Bistros & brasseries, BYOB, Child friendly

10 places

Sorted by popularity

The Purple Pig Café

12 Leven Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9LG

The Purple Pig is perhaps the only pig you can trust around food. This bright, white Tollcross café, run by a green but keen brother-and-sister team, is as steadfast as a bacon roll. Fresh, local ingredients, chosen for taste, are simply and competently…

The Pantry

1-2 North West Circus Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6ST

Opening amid social media rumblings in December 2012, The Pantry’s young owners have done a stylish job of tapping in on things that are cool just now. Décor is quirked up with accents of farmyard wallpaper and jelly mould lightshades, and chatty paper…

Bijou

2 Restalrig Road, Edinburgh, EH6 8BN

Bijou came under new ownership in 2011 but both head chef Alastair Berry and the quirky but useful menu formula of offering most items in bijou, medium or large size have remained. The low-key interior features a sprinkling of café-style tables, a small…

Fanny Trollope's

1066 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8LY

Don’t be put off by the nudge-nudge, wink-wink name – when it comes to food, there are lots of good things going on in this compact little neighbourhood bistro. With a reputation largely built through word-of-mouth, locals and tourists alike flock to…

Cail Bruich

725 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 8QX

Cail Bruich’s menu so eschews the fashion for flowery descriptions it could have been written by the Plain English Society. The polite list of ingredients doesn’t even hint at the theatre and dazzling artiness of delivered dishes. Chef Chris Charalambus…

The Kingarroch Inn

5 Main Street, Craigrothie, Fife, KY15 5QA

Never judge a book by its cover because this seemingly simple whitewashed cottage, which sits precariously on a corner of a busy Fife road, might seem a bit bleak and dated yet its below ground level entrance could well be described as a gateway to…

Reds

254 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh, EH15 2AT

The sign reading ‘Six buggy limit’ says it all. If you live in Portobello and have small children, chances are you’ll know Reds and its large, soft cage – sorry, play frame – in the back room, where your offspring can slide and scamper while you eat or…

Balbir's Saffron Lounge

61 Kilmarnock Road, Glasgow, G41 3YR

Balbir Sumal is very much part of the city’s curry story. Today, the Saffron Lounge is the cheeky wee brother in Balbir’s family with a more relaxed approach to dining than its sister restaurant in Church Street. Sure, it can serve trademark Balbir’s…

The Pelican Café

1377 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AF

With an informal wine bar atmosphere, racks of wine bottles around the walls and a gallery of artworks for sale in aid of a hospice, there's a feeling of caring and community here. This caring extends into the food, wine and cheery service on offer.

Roastit Bubbly Jocks

450 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, G11 6SE

This unique eatery encapsulates the gallus Partick outlook to restaurant interiors with its candlelit tables, art deco lamps and an eccentric Mondrian-inspired wall hanging made with contrasting slices of polished Scottish wood. As expected it has a…