Glasgow’s 100 Best Restaurants book brings together the culinary highlights that define the hospitality scene in Scotland’s biggest city. You’ll find recommendations for breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and chips on the way home.
A comprehensive snapshot of local food and drink right now, consider it your restaurant tick-list for 2020.
As dining inspiration, from the pages of the book, here’s the best seafood restaurants in Glasgow right now.
For the full story, buy the book at heraldscotland.com/100Best
5 The Fish People Cafe
350A Scotland St, G5 8QF / 0141 429 8787 / thefishpeoplecafe.co.uk
When Andy Bell and family looked at the adjacent industrial cafe to their southside fishmongers that had lain dormant and disused for a number of years, they saw an opportunity. Seizing the chance to try something new, they embarked on a substantial renovation of the neighbouring unit.
Resplendent in the French bistro décor that you see today, The Fish People Cafe opened in September 2012. The restaurant cooking style consists of simple, classic Scottish dishes, often with an international influence, like tandoori sea bass and Shetland salmond sashimi.
The menu features Tarbert landed monkfish, Cumbrae rock oysters, which can be enjoyed at the marble oyster bar, Greenland shrimp and hand-dived Barra scallops.
Best Dish: Grilled Lemon Sole (£22.50)
4 Catch
27 Gibson St, G12 8NU / 0141 370 8181 / catchfishandchips.co.uk
The idea arrived fully formed. “Open a high end, quality fish and chip experience. One that shows off the seafood of Scotland”. As Giancarlo Celino grew up, his family had fish and chip shops, before they sold up and went into the wider restaurant industry.
Like many of us, he retains fond memories of this glorious Glasgow favourite dish. That was the inspiration to open his own restaurant. The first Catch was in Giffnock then they took on the West End with this sophisticated Gibson Street chippy.
They have been recommended in the Michelin Guide and named Best Seafood Restaurant by the National Fish & Chip Awards in 2017. Expect lobster, halibut, langoustine tails and old fashioned fish finger butties.
Best Dish: Grilled Chilli King Prawn (£6.95)
BUY THE BOOK: GLASGOW’S 100 BEST RESTAURANTS
3 Mussel Inn
157 Hope St, G2 2UQ / 0141 572 1405 / mussel-inn.com
Award-winning Scottish seafood restaurant Mussel Inn was founded 20 years ago by a mussel farmer and a scallop farmer who decided to buck the trend of Scottish shellfish being immediately exported to the continent by making it available in their own restaurant.
Known for its passion for locally sourced fresh seafood, providing excellent value for money with a quick and friendly service, Mussel Inn is headed by Swedish father and son team Janne and Matt Johansson.
While mussels remain a staple of its menu, it offers a broader selection of dishes. Their sustainably cultivated oysters, nurtured in the cold sea lochs of the west coast, grow more slowly than those from warmer waters, providing a remarkable depth of taste.
Best Dish: White Wine and Shallot Mussels (£15.60)
2 Crabshakk
1114 Argyle St, G3 8TD / 0141 334 6127 / crabshakk.com
Crabshakk have been serving cracking good food for the last ten years, blazing a trail for simple seafood dishes done well. It is an important part of the Glasgow food story. This is the fish place that inspired other chefs to look to Finnieston.
It had a transformational effect on the area and remains a lynchpin for the local scene. It wears it all with an easy-going nature. A straight-forward menu is filled with crab, squid and scallops. Oysters, a fish supper and their Fruits de Mer platter for two have been available since day one. After his own visit, Michael Deacon said in The Telegraph: “The menu reads like pretty much the entire cast list of Finding Dory”.
We usually look for grilled langoustines in the evenings, one of the finest dishes you can order in the city of Glasgow. Study the specials board. That’s where you’re going to find the real catch of the day. We picked out a plate of bulbous, perfectly grilled octopus, served on a tasty mix of lentils and chorizo on our last visit.
Glasgow has access to a dazzling supply of fresh seafood and here the flavours are showcased in a compact, buzzing restaurant with a laidback vibe and cheerful service. It gets very busy before concerts at The Hydro and it is fun to join in if you don’t mind eating your seafood at close quarters to your fellow diners.
David Beckham left suitably impressed after popping in for lunch. He ordered a kilo of mussels and a lobster. Grab a seat at the bar for a glass of wine and a meandering chat.
Best Dish: Monkfish Cheek Scampi (£14.95)
1 Gamba
225A W George St / 0141 572 0899 / gamba.co.uk
Gamba: Simple Seafood Cooking is the title of chef Derek Marshall’s cookbook and also his motto in the kitchen. From the East End of Glasgow, he left school with no qualifications and joined a youth training programme. It was the start of a culinary journey of discovery that would take him to the Channel Islands, the French Alps and Spain.
Gamba turns 21 this year. It has held a 2 AA Rosettes rating since the first oyster was shucked, way back in 1998. The entire landscape of city restaurants has shifted over the last two decades, yet this smart high-achiever remains a reliable choice for our readers. “Let the ingredients shine” Derek says.
He has an excellent relationship with Scotland’s fishing community that allows Gamba to source the finest catch of the day. Menus are updated every six weeks to ensure the seasonality and quality of ingredients. However, new dishes always sit alongside Gamba classics that Derek knows his customers come back for time and again.
Our own routine when visiting for dinner is to start with a bowl of foup – what Gamba call their fish soup, a finely balanced blend of Portland crabmeat, stem ginger, coriander and prawn dumplings. Monkfish and scallops for main course, cooked with ginger, spring onions, fish sauce and lemon.
It’s worth noting that their desserts are fairly spectacular, so order the wild honey and ginger cheesecake with dark berries and ask about their gin cocktails.
Best Dish: Isle of Gigha Halibut with Brown Shrimps (£24)