The top 12 restaurants in Glasgow — our critic’s choice

The Times’s Alba restaurant critic Chitra Ramaswamy has eaten at almost every table in Glasgow, from a kebab shop under a flyover to Finnieston’s fanciest fine-dining spots. Here’s a selection of some of her favourite restaurants and cafés. We’ll regularly update this list, so do check back in to see what we’ve added — and please let us know in the comments section what you think of our picks. There’s something to suit every budget, with the price ranges organised like so:£ Less than £50 a head, without drinks££ £50 to £75 a head, without drinks£££ More than £75 a head, without drinks(Correct at the time of entry on this list)
• See the 10 best restaurants in Edinburgh
Gourmet, communal and industrial — located beneath a railway arch in an old galvaniser’s yard — Fallachan Kitchen’s 12-seater chef’s table remains one of the most exciting in Scotland.
The mastermind behind it is Craig Grozier, a former private chef who has thankfully decided to bring his abundant talents to the masses, if only a dozen of them at a time. The dishes are innovative and technical yet thoroughly playful, infusing Scotland’s natural bounty with a distinctly Glaswegian identity.
Walnuts are pickled in Tennent’s and woodruff is foraged from nearby Kelvingrove Park, while fennel makes the long voyage from SWG3’s garden 100 yards up the road. The dry-aged duck will spend much longer in your memory than on your plate and you will never want prawns again after the lobster cocktail.
Book in groups of up to six, or go on your own and enjoy the convivial company of diners who know they’re having a rather special experience.£££, Arch 15, 8 Eastvale Place, fallachandining.co.ukRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Fallachan Kitchen review
Spend more than five minutes in Ranjit’s vegetarian curry kitchen and it will soon feel like home. That is partly due to the heartwarming family cooking, but also in large part down to the welcoming atmosphere, where Southside hipsters sit elbow to elbow with grey-bearded Punjabis, and employees refer to the owner, Ranjit Kaur, simply as Auntie.
“Authentic” is quite the buzzword these days, but few deserve the label more than Ranjit’s, which makes a point of serving “un-westernised” — and extremely delicious — traditional north Indian fare.
As with any good family meal, Kaur’s cooking is a true labour of love. Nowhere is this more apparent than the wonderful saag, a dish that is notoriously laborious to prepare but is served here as a Thursday special to silky perfection.
All the curries are made fresh daily and once they’re gone they’re gone, so get in there before other discerning punters do. A strong contender for Scotland’s best veggie Indian restaurant.£, 607 Pollokshaws Road, ranjitskitchen.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Ranjit’s Kitchen review
This Finnieston find is the love child of Rosie Healey, an Ottolenghi graduate who went on to make her name by founding the nearby Alchemilla. This is a chef at the top of her game.
Occupying the former Firebird space on Argyle Street, Gloriosa has retained all the convivial atmosphere of its predecessor. The Scandi-inspired interior, with floor-to-ceiling windows, adds to the overall charm, although a slight chilliness contrasts with the warmth of the continental fare.
“We think our food is best eaten shared, family-style,” is the message at the top of Gloriosa’s Mediterranean-inspired menu. It features (among satisfying big-plate lamb chops and roast hake) small-plate options such as a whole warm globe artichoke drenched in green chive butter that will linger long in the memory. The focaccia, cooked in a wood-fired oven, smothered in sea salt and rosemary and served warm in peppery olive oil will be the best £5.50 you spend this year. Gloriosa by name, glorious by nature.£, 1321 Argyle Street, gloriosaglasgow.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Gloriosa review
Ka Pao gets its name from the Thai for “holy basil”, but it could just as easily refer to the drop-kick of bold, joyously inauthentic pan-Asian flavours served up on your plate. Edinburgh has its own Ka Pao in the St James Quarter, but this was the trailblazer, opened by the team behind Ox & Finch, housed in low-lit industrial-chic quarters in the A listed art deco Botanic Gardens Garage. Girders, exposed ducting, booths — your basic hipster fun night out.
The eclectic menu changes every two months and is brilliant value, with mains from £10. Think sharing plates, offering a range of dishes that reads like a backpacker’s diary of street-food favourites sampled on their gap year round southeast Asia. Hispi cabbage with cashew nut butter and sriracha sells out fast, as do the corn ribs, both with good reason.
