Glasgow, Isle of Mull

Going to be in Glasgow and on the Isle of Mull next week. Any good food or drink recs?

I'll probably create a bunch of posts since I ate so many places, but for Glasgow I highly recommend The Finnieston, a gin cocktail bar with excellent seafood. The bartenders here are really knowledgeable, unlike some other bars I visited in Scotland. The dishes are simple and really do a good job showing off Scotland's amazing seafood. I had coolie for the first time and that was really really creamy and wonderful.



I also highly recommend Stravaigin, which reminded me a little bit of maybe a Scottish version of Chicago's Mott St. or NYC's Momofuku mixed with a British gastropub. Great cocktails, excellent haggis (I was surprised by how much I liked this), and some spicy Asian dishes. I bet their sister restaurant Ubiquitous Chip is also good, but I didn't have a chance to visit.

My overall experience with Glasgow is skip the fine dining. It's not quite there yet in terms of service or sophistication. But maybe I just missed the best restaurants, so correct me if I'm wrong. It's a bit like Scandinavia was 6 years ago when I lived there. Fine dining back then was mostly derivative over-wrought Fresh-ish hotel school stuff you can find anywhere. But then Noma changed everything and I get the feeling that Scotland is going to get some Noma spill-over in the next five years since the climate is so similar. Gastropubs and bars right now seem to be where it's at in Glasgow.

Is a "gin cocktail bar" different from a "cocktail bar" in a particular way (the only presumption I can make is that they serve only gins, but that somehow doesn't seem quite right...)?

I liked The Ubiquitous Chip, but it's been quite a while since I ate there. I checked their website and the menu still seems interesting, with a lot of local products.

Gypsy Boy wrote:Is a "gin cocktail bar" different from a "cocktail bar" in a particular way (the only presumption I can make is that they serve only gins, but that somehow doesn't seem quite right...)?

Their menu was similar to Scofflaw, which I believe was supposed to be a gin based cocktail bar and now only describes itself as gin-focused.

Hi,

I highly recommend Massimos Restaurant.

The wonderful Malmaison Hotel has an excellent Brasserie.

Tim