The Lansdowne.

The Lansdowne

This basement opened in 1974 as The Ragamuffin, named after a painting of street urchins the owners had hanging in another of their restaurants.

Why go

Mick and Kathy Kenna opened the room, having asked the painter what the picture was called and taken the answer as their sign (Old Glasgow Pubs). Kathy had been secretary to the entertainer Jimmy Logan, Mick did the cooking, and a la carte prime Scotch beef ran to two pounds fifty. The room went through a long stretch as The Lansdowne Bar and Kitchen, then in 2019 the team behind Mother India took it over and kept the basement's character while refurbishing it (Glasgow West End Today). Mother India was opened in 1990 by Monir and Smeena Mohammed, and their format here is small and medium plates rather than a full carte, with the Lemon and Cashew rice carried straight over from Mother India's Cafe (Curry-Heute). Amit Sharma runs the kitchen. The venue shut in October 2021 on what it called a severe shortage of staff and reopened the following April with a new menu. Out the back is the Glasshouse, a conservatory that takes the afternoon sun.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the pakora. The SPICE Awards 2025 judges marked this kitchen Highly Recommended in the Best Pakora category2. Then the South Indian Ginger Lamb, which was fourteen pounds in October 2023, with plain basmati. Take the manager's advice on that pairing rather than the Lemon and Cashew rice, because the flavored rices fight a South Indian masala.
• Avoid: ordering off the tapas section if what you actually want is a curry, which is the trap Hector walked into. And ignore The Skinny's review when you get to the table: the smoked chicken caesar and the chicken stuffed with Stornoway black pudding are from the pre-2019 kitchen and are long gone.

What locals & experts say

• Hector, Curry-Heute (October 2023), on the South Indian Ginger Lamb: The South Indian smokiness was present, but subtly so, and The Seasoning was particularly - low. He rated the meat, The Tender Lamb was quality Meat, then delivered the verdict: the Flavours here were not as intense as those found in other venues serving South Indian Curry, north of the River Clyde.1
• SPICE Awards 2025 (Scotland's independent curry awards), reported by GlasgowWorld: The Lansdowne was Highly Recommended in three categories, Best Team, Best Pakora and Best Indian Restaurant West. It did not win any of the three.2
• Amit Sharma, head chef, on the 2022 reopening: It's great to be back open and seeing so many familiar faces back at the restaurant and welcoming new customers too.3
• The Skinny (Ruth Marsh, undated), reviewing the earlier pub kitchen and worth reading only as history: the room is easy to walk straight past and offers an eclectic mix of surrounds- bright conservatory out back, sociable sofas up front and cosy booths. Her verdict then was a safe bet for solid, confident pub classics.4
• Local rec: Jeff's save. He left no note on it.

Good to know

• Hours are unverified. No source we can reach publishes them. Hector recorded "irregular opening times" with a 1pm Saturday opening in October 2023, and the venue's own domains would not load. Phone 0141 334 4653.
• Booking: recommended, by phone or online. Group bookings up to 60 people, with larger functions Monday to Wednesday on request.
• The room: tenement basement, easy to walk past from the street, booths and long tables inside, and the Glasshouse conservatory at the rear.
• Getting there: Kelvinbridge subway is a few minutes' walk, just off Great Western Road.
• Category note: this was a gastropub under the previous kitchen. Since 2019 it has been an Indian restaurant with a bar.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rates the address a Pass, inspected 10 June 2024.8

Verdict

could-visit — A basement room on Lansdowne Crescent that has been feeding the West End since 1974, when it opened as The Ragamuffin. Since 2019 the kitchen has belonged to the Mother India team, which means small and medium plates rather than a curry-house carte, and the rice list is straight off the Mother India's Cafe menu. The SPICE Awards 2025 judges marked it Highly Recommended for Best Pakora, Best Team and Best Indian Restaurant in the West, so the pakora is the order. Hector of Curry-Heute, who has reviewed over a thousand Glasgow curry houses, ate the South Indian Ginger Lamb and found the meat good and the seasoning low, which is the honest ceiling on this place.