Pubs & bars and "Glasgow"
- Maggie Mays
Outstanding contemporary Scottish restaurant, with a bustling bar and all-year entertainment - The Tea Rooms at The Butterfly and the Pig
City centre gem serving Afternoon Tea, High Tea, cakes & delights - Moskito
Moskito is a laid-back bar with an extensive drinks list as well as great food - The Living Room
The Living Room offers an abundance of choice with a wide range of high quality food
Pivo Pivo
15 Waterloo Street,
Glasgow,
G2 6AY
Pivo Pivo was one of Glasgow's first pubs to serve an extensive range of world beers - from Argentinian Quilmes to Kirin from Japan - and still largely trades on punters' tourism. Located right beside Central Station, its small bar area lies at the…
Chinaski's
239 North Street,
Glasgow,
G3 7DL
Even if Charles Bukowski – whose biographical alter-ego Chinaski’s is named after – mostly lived off a liquid diet, this dark, discreet hipster haunt just off the main drag of Sauchiehall Street is as much about its food as it is its drink. A huge…
Home
80 Albion Street,
Glasgow,
G1 1NY
The decoration at this city centre hang-out is indeed a bit like home – if you happen to live somewhere that’s the ‘before’ part of a makeover. The furniture is a random mixture of leather booths (some with ripped seats), squashy sofas and gaudy…
The Rio Café
27 Hyndland Street,
Glasgow,
G11 5QF
There aren’t many places where you find fashionable students sitting next to an anorak-clad granny who's sitting next to a couple on a date, but that’s what you get at the Rio Café – and it works. Step inside and you enter a 1950s diner – the red…
Bacchus
80 Glassford Street,
Glasgow,
G1 1UR
Weekends are busy at this Merchant City bar, catering for the post-work and pre-club crowd. The interior is stylish, with comfy low cushioned benches, bar stools and standard tables offering seating options to suit your night. Be careful to arrive…
Brel
39–43 Ashton Lane,
Glasgow,
G12 8SG
Namesake Jacques Brel would definitely recognise this informal wood-filled bar as a distinctly European approach to dining and beer. The former stables at the end of Ashton Lane has the air of a Gallic tavern with its oak-lined walls, wooden floors and…
Firebird
1321 Argyle Street,
Glasgow,
G3 8TL
This well-established neighbourhood bar and bistro makes sense whatever the occasion. The intelligent, free-flowing layout means you can dine more formally at the rear, sip a cool microbrewery pint perched at the curved wooden bar, or snack and watch…
Big Slope
36a Kelvingrove Street,
Glasgow,
G3 7SA
It would be interesting to know how many folk come into Big Slope for a drink, but end up having something to eat. That's what makes a good bar food menu: perched on the table, teasing and appetising. Here we have pub favourites with lovely twists…
The Living Room
150 St Vincent Street,
Glasgow,
G2 5NE
Stylish moody interiors with dark leather booths and glowing red shades create an urban clubby atmosphere that accommodates plenty of diners but is cleverly zoned to maintain an intimate mood. The busy menu takes its themes from across the globe and…
Hillhead Bookclub
17 Vinicombe Street,
Glasgow,
G12 8BE
With a table tennis area, drinks served in gramophones, DJs playing eclectic funk and soul, and a menu littered with puns and witty comments, it is easy to see why Hillhead Bookclub has a burgeoning reputation as the best quirky hang-out in the West…
The Tearoom @ The Butterfly and the Pig
153 Bath Street,
Glasgow,
G2 4SQ
The unique interior of welcoming shabby chic makes this a pleasant gem of a place to catch your busy urban breath over a quick wholesome soup and sandwich lunch, or a leisurely afternoon tea. The food is excellent. Here they do justice to the classic…
Arta
The Old Cheesemarket, 62 Albion Street,
Glasgow,
G1 1PA
Arta does well to bracket itself as the ultimate leisure suite for an aspirational generation weaned on Ready Steady Cook and Grand Designs. A cavernous, opulent venue for eating, drinking, disco dancing and live music, its menu accordingly hedges its…
Baby Grand
3–7 Elmbank Gardens,
Glasgow,
G2 4NQ
Just a few short steps from Charing Cross station, the Baby Grand is by day mainly filled with office workers and commuters who do lunch and coffee in the long thin room, but by night the mood changes to a more leisurely vibe as the pianist takes over.
The Grosvenor Café
The Grosvenor Theatre, Ashton Lane,
Glasgow,
G12 8SJ
With its filmic décor and location above the cinema, the recently rebranded Grosvenor Café offers a great opportunity for a movie and a meal night-out. The striking and cavernous venue, lit by spotlights adorning the walls, has silent movie clips…
Heavenly
185 Hope Street,
Glasgow,
G2 2UL
Glasgow’s vegetarian and vegan dining options are hardly extensive so a new arrival such as this City Centre café-bar is something of a godsend. Heavenly joins the city's small but established vegan/veggie scene, offering a similar philosophy of…
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
272a St Vincent Street,
Glasgow,
G2 5RL
Scotland
Read our Eating & Drinking Guide review of King Tut's.
November
Princes Square, 48 Buchanan Street,
Glasgow,
G1 3JX
Situated right at the top of Princes Square, November is a light, airy cocktail bar and café which offers seating 'outside' on the balcony, looking down to the shops below, or under the interior's cupola. It offers a variety of dishes to tempt wearied…
Sloans
62 Argyll Arcade, City Centre,
Glasgow,
G2 8BG
It claims to be Glasgow’s oldest bar and restaurant and set over three levels this venue has retained some of its original grandeur. Set off Argyle Street in a cute wee lane (or via the Argyle Arcade) the bar is the first place you come across. It is…
All Bar One
62–72 St Vincent Street,
Glasgow,
G2 5TS
With floor-to-ceiling windows on the corner of St Vincent and West Nile streets, All Bar One is well placed to watch the world go by over a drink or a bite. Such is its bustling nature, however, it seems as if few people have time to linger at its…
