food including their signature ‘open’ fishcake dish served in a Le Creuset pan with potatoes, salmon, and a creamy egg oozing through. Next-door are The Butterfly and the Pig Tearooms where afternoon tea, homemade cakes, all-day breakfast, and lunch are on the menu.

Cafe Gandolfi

Occupying the offices of Glasgow’s old cheese market, Cafe Gandolfi was the first cafe to open in the revived Merchant City where tobacco and sugar merchants once had their warehouses. With sculpture-like furniture, stained glass and high ceilings, it’s a Glasgow institution serving excellent coffee, breakfasts, and bistro meals. The upstairs bar hosts local artists and acoustic musicians on the walls, while next door is the seafood restaurant Gandolfi Fish & Fish to Go.

Old Salty’s

In the lively neighbourhood of Finnieston, the so-called ‘new West End’ between the West End and the centre, this fish shop-cafe serves up abundant portions in a shabby-chic setting of old paintings and writers’ names on the walls. Serving hearty breakfasts, classic fish-and-chips, macaroni pie, old-school puddings, and a choice of either house red, house white or Peroni beer, this is old-fashioned dining with a dollop of Glasgow flair.

Mother India's Cafe

Glasgow is famous for its Indian restaurants but this award-winning tapas-style place, opposite Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, offers a fresh take on Asian cuisine. Dinners order a wide selection of small dishes to share, such as spiced haddock, aubergine fritters, chicken pakora, and chilli fish cakes. There’s also an extensive wine list. There are four restaurants located around the country, while not all of their diners accept bookings, its well worth queuing for.

Little Italy

Typical of many of Glasgow’s Italian cafes with its stylish interior of colourful tiles and walls lined with olive oil bottles and packets of fancy pasta, this always-busy Byers Road institution specialises in delicious, extra-generous portions of pizzas, pasta, salads, and focaccia sandwiches in an informal Italian cafe-bar-pizzeria setting. Its coffee and hot chocolate come highly recommended as does the classic Italian San Pellegrino fizzy orange/lemon drink.