Restaurants, Cafés and Budget
- The Tea Rooms at The Butterfly and the Pig
City centre gem serving Afternoon Tea, High Tea, cakes & delights - Valvona & Crolla VinCaffé
Classic Italian cooking using the finest ingredients and a tasting list of over 50 wines by the glass - Stereo
A great vegan themed bar in a Mackintosh-designed building - Centotre
Centotre serves food made from locally sourced ingredients in a great location
The New Pakistani Café
607 Pollokshaws Road,
Glasgow,
G41 2QG
A dimly lit café that manages to be unfussy and quirky at the same time, the New Pakistani Café sells tasty food in generous portions. Though predominantly a takeaway, there is plenty of seating and atmosphere to make dining in an enjoyable experience.
Cafezique
66 Hyndland Street,
Glasgow,
G11 5PT
Fun, unpretentious, quality, value and, tasty are the adjectives which apply to cafezique. Service is informal, but friendly and attentive in this quirky laid back bar/restauraunt. Nibbly things include great olives and delicious cheese fondue…
Empires
24 St Mary's Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1SU
There’s a dark, exotic, Aladdin’s Cave feel to Empires – a one-off kind of place that has walls covered with Middle Eastern fabrics and tiles, multi-coloured globe lamps dangling from the ceiling, and an upstairs seating area full of scatter cushions…
Blue Moon Café
1 Barony Street,
Edinburgh,
EH3 6PD
On a corner off Broughton Street this gay-friendly diner serves up simple hearty food at reasonable prices. Lunch is a particularly good deal with main courses all under £6. Daily specials include a couple of soups, which might be a velvety smooth leek…
Café Nom de Plume
60 Broughton Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 3SA
Set upstairs from the Edinburgh LGBT Centre and owned by the same team behind the Regent pub, Café Nom de Plume is a gay and lesbian-friendly business and a relaxed hangout for all walks of Broughton life. The décor is a warm and welcoming jumble of…
Centotre
103 George Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 3ES
Centotre manages to pull off a neat trick. Despite the austere, ex-bank interior, from those lost days when financial edifices were akin to cathedrals, it still manages to maintain a feeling of warmth and intimacy in the evenings or bright and breezy…
Arcaffe
7 North Claremont Street,
Glasgow,
G3 7NR
Tucked into a side street joining nearby offices to Kelvingrove Park, Arcaffe is an unassuming and friendly little Italian bistro, with tables on the pavement outside and large windows for catching the midday sun. Bustling with a mix of young families…
Bar 50
50 Blackfriars Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1NE
Set inside a shiny modern hostel and marketing itself squarely at its backpacker residents and the students from the halls next door, Bar 50 is the kind of place it’s easy to walk past. While not exactly a hidden gem, its location and focus on cheap…
Metropole
33 Newington Road,
Edinburgh,
EH9 1QR
Taken over recently by the folks who make Canonmills’ Circle Café go round so nicely, the improvements at Metropole are clear. Always a pleasant, airy space, the mix and match floral crockery remains, as do the diner-style booths, though they’ve been…
Moyra Jane's
20 Kildrostan Street,
Glasgow,
G41 4LU
Its rather twee name remains but this established café located in a wonderful old corner bank building – all dark wood panels and round marble tables – was recently transformed by new owners into the perfect low-lit night-time Parisian-style bistro…
Stereo
20-28 Renfield Lane,
Glasgow,
G2 5AR
Although it’s hard to catch the full vista from the narrow lane, Stereo is housed in a superb Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building, all exterior white tiles and square windows with double doors opening into a leisurely eating and drinking space…
Tinderbox
189 Byres Road,
Glasgow,
G12 8TS
Tinderbox’s original Byres Road coffeshop café opened in 1998 but the interior still feels contemporary and enticing. No food is prepared on the premises though, with savoury options being either pre-prepared sandwiches or salad/noodle bowls. It’s an…
