10 Best Restaurants in City Center, Glasgow
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The City Centre has restaurants catering to the 9-to-5 crowd, meaning there are a lot of fine-dining establishments as well as good restaurants catching people as they leave work, drawing them in with pretheater menus. The choice of eateries is extensive.
Mackintosh at the Willow
Miss Cranston's Willow Tea Rooms were the ultimate place to be seen in Glasgow in 1903, not only for the tasty tea but for the beautiful art nouveau decor and furniture designed by a young architect by the name of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The original tearooms have now been fully restored here, and you can lunch on traditional Scottish cuisine or take an elegant high tea in the exquisite surroundings of the Salon de Luxe.
Mussel Inn
West-coast shellfish farmers own this sleek restaurant and feed their customers incredibly succulent oysters, scallops, and mussels. The pots of mussels, steamed to order and served with any of a number of sauces, are revelatory, and scallops, prawns, and oysters come together in a wonderful seafood pasta. The surroundings are simple but stylish, with white walls, cool ceramic tiles, wood floors, and wooden furniture. Another plus is the staff, who are helpful and unpretentious. This is where locals take their favorite out-of-towners, including for lunchtime specials and pretheater menus that are a very good value.
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Opium
This eatery has completely rethought Asian cuisine, taking Chinese, Malaysian, and Thai cooking in new directions and using sauces that are fragrant and spicy but never overpowering. Subdued lighting, neutral tones, and dark wood create a calm setting for specialties including superb dim sum and crisp wontons filled with delicious combinations of crab, shrimp, and chicken. Leave room for the main dishes, especially the tiger prawns and scallops in a sauce made from dried shrimp and fish. Familiar dishes like beef in black bean sauce are astonishingly delicate and aromatic. The vegetarian menu is adventurous, too, and the cocktails are captivating.
Anchor Line
Occupying the former headquarters of the Anchor Line, whose ships sailed from Scotland to America, this bar and restaurant near George Square has been impressively refurbished to create the sense of fine dining aboard a luxury ocean liner. The menu reflects the voyage, too, including Scottish seafood and lamb, and a full range of steaks and their sauces to represent America. Wine and drinks follow the same transatlantic theme. Dine in the bar for more casual fare, such as salads and steak sandwiches. The slightly less expensive but equally elegant basement restaurant, the Atlantic, is French-themed. If you are visiting during the holiday season, the Christmas decorations here are a thing of beauty: the building's pillared facade is wrapped in lights, bows, and greenery, wtih the theme continuing into the luxurious interior.
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Loon Fung
The friendly staff at this huge, popular Cantonese eatery guide you through the dishes here, including barbecued duck, deep-fried wontons with prawns, and more challenging dishes like pork with jellyfish or king prawn with salted egg. On most days you will see local Chinese families seated at the huge round tables enjoying the dim sum for which the restaurant is rightly famous. This isn't the place to come for quiet intimacy, but it's good food in a lively atmosphere.
Paesano Pizza
This casual and unassuming pizza place holds a special place in the hearts of Glaswegians and visitors alike. Serving up Naples-style pizzas with large bubbly crusts, the short but confident menu (you choose from a rotating selection of 8 pizzas) is extremely affordable, with prices beginning at just £7. No reservations are allowed, which often leads to long lines on weekend nights. The kitchen works quickly, however, and the wait is never too long.
Stereo
Down a quiet lane near Glasgow Central station, this ultracool eatery dishes up a fantastic range of vegan food, from paella and gnocchi to a colorful platter with hummus, red-pepper pâté, and home-baked flatbread. The decor is homey and relaxed, and someone always seems to be nearby reading or writing. Paintings, posters, and announcements of upcoming concerts in the space downstairs line the walls. The music is excellent, but never so loud as to disturb the serious business of eating. The kitchen closes at 9.
The Butterfly and the Pig
Down an innocuous-looking flight of stairs, this intimate restaurant is the type of place young locals love: flickering candles, mix-and-match crockery, and inventive, inexpensive food that offers new twists on the familiar. The menu reads like a comedic narrative, with descriptions like "traditional fish-and-chips, battered to death" or "Supreme Commander chicken." Vegetarians are not as well catered to, but they can at least can try the popular portobello-mushroom burgers with extra-thick potato chips. The chef uses only local ingredients, so the menu changes daily. A tea shop upstairs serves wonderful cakes and old-fashioned high tea.