Merchant City Restaurant Guide

Born way back in 1979, this pioneering Merchant City legend was the first to introduce Glasgow to cappuccino machines, and its custom-made Tim Stead furniture has long been of note among aesthetes. The loft was converted into Bar Gandolfi relatively recently by their standards (2002), while the cosy panelled downstairs space turns out “simple” but “good- quality” grub (sourdough open sandwiches, haggis, neeps and tatties) that’s fair value too.

Stop Press – in summer 2024, Paul Stevenson sold this hit pizzeria with a local sibling (plus equally popular pasta-only brand Sugo) to Glasgow-based DRG, whose empire includes Café Andaluz amongst many others, in what was reportedly an eight-figure deal. Fortunately, the new owners have announced that they have no plans to tinker with the winning formula, and for now it seems to be business as usual at this industrially styled venue, meaning that it continues to turn out “exceptional” Neapolitan-style pies from a “buzzy short menu” (almost wholly comprising a list of ten pizzas plus “amazing specials”).

2023 Review: Shuttered in September 2020 and marked as ‘Permanently Closed’ on Google, this city-centre fish and seafood institution is one of the city’s best-known restaurants thanks in large part to its Art Deco interior, created in 1935 by the same craftsmen who fitted out the Queen Mary. According to an August 2022 report in the Glasgow Evening Times, it will re-open… but no-one seems to know when.

What does it say about the culinary tastes of the British middle classes that this spin-off chain, with about 40 locations based on the original Theatreland icon, has been such a rip-roaring success? True, there’s some “great people-watching” at the “always buzzing” Chelsea Garden venue (which has one of SW3’s best gardens). And, without doubt, those branches in Kensington, Tower Bridge and Kingston also particularly stand out amongst the rest for their “super atmosphere”. In general though, the knock-off look of their locations “isn’t a patch on the original on West Street, yet pretends to be exactly the same”. And when it comes to their brasserie dishes: although its many followers tout them as “acceptable, albeit nothing special”, their rating-average identifies them as “underwhelming tick-box fare”; all offered by service that’s very “indifferent”. And yet they are “always busy”! In June 2024, it was announced that billionaire Richard Caring had successfully sold his entire Ivy restaurants stake. Now that he is laughing all the way to the bank, it will be interesting to see if ratings reverse, continue or deepen their southward trend.

Fresh pasta is made daily at this big (200 seats) operation in the Merchant City (from the team behind Paesano Pizza), which works on a no-bookings, first-come-first-served basis. Feedback is only limited, but says that as a “cheap ’n’ cheerful” option it’s “very impressive”. (The Scotsman’s Rosalind Erskine is a fan too, dubbing it – in her December 2023 review – “a winning formula that’s well executed”).

Wander over from Victorian burial ground the Necropolis for something far livelier: this “all-round crowd-pleaser” that shares digs with a boutique hotel inside the baronial pile that is Cathedral House. Chef Dean Parker (whose CV includes Darby’s and Sorella in the Big Smoke) and wife Anna “have got it just right” with their mix of “delicious snacks” to share plus mains to hog (not least the “most delicious pasta”), all of which is Italian-ish but with a twist “rather than the stereotypical choices” of your common trattoria. Bonus points for “truly innovative” cocktails. Top Menu Tip – “linguine with lobster and cod cheeks, followed by monkfish with wilted greens and seaweed butter; complete with an excellent affogato for dessert”.

“Superb seafood” has made this central Glasgow institution one of the city’s most treasured dining destinations of the past two decades. Chef-patron Derek Marshall has reportedly put it up for sale after 26 years at the helm, but as we went to press there was no word on a possible buyer. Top Menu Tip – “the fish soup is to die for”.

With the demise in recent years of its sibling venues, the ‘Two Fat Ladies’ branding is increasingly absent from Ryan James’s old-school fixture on the periphery of the city centre. Its traditional Franco-Scottish menu presents a focused range of options – typically venison, beef and fish dishes – with some spoiling puds (crumbles, possets, gateaux). For some reason, it has never generated huge amounts of feedback in our annual diners’ poll and there was too little for a rating this year. But this plush Victorian building is one of the city’s most historic eateries, and for a traditional blow-out it’s worthy of consideration.

2022 Review: This spin-off from Cail Bruich attracts some attention purely on account of its stellar sibling, although the culinary formula is much simpler – sharing plates of locally supplied meat, seafood, cheese and charcuterie, plus an interesting selection of wine. But while we do have some feedback saying it’s “very good”, its volume is too limited for a definitive verdict.

Surprisingly limited feedback this year on Monir & Smeena Mohammed’s cosily decorated West End venue founded in 1990, which nowadays has spin-offs elsewhere in town as well as in Edinburgh. Such information as we do have, though, suggests it maintains the high quality of Indian cuisine that’s helped build a small empire.

“The revival of Glasgow‘s hip West End continues apace” and “Unalome stands out for the excellence of its cooking and the refinement of its service”, according to all reports on Graeme Cheevers’s highly accomplished and accoladed three-year-old. “Tables are set apart so that conversations can be had without neighbours overhearing” and a fair proportion of reports say it provided the “gastronomic highlight of the year”, but one that’s “a joy and unpretentious despite the level of cooking”. The main event is a seven-course tasting menu for £135 per person. Top Menu Tip – “Scallops are exceptional as is the duck. And how they manage to source Gariguette strawberries from Midi-Pyrenees is a tribute to their eye for detail”.

This compact den in Finnieston has an air of casual sophistication about it, with its counter at the front and dense warren of quirky eating areas. Owned by John Macleod, it’s earned a niche as one of the better-known venues in this popular neighbourhood, on the back of its superior seafood bites.

“Really wholesome and imaginative food with no fuss and frills” has won a solid reputation over the past 10 years for Jonathon MacDonald’s modern European small-plates specialist in Kelvingrove. It shut up shop for six months last autumn to allow for major renovation works while the team switched its attention to opening a new sister venue, Margo, in the city centre.

“A six-course themed taster menu, that changes every six weeks!” is the “playful idea” at Nico Simeone’s national chain, whose two London branches (in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) are “great for special occasions, but also affordable for a regular monthly meal out to experience the different cuisines”. At such keen prices, it’s unreasonable to expect perfection and most diners acknowledge this: it’s “a clever, and obviously very popular, concept, albeit one where the experience can seem a bit manufactured”; “although it doesn’t always live up to expectations, when you get the right menu everything clicks into place”; so while inevitably it’s “hit and miss, it’s also great value”, and “for a fun evening it does the job well”.

It’s all change at this Finnieston fine-diner – a conversion of a long derelict tenement building that was launched in 2013 and has sat at “the top end of Glasgow’s gastronomic scene” ever since. In March 2024, coinciding with the departure of co-founder Ivan Stein, chef-owner Peter McKenna announced plans to re-brand the venture as a more accessible neighbourhood restaurant, becoming part of a growing wave of restaurants dropping their tasting menus. Besides à la carte and good-value set-lunch and early-evening menus, The Gannett Vn 2.0 has introduced a new ‘Sharing Sunday’ lunch, with a refurb also apparently on the cards. Given that the only odd gripes of yore were the prices and perhaps an excess of ambition, this can only be good news for the locals – more feedback on the new direction, please!

2022 Review: “Never disappoints, even after four decades of being a customer” – a “Glasgow institution” (est. 1964) whose “consistent cooking” attracts “generations of families, all welcome”. The victuals touch on most of the flavours of the subcontinent, while the founder, known to all as Mr Ali, is a bit of a West End dining legend.