The Bell Jar.

The Bell Jar

Two reviewers ate the peat-smoked haddock gratin eleven weeks apart and could not agree on it: Time Out called it the pick of the menu, and Foodie Explorers found the sauce thin enough to pass for a chunky Cullen skink.

Why go

The kitchen runs one A4 sheet of shareable small plates, mostly Mediterranean in feel, and then puts peat smoked fish and pilaf on the same page because Govanhill has a history of Irish, Pakistani and Roma immigration (SNACK). Lamb shoulder lasagne comes under melted goat's cheese. Halloumi arrives in chunky strips with pomegranate, flaked almonds and coriander. Desserts change daily and live on a blackboard behind the bar. The room was the very tired Life O'Reilly on the corner of Dixon Avenue and Westmoreland Street until the team behind The Sparkle Horse in the west end took it on, Sci-Fi Steve of the band Bis among them. Time Out's Craig Angus found a charming ’50s-style saloon, cosy and intimate, with older regulars arguing about the title race at the bar and local musicians finishing their weekend in the dining area (Time Out). The beer is where expectations should sit lower: CAMRA's branch survey records Cask Ale not available and a small corner bar offering draught beers from West and Drygate with cans from Overtone, Bellfield, Simple Things and Williams Bros (CAMRA).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the lamb shoulder lasagne with goat's cheese, and the spicy baked aubergine with cherry tomatoes, which runs heavy on cumin rather than heat. Rosemary roast potatoes to mop up whatever the other plates leave behind. Take the peat-smoked haddock gratin knowing the sauce is loose.
• Avoid: cask, because there is none. Do not go expecting a main course either; the board is built for sharing three or four plates between two.

What locals & experts say

• Craig Angus, Time Out Glasgow, May 2019, four stars and Recommended: the peat-smoked haddock with potato and leek gratin was the pick of the dishes, a creamy dose of comfort food, perfect for a Sunday evening, and the spicy baked aubergine was a treat too, with the heat adding punch but not in an overwhelming way.1
• The same review's caveat, on money: it runs a little bit pricier than the likes of the nearby Queen's Park Cafe.1
• Foodie Explorers in SNACK Magazine, February 2019, on the same gratin and disagreeing: our only criticism was that the sauce was quite thin; almost more like an extremely chunky Cullen Skink soup. The same review praised the lamb shoulder lasagne as hearty wholesome fare which was gobbled up quickly.2
• CAMRA, Glasgow & West of Scotland branch, survey updated February 2025: Small corner bar offering draught beers from West and Drygate and cans/bottles from Overtone, Bellfield, Simple Things and Williams Bros. The same listing records Cask Ale not available.3
• Nothing since 2020. The Skinny, the Glasgow Times food desk, Glasgowist and The Glasgow Bell were searched on 30 July 2026 and none carries a later assessment.

Good to know

• Where: 21 Dixon Avenue on the Westmoreland Street corner, 170 m from Queens Park station and 80 m from the buses.
• Booking: walk-in. CAMRA records lunchtime and evening meals, and a quiz night.
• Dogs: welcome, and on Time Out's visit there were three of them in the room.
• The website is gone. belljarglasgow.com, the address CAMRA still lists, now returns a Wix page saying the domain is not connected to a site. Facebook is the live channel.
• The other pub: the same team runs The Sparkle Horse at 16 Dowanhill Street in the west end. Jeff has been to that one and rates the atmosphere over the drinks. His verdict there is not a verdict here.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 15 April 2019 (FHRSID 1108336, Glasgow City Council). Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and that inspection is seven years old.5

Jeff's take (his words)

The one place of theirs I have written about is their west-end pub, The Sparkle Horse: "Hipster Partick pub. Nice atmosphere but mediocre hipster drinks." That pub is in Partick, and this one is on Dixon Avenue.

Verdict

could-visit — A small corner bar in Govanhill where the kitchen runs one A4 sheet of shareable plates that lean Mediterranean and then reach for peat-smoked fish and pilaf, which is a fair reading of a neighborhood built by Irish, Pakistani and Roma arrivals. Time Out gave it four stars and called the peat-smoked haddock gratin the pick of the menu; Foodie Explorers, eating the same dish weeks earlier, found the sauce thin enough to be a chunky Cullen skink. That split is the honest picture of the cooking: ambitious for a pub board, uneven on the day. The drinks are ordinary by Glasgow standards, with no cask and West and Drygate on draught, and Jeff's verdict on the same team's west-end pub is 'nice atmosphere but mediocre hipster drinks', which is about the operator rather than this room. Weighing the plate first, this earns a stop when you are in the Southside and a seat at the Monday quiz. It does not earn a trip across the city, and nobody has assessed the kitchen since 2019.