With the odd nod to Scotland’s larder (Arbroath smokie miang, Shetland mussels with chilli jam and Thai basil), and an infectiously upbeat vibe, this is as good as southeast Asian dining gets this side of a flight to Bangkok.£, 26 Vinicombe Street, ka-pao.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Ka Pao review
First the back story. Enter Modou Diagne, who arrived penniless in Glasgow from Senegal at 18, slept rough before landing a job as kitchen porter at Nico Simeone’s restaurant 111 by Nico. Here, he impressed so much that Simeone made him head chef four years later, then gave him the restaurant’s keys two years after that (you can actually watch the moment that happened here).
So far so pass me the tissues, but wait till you try the food. Thursday to Saturday Diagne serves a six-course menu inspired by pivotal moments in his life, including a brandade with raita and burnt apple (The First Dish I Learnt), and a mushroom and goat’s cheese sourdough he once had at a food bank. On Sunday and Monday, Diagne’s brilliantly off-piste five-course Total Trust set dinner is a preposterous bargain at £25. No menu, no clues — diners just get what they’re given. On the night Alba was in, the standout dish was a succulent, utterly accomplished ballotine of chicken, wrapped in bacon, with a fragrant jus, nutty Jerusalem artichoke and sweetcorn kernels.
Impeccable service, occasional glimpses of the charismatic Diagne himself, it’s virtuoso stuff. Think fine-dining taster menus are out of your range? Get down to Kelvinside.£, 111 Cleveden Road, 111bymodou.co.ukRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full 111 by Modou review
As you hurry under the leaky old railway arches at the bottom of King Street, there is little to suggest you’ve arrived somewhere so fêted. A pair of metal pavement tables with car park views, pigeons scavenging for scraps — only the disparate crowd of office workers, tourists, hipsters and immigrants queueing out of the door hints at the pleasures inside. Because for the past two years, this gloriously humble establishment has won the Best Kebab House in Scotland title at the British Kebab Awards.
Shawarma King is run by Majed Badrekhan, a twentysomething Syrian Kurd who prepares everything on site with his brothers and father. Most “dishes” cost about £5-£7 — nothing costs more than £9.50. The falafel is as good as any we’ve tasted: crispy exterior, rich cumin, cayenne and coriander insides — it’s flawless. The chicken shawarma, sliced from a vast, dripping rotisserie, is equally memorable: succulent, tender, perfectly spiced, and only eclipsed by an outrageously good Kurdish lamb kebab.
Our advice? Come for lunch. Shawarma King often sells out by early evening. With food this good, we’re not surprised.£, 113 King Street, facebook.com/ShawarmaKingGlasgowRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Shawarma King review
Opened in 2021, this Italian-Scottish gem occupies an elegant split-level dining room in Cathedral House, the magnificent Scots baronial hotel guarding the entrance to the Necropolis.
If the location is good, it’s nothing compared with the cuisine. Its chef Dean Parker has worked in Copenhagen, on the Amalfi coast and in London under such culinary superstars as Tom Aikens and Robin Gill. It shows. His agnolotti must be one of the best pasta dishes anywhere in the UK, its perfectly pinched parcels oozing silken ricotta, served with girolles, crunchy sweetcorn and hazelnut and an exquisite yellow cream.
The secondi showcase Celentano’s produce-driven approach: a line-caught monkfish with toasted nori and wilted greens steals the spotlight, along with MacDuff glazed Dexter short rib. These are flawless dishes, prepared by a chef who knows good produce when he sees it — and more importantly understands how to let it shine.
Killer cocktails, a fun vibe created by Parker’s Glaswegian wife, Anna — this is a brilliantly buzzy, urbane addition to Glasgow’s food scene. ££, 28-32 Cathedral Square, celentanosglasgow.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Celentano’s review
This compact wine bar-restaurant is the younger, chiller sibling of the Michelin-starred Cail Bruich, ten minutes’ walk down Great Western Road. It’s headed by the talented Ronan Shaftoe, formerly of a Michelin-starred establishment in Hong Kong, and the focus is on natural wines and a concise but serious food offering, with zeitgeisty fire-cooking to the fore.
Bright, buzzy, with wine glasses glinting from the ceiling, the space is dominated by a large counter wrapping a bustling open kitchen, adding to a theatrical vibe. Service, quintessentially Glaswegian, is warm, at ease, and knowledgeable, especially regarding the impressive, thoughtfully curated wine list.