Cranachan
Unit 51, Princes Square, 48 Buchanan Street,
Glasgow,
G1 3JN
Creamy Cranachan. If a place can be judged on its signature dish then Cranachan is sweet and indulgent, perhaps lacking in a few ingredients. The theme is overall Scottish with quality, locally sourced fish, beef and cheese aplenty, which comes in…
Martha's
142a St Vincent Street,
Glasgow,
G2 5LQ
Goodness, in a word. Created with care and calculation (every nutritional detail is shown on the menu) by real chefs, Martha’s moreish menu proves to the as-yet unconverted that healthy can mean hearty. The menu is seasonal but may include everything…
The Rio Café
27 Hyndland Street,
Glasgow,
G11 5QF
The Rio Café’s 1950s diner-style décor and vibe has made it something of an institution in Glasgow’s West End, and it’s menu offers up tempting options whether you’re in for breakfast, lunch, or just a snack. The burgers come large and tasty, and even a…
The Balcony Cafe
Upstairs @ The Glasgow Climbing Centre, 534 Paisley Road West,
Glasgow,
G51 1RN
It isn't completely about the ambience inside this converted late-1800s church – the food and coffee are good as well – but it is no doubt its USP. A wrought-iron spiral staircase leads up to a cosy, laid-back space where the view is of a mesmerising…
Brooklyn Café
21 Minard Road,
Glasgow,
G41 2HR
Year of Opening: 1931. This fact alone says so much about the obvious enduring appeal of the Brooklyn Café. Generations of local custom must mean dramatic change is difficult but while crowd-pleasers like the famous ice-cream remain (plus the many…
Circus
8 St Mary's Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1SU
The stone-walled courtyard in the back of this Old Town café/ restaurant is a mini sun-trap in the summer, and a good spot for enjoying some calm while the High Street might be getting unpleasantly hectic with crowds. Circus is run by the same folks who…
Laurie's
127 Hope Street,
Glasgow,
G2 6PE
With its no-nonsense décor and various-shades-of-beige colour scheme, Laurie's may at first sight seem a functional place for busy office workers to grab a routine filled roll. Closer inspection reveals its creative side, however: the sandwiches…
Peter's Yard
27 Simpson Loan (Quartermile),
Edinburgh,
EH3 9GG
The location of this aspirational Swedish establishment couldn't be better. Tucked alongside Middle Meadow Walk in the expensive glass forest of the Quartermile development, Peter’s Yard is a bright, well-ordered space that exudes a soothing…
Toast
146 Marchmont Road,
Edinburgh,
EH9 1AQ
Marchmont's residents have been withholding information from the rest of the city: they have jealously guarded the fact that Toast, tucked up at the top of Marchmont Road, is such a delight. It's understandable, given that queues for seats in the small…
Tribeca
102 Dumbarton Road,
Glasgow,
G11 6NX
With a name like Tribeca, after the area of New York, the Americana inside – not to mention the yellow taxi and NYPD cruiser parked outside – should come as little surprise. Pictures of Manhattan street scenes, wooden tables (rather crammed in) and a…
Valvona & Crolla Vincaffè
11 Multrees Walk,
Edinburgh,
EH1 3DQ
Valvona & Crolla’s Vincaffe is only a short distance but several years away from the densely packed cornucopia of the family-run business’s original branch on Elm Row. With a bright, contemporary décor, evenly spaced, white dressed tables and a bank…
Fifi and Ally
51–52 Princes Square, 48 Buchanan Street,
Glasgow,
G1 3JN
Fifi and Ally may have a reputation as a girly cup-cake café but its coffee is strong, rich and memorable and their menu reveals a deep source of local produce and home-made delicacies. The warm chèvre salad with beetroot and butternut squash (one of…
Kember & Jones Fine Food Emporium
134 Byres Road,
Glasgow,
G12 8TD
Situated in the heart of foodie West End on Byres Road, Kember & Jones is an upmarket café-deli with a good line in kitchenware and books too, with an interior that manages that elusive blend of elegant and cosy. The menu mixes the contemporary with…
