The sea and the meadow are never far from our plates in Glasgow. And for good reason: we are less than an hour’s drive from the green pastures of the Highlands, where the famous coos or long-haired cows are raised. And then, isn’t the island bathed by both the Atlantic and the North Sea? So, we enjoy good meats as well as fresh seafood and fish, such as plaice, haddock, and halibut. Here’s our guide to where to eat in Glasgow for classic Scottish fare that’s all too often overlooked and underrated.
Haggis, for a good thrill…
While the national dish may make sensitive souls shudder, you must taste it at least once. It’s called haggis, and it’s a sheep’s stomach stuffed with offal, oatmeal, onion, and spices.
Extremely popular, this dish is even sold frozen at Marks & Spencer! In any case, the City Merchant restaurant offers a gourmet version served as it should be with tatties (potatoes) and neeps (turnips). With a dram (a shot) of single malt whisky, it’s frankly delicious. You’ll give us your feedback! Another culinary specialty is Cullen skink, a smoked haddock, milk, and potato chowder named after a fishing village on the country’s northeast coast.
As prepared by Gandolfi Fish, it’s a pure delight.
Sea delights
Seafood lovers, discover queenies, scallops that resemble pearls. In Finnieston, the new trendy media district, a restaurant as big as a telephone box, Crabshakk, prepares them with lobster butter, and the result is downright divine. It’s also in a disused warehouse in this district that the Let’s Eat Glasgow event takes place in September.
Founded by restaurateurs Carol Wright and Colin Clydesdale, the festival brings together the city’s best chefs and producers from the country for a pop-up market. Outside of the festival, their restaurants Ubiquitous Chip and Stravaigin (try the grilled deer), two of Glasgow’s most renowned tables, concoct real feasts.
Tea time
Take a break between two visits to Glasgow… In these tea zones, the decoration alone will make your mouth water: The Butterfly & The Pig, rather girly, and The Willow Tea Rooms, with a historical character since the place was designed by a famous Glasgow architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. At either one, you’ll taste cakes as decadent as that Scottish invention, the fried Mars bar.
And if you get homesick, go take a tour in the West End, at Avenue G: at the helm, Montrealer Sébastien Dénommée ensures that the best coffee is served to you.
For whisky
Psittt! In Glasgow city center, an extra pub to learn about Scottish whisky is The Pot Still: it offers some 600 different ones. And if you want to get in the mood before leaving, a film to see on this subject is The Angel’s Share, which tells how a young Glasgow delinquent becomes a great whisky expert.