The 15 or so dishes range from small to substantial, with enticing sides and sweets, reflecting Shaftoe’s East Asian influence. Grilled squid stands out, as do mushroom XO linguine with Cantabrian anchovies, leek and 36-month aged parmesan. A £35 three-course set lunch menu is a steal. Great atmosphere, top scran — stick it on your list.££, 321 Great Western Road, barbrett.co.ukRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Bar Brett review
Think veggie food will never be half as good as meat? One word for you: Sylvan. This is a quite brilliant vegetarian and vegan restaurant in Woodlands, the vibey student enclave bordering Park Circus.
Walking in feels like discovering a secret garden, with wooden shelves, stripped pine floors, upcycled wooden school chairs — and a rainforest of leaves and fronds everywhere in between.
Flavours are deep and strong: a rich, sweet roast pear on fried bread drowning in savoury stilton custard is as delicious as it sounds. Dishes such as chunky baba ganoush, chicory salad with smashed hazelnuts, and a vegan take on palak paneer with tofu and fenugreek showcase Sylvan’s ability to turn ordinary ingredients into extraordinary creations.
And that’s just the food. Sylvan also has a shop selling organic fine wines, 30 of which can be bought by the glass, along with organic beers, ciders and cocktails.
Is it a touch on the pricey side? Maybe, but in a city packed with vegetarian restaurants, this is probably the best in town.££, 20 Woodlands Road, sylvanglasgow.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Sylvan review
We worried when this West End institution was sold to Greene King in 2022. What on earth would the giant hospitality chain do with it?
Quite a lot, it turns out — but pretty much all of it good. Reopened in February 2023, Stravaigin emerged with a brand new basement bar and zhuzhed up decor, though happily the familiar bistro aesthetic remained. Staff are young, upbeat and plentiful, wearing “Think global, buy local”, on their T-shirts. Most importantly, the food is still enduringly good.
The kitchen is headed by James MacRae, who has produced an eclectic menu packed with vibrant, global flavours, such as in a rich, expertly balanced Tweed Valley lamb rump with asparagus, whipped crowdie and garlic puree. A Pakistani aloo tamatar features a succulent slow-cooked featherblade of beef.
“A great space for a hoolie … drinks, food and good craic,” Stravaigin’s website says. They won’t get any argument from us. This is one of Glasgow’s buzziest and most inventive restaurants.££, 28 Gibson Street, stravaigin.co.ukRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Stravaigin review
This Berlin basement-vibe restaurant is the epitome of all things 2020s: unashamedly hip, it feels relaxed but takes its food extremely seriously, with a stripped back, ever-changing menu featuring some of the country’s best, and most beautiful food. Not for nothing is it a favourite with Finnieston’s food-savvy crowd.
The room is low-lit and achingly cool: picture vintage tables, salvaged school chairs, tumblers for your wine and artfully unglazed crockery. Staff, you guessed it, come festooned in tatts and beards.
The food itself is joyous riot of international influences. Fermented corn in your mezcal cocktail? Korean gochujang in your cabbage? The wine list reads like a Who’s Who of esoteric growers, including labels from Lebanon and Armenia. The cider comes from Sweden, natch.
Plates were a touch inconsistent when Alba called in — chipotle panisse were not chipotle enough, a pricey caesar salad needed more punch — but the trout was perfect, both in taste and texture, paired with a zinging bois boudran and delightfully crunchy tapioca crackers. The sesame ice cream is worth a night out on its own.
This is complicated cooking made to look deceptively simple. Virtuoso stuff.££, 140 Elderslie Street, fivemarch.co.ukRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s full Five March review
Another winner from the Charalambous brothers, aka the team behind Cail Bruich, opened in 2022 in what used to be Nick’s Bar on Hyndland’s bustling main drag. A crab claw toss from Epicures, another Charalambous gem, this is a serious seafood restaurant — with prices to match, though a two-course Friday to Sunday lunch menu is an affordable treat at £27.50.
The room is modern, Manhattan-y, a mish-mash of styles slightly at odds with the faultless fare on your plate: ocean-blue walls, marble-topped wooden tables, cosy booths, and ceiling beams adorned with ivy.
You’ll forgive it all — even having to pay £15 for an Orkney scallop starter — the instant your food arrives. The chef Shaun Haggarty was previously head chef at Cail Bruich, and brings the same genius here, perfectly marrying Scottish fish and shellfish with Asian flavours. The menu is ever-changing, depending on what’s fresh in the markets, but expect tempura oysters and Szechuan-seasoned crispy fried whitebait. Expect a penchant for nuts, seeds and grain. Expect most of all, to be wowed.£££, 168 Hyndland Road, shucksglasgow.comRead Chitra Ramaswamy’s ful Shucks review
Do you agree with our selection? Have your say in the comments below