The Old Fish Bar
The fryer is gone. What is on Coustonholm Road now shucks raw oysters from GBP 2.50, pours whisky, and keeps a GBP 5 beer battered cod on the card as the only thing left from the chip shop the name came from (venue).
Why go
A Shawlands room that converted from a chip shop into a small-plates seafood counter, describing itself as merging the rich traditions of a classic whisky bar with the fresh flavors of the sea
2. The current card leans Italian: tagliatelle al sugo di pesce at GBP 16, scallop polenta e guanciale at GBP 17, and a four-course Italian experience at GBP 38. Aperitivo platters run GBP 8.50 to GBP 14 and the service window opens at 16:00 midweek. The menu is built to rotate, which is the part that makes this worth watching rather than just eating at once.
Order this / avoid
- Order: oysters first, then the scallop and guanciale. Cured pork fat against a sweet shellfish is the oldest trick in that pairing and it tells you quickly whether the kitchen has a hand or just a supplier.
- Avoid: going in expecting a fish supper. The one survivor of the old menu is the GBP 5 beer battered cod, sized as a snack2.
What locals & experts say
- millennial_menu_ (TikTok, 2024), community signal:
The Old Fish Bar in Shawlands has been transformed to a gourmet small plates restaurant and they are smashing the brief!
Attributed creator enthusiasm rather than criticism, and corroborated on the facts by the venue's own site.3 - The venue's own claim: a room where
maritime charm meets refined elegance.
Their words, and no critic in the approved register has tested them.2 - Food hygiene, checked and not found: no FSA registration could be located at 74 Coustonholm Road on 2026-07-29, under any name searched. An absent record rather than a bad one, and worth re-checking.4
- Local rec: Jeff's note, "Multiple.recs." More than one person sent him here, and his note does not say who.
Good to know
- Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday to Friday 17:00 to midnight, Saturday and Sunday noon to midnight. Aperitivo runs from 16:00 midweek and from noon at weekends, both to 19:00.
- Booking: through the venue's own site. A small converted shop unit fills fast at weekends.
- Getting there: Coustonholm Road sits off Pollokshaws Road behind Shawlands Arcade, a few minutes from Pollokshaws East station.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Multiple.recs"
Verdict
could-visit — A former Shawlands chip shop now shucking oysters from GBP 2.50 and running a four-course Italian seafood menu at GBP 38, open to midnight Wednesday through Sunday with an aperitivo window. The format is genuinely uncommon in the Southside and Jeff's row says more than one person pointed him at it. It cannot go higher than could-visit because not one food writer, chef or critic has been found writing about it, so every qualitative claim here is either the venue's own or a creator's enthusiasm.