Merchant City
17 rooms on the Glasgow list
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Restaurants10
Cafe Gandolfi
Solid · Scottish · Merchant City · $$$
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Iain Mackenzie, a Glasgow School of Art graphics technician, opened Cafe Gandolfi in the old cheese market offices in 1979, named it for a make of camera, and gave a young sculptor called Tim Stead his first major furniture commission; Glasgow has been eating off those tables for 47…
Swadish by Ajay Kumar
Solid · Indian fine dining · Merchant City · $$$
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Ajay Kumar won the Scotland heat of Great British Menu 2024 with a canapé of langoustine roasted on idli and cooked for the finals as Scotland's representative, five years after opening Swadish in a former Victorian fire station on Ingram Street.
Shawarma King!
Solid · Shawarma · Merchant City · $
walk-in
The owner gives away exactly one thing about the method: the family marinates the meat with its own recipes the day before it goes over the counter, so "the meat gets enough flavour" (STV News, 27 February 2025).
Dakhin
Solid · South Indian · Merchant City · $$
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The batter for the dosa is fermented rice and lentils, and the crepe it cooks into runs two to three feet across the table, which is the format Dakhin brought to Scotland in 2004 as the first restaurant here cooking the food of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and…
The Dhabba
Solid · North Indian · Merchant City · $$$
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The kitchen cooks dum pukht, the sealed-pot method where meat and rice finish in their own steam under a lid of dough, and the plate to order is laal maas, the Rajasthani lamb built on red chillies and yogurt (Foodie Explorers).
Kinara Glasgow
Solid · Indian · Merchant City · $$
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Dum pukht means the pot goes into the oven sealed, usually under a ring of dough, so the meat cooks in its own steam and nothing leaves the vessel, and Kinara runs that alongside a tandoor it uses for whole fish and lobster tail rather than the usual skewers.
Madha Restaurant
Solid · North & South Indian · Merchant City · $$
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Four chefs work this kitchen, two from the north of India and two from the south, which is why the menu carries palappam and idiappam next to the tandoor.
Merchant Chippie
Listed · Fish & chips · Merchant City · $
walk-in
A High Street fryer that advertises its fish landed daily at Anstruther, the Fife port most of Scotland's serious chip shops buy from, and keeps the deep fried Mars bar on the board.
The Spanish Butcher
Listed · Steak · Merchant City · $$$
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The beef is Rubia Gallega, the Galician Blond breed, bought direct from northern Spain rather than through the Scottish supply chain every other steakhouse in the city uses.
Green Gates Cafe
Listed · Cafe · Merchant City · $
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The kitchen's own account is that its cooks came off the pass at Mother India and the Wee Curry Shop, the group GlasgowWorld credits as "one of the first to serve Indian tapas" in the city, and the menu here follows that habit of small, separately cooked plates rather than one big…
Pubs & cask1
Scotia Bar
Listed · Traditional pub · Merchant City · $
walk-in
The pub sells itself as Glasgow's oldest on a 1792 date, while CAMRA's record has it "first licensed in 1815," and either way it has been serving the ground between the Trongate and the Clyde longer than almost anything else standing.
Cocktails4
The Absent Ear
Solid · Cocktail bar · Merchant City · $$$
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A basement speakeasy named for the ear Van Gogh lost, hidden in Merchant City behind an unmarked buzzer, and you only get the street address when you book; the team behind it took SLTN Cocktail Bar of the Year in 2023.
Daddy Marmaladesjust added
Solid · Cocktail bar · Merchant City · $$
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The pair who opened this place in late 2022 planned to sell beer, and three years later took SLTN's Cocktail Bar of the Year.
SíSí Rooftopjust added
Listed · Rooftop bar · Merchant City · $$
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The launch coverage promised a 1am close and the venue's own page now says 11pm, so the late-night rooftop that coverage sold Glasgow in July 2025 is a two-hour shorter proposition today (venue).
Coffee2
The Wilson Street Pantry
Listed · Brunch · Merchant City · $$
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It serves breakfast, brunch and lunch seven days and shuts at 4pm, so the whole kitchen is built around the first half of the day and nothing else.
Sister Midnight
Listed · Sandwiches & deli · Merchant City · $
walk-in
The bread drives the menu: sea-salt-dusted loaves baked for the fillings, sliced to order at a King Street counter that shuts at four.
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