Cafe Strange Brew
Julie Lin credits this room with starting the Southside brunch scene that now runs the length of Pollokshaws Road, and says in the same breath that the woman who runs it is her friend.
Why go
Laurie Macmillan opened it in the unit Pudding Lane had held, and within a year a Glasgow food blog was calling it a firm favourite with locals and those from further afield
(Foodie Explorers). The brunch cooking in that account is worth reading for the detail: three eggs baked under a creamy cheddar and smoked salmon sauce, served with Lockerbie butter, and poached egg on toasted sourdough with smashed avocado and a chilli hollandaise carrying real heat. There is a London fog on the drinks list, which is Earl Grey brewed into hot milk. The room is small, it fills, and the advice from that first visit still stands. Every dish described above comes from a 2016 blog post. Julie Lin named it her number one cafe in Glasgow's industry guide. I haven't found anything newer.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the poached egg, smashed avocado and chilli hollandaise on sourdough, with bacon. Baked eggs with cheddar and salmon if you want the richer one. A London fog alongside.
- Avoid: a late weekend arrival, and any listing's address. Three street numbers are in circulation for this cafe.
What locals & experts say
- Julie Lin, chef and author, in Glasgow's industry guide, naming her number one cafe:
My number one cafe has to be my friend Laurie Macmillan's Cafe Strange Brew. She started up this amazing brunch scene that now exists in the Southside of the city and it's remained brilliant ever since.
She discloses the friendship herself, and that disclosure travels with the quote.1 - Emma Mykytyn, Foodie Explorers, February 2016, cited as community signal rather than expertise, on the dish to order: the poached egg, sourdough, smashed avocado and chilli hollandaise with bacon was
heavenly. Fresh bread, creamy avocado and a perfectly cooked gooey egg with hollandaise that had a slight kick to it. This is the best brunch item we've had for a good while.
2 - The same post's practical warning, which is the most durable thing in it:
get there sharp as it gets very busy
.2 - Nothing since. No masthead has covered this cafe, the venue's own site could not be reached on 30 July 2026, and no account of the food after 2016 was found.
Good to know
- Where: 1084 Pollokshaws Road in Shawlands, per the food hygiene register. Listings also give 1082, and a 2016 review gives 1109, so check before you walk.
- Timing: mornings, and early. Current hours are not published anywhere reachable.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Channels: the cafe's own domain refused connections in this pass, so its socials are the place to check the menu and hours.
- Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 22 January 2019. Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and that inspection is seven and a half years old.3
Verdict
could-visit — Julie Lin calls this her number one cafe in Glasgow and credits Laurie Macmillan with starting the Southside brunch scene that now runs the length of Pollokshaws Road, and she says in the same sentence that Macmillan is her friend, which is a disclosure worth carrying rather than ignoring. The cooking Emma Mykytyn described when the room opened was good and specific: three baked eggs under a cheddar and smoked salmon cream, poached egg on toasted sourdough with smashed avocado and chilli hollandaise that she called the best brunch item she had eaten in a while, and a London fog if you want Earl Grey in hot milk instead of coffee. The problem is that account is from 2016 and nothing since has been readable. The cafe's own website refuses connections, no newspaper has reviewed it, and the hygiene register has not recorded an inspection since January 2019. So it sits mid-ladder on a friend's recommendation and a decade-old meal. Go on a Saturday morning, go early because it is small and it fills, and check the door number before you set off.