iasg

The restaurant Jeff saved as Bo & Birdy stopped existing in November 2021, when the Kimpton Blythswood Square turned its dining room into iasg, the Gaelic for fish, and hired a chef out of No.16 Byres Road to cook Scottish shellfish in it.

Why go

The sourcing policy is the part worth taking seriously. At launch the hotel committed to serving "only hand-dived or creel-caught shellfish, sourced in waters where there is a healthy supply", and to working with suppliers "to guarantee traceability" (GlasgowWorld). Sean Currie runs the kitchen, with Roberto Sanchez as sous. The room is the one Succession fans keep recognizing, turquoise scalloped tiles wrapped around a white marble bar, and the bar itself works as a separate proposition, open to 11pm with wee bites until nine. A menu rewrite in spring 2025 moved the mains toward pork cutlet, duck breast and steak, which Sanchez described to The Scotsman as deliberate. The seafood is still what the kitchen does best.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Fruits of iasg platter, which puts Shetland mussels in Thai green curry, seared scallops with cauliflower and miso, grilled langoustines with wild garlic butter and Cumbrae oysters on one board. If you order one thing, make it the oysters grilled al pastor with seaweed hot sauce. Finish on the chocolate ganache with torched meringue, which the sous chef torches at the table.
• Avoid: arriving after 9pm hungry, and assuming the mains are fish. Since 2025 they mostly are not.

What locals & experts say

• Rosalind Erskine, The Scotsman's food and drink editor, eating the new menu in March 2025: the platter delivered "grilled langoustines with wild garlic butter" and "the best dish, Cumbrae oysters, which come grilled 'al pastor' with seaweed hot sauce or natural. So far, an excellent selection of Scottish seafood as the restaurant's name suggests." ref
• The same writer's reservation, in the same piece, on a fish restaurant filling up with meat: "If they're looking for a new name to match the new menu, iasg agus feòil seems appropriate." ref
• Her launch-year review, January 2022, which she qualifies herself because the kitchen had a major technical fault and the menu was cut short: "While our meal was very nice, it didn't go down as one of my top dining experiences and the prices will be prohibitive for many (although this is dining in a five star hotel)." ref
• The hotel's general manager, Mafalda Albuquerque, on why the concept changed at all, in November 2021: "Here at Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel we care about Scotland's coast and waters, so it was important to us to commit restaurant iasg to a progressive sustainability policy for sourcing our seafood." ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing. His row carries no note of his own and the master list's text for it came from an enrichment pass. What his row does carry is a name that has been out of date since 2021, which this entry fixes.

Good to know

• Currently displaced. The venue's own site says iasg is shut for maintenance and that "Dining and drinks will be hosted in The Salon on the 1st floor during this time." No reopening date is published. Call before you commit an evening.
• Where: inside the Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel, 11 Blythswood Square, five minutes from Sauchiehall Street.
• Timing: lunch noon to 2.30pm and dinner 5 to 9pm daily, with the bar running noon to 11pm and wee bites until nine.
• Booking: worth doing, on 0141 240 1633.
• Price: five-star hotel rates. At the 2022 launch a martini ran GBP 12 and a monkfish main GBP 20.50, and the Scotsman's editor called the prices prohibitive for many.
• The room's other life: it was Bo & Birdy from the 2019 hotel rebrand until November 2021, and the scalloped-tile bar appeared in Succession.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass for the hotel premises, rating date 11 May 2026. Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and this is the freshest inspection in this batch. ref

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Go if you are staying in the hotel, entertaining someone, or you want a plate of Scottish shellfish in a room that looks like it does. The name means fish in Gaelic and the sourcing policy behind it is real, with the hotel committing publicly to hand-dived or creel-caught shellfish and traceability from its suppliers. Rosalind Erskine ate the new menu in March 2025 and called the Cumbrae oysters grilled al pastor with seaweed hot sauce the best thing on the table. The same piece carries the problem: sous chef Roberto Sanchez told her the mains were being pushed toward meat, so a seafood restaurant is drifting off its own premise, and her 2022 review of the launch menu found the prices prohibitive and the meal short of her best. Weighing the plate ahead of the room, that is a competent expensive kitchen with one genuinely good thing to order rather than a reason to cross the city. Check before you book: the dining room is shut for maintenance and service has moved up to The Salon.