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Glasgow West End: Eating Out: Restaurants, Cafes and Bistros: Cafes, Bistros and Tea rooms

Sonny & Vito’s

52 Park Road, Kelvinbridge, Telephone: 0141 357 0640

Angela and Mario Pelosi’s great new bistro/deli – opened Summer 2007 and immediately a great hit with local shopkeepers and Westenders and tourists. A favourite spot to meet up with friends, enjoy their fabulous coconut bread and lemon curd or some tasty fresh sandwiches. Friendly staff, efficient service and lots of nice things to take home from the deli.
I’m sure the Pelosi twins (the bistro is called after them) approve of this new venture. Read the feature

Il Caffe

Anniesland. Popular bistro almost at the junction of Crow Road and Great Western Road. Roy Beers is a big fan and reckons they deserve an accolade for serving up the West End’s Best Brunch. Read his account of this ‘charming’ little eaterie – Il Caffe

189 Byres Road (0141 339 3108). Very modern with that designer feel; this coffee bar is always busy but lots of staff. Nice to sit outside and watch the world go by or have a wifi session – you’ll liable to spot Jim there complete with his Macbook. It’s a family favourite and John is a big fan of their drinking chocolate.

The Rio Cafe

27 Hyndland Street, Partick. Tel: 0141 334 9909

A very lively and spacious diner bringing a bit of magic to Partick. Great choice of food and brilliant atmosphere. You can also sample some Jazz every Thursday night and on Fridays, Mark Robb, one of the owners spins his latest 45s.
Wonderful for breakfast and brunch – I love their Eggs Benedict.
Amazing how they’ve managed to create a family friendly bistro that’s also a cool place to hang out.

Little Italy

205 Byres Road. (0141 339 6287)

a Glasgow West End favourite – with homemade everything Remo Crolla’s ‘Little Italy’is one of the West End’s most loved establishments and has to be counted among Glasgow’s top Pizzerias.
Pick up freshly made pizza to go and enjoy “the best cappuccino in the West End”. Deli cum cafe. Very popular and lively. The photograph is of James Clark, who represented Little Italy in Delifrance’s Sandwich Making Competition where he won first prize in the UK and third in Europe. LI just gets better and better – Jim is addicted to their minestrone.Feature on Little Italy

Tchai-ovna

Otago Lane, off Otago Street, Hillhead.
The house of tea is very innovative and offers various attractions other than a wide range of teas with a focus on art and entertainment. They also know their teas with “40 varieties from all over the world” to choose from. Popular with student’s looking for a ‘legal high’.

Jellyhill, 195 Hyndland Road, G12.

A continental style cafe, where you can relax and have a bite to eat at anytime. You can enjoy an ever changing selection of sandwiches and snacks in very attractive surroundings. There are lots of interesting features including fabulous lighting designed specially for Jellyhill by the Drumchapel Arts Workshop.
Open 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. Sunday – Wednesday, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. Thursday – Saturday. Featured on this site: Jellyhill Cafe Bar in Hyndland.

Cafe D` Jaconelli

570 Maryhill RD, Glasgow, G20 7EE
To the North of the West End – this traditional cafe in Maryhill was established in 1924 and has been seen on many prestigious films including Trainspotting, Carla’s Song and Tutti Frutti – Blue Nile filmed a video there. I got all this information from James Evans the proprietor, who felt it deserved to be included on the Web site. As he says it has a: ” distinctive original 40`s style which is still very much beautiful”. James also claims that it sells “probably the best ice-cream in Glasgow, if not Scotland, and if you dont believe me ask the Glasgow Herald, for when they did an ice-cream competition two years ago I received Top Vote”.

I’ve yet to try their ice cream but I am convinced – they cafe is beautiful and does a roaring trade. Jim and I had our breakfast there last week ( 2, July, 2000). Incredibly cheap and very nice.

Cafe JJ

180 Dumbarton Road, (357 1881). A very popular stopping off point for shoppers. Good selection of light meals, nice coffee and tea. Very civilized and comfortable.

Costa Coffee Shop

Great Western Road, Kelvinbridge. At the corner of Otago Street. Coffee chain in a converted bank building, very spacious and relaxed atmosphere. One of Jim’s favourite spots – he can oft times be found there reading the papers over breakfast on a Saturday morning.

Criterion Cafe

217 Dumbarton Road, partick (576 0028). Popular with shoppers and those who know that this is where you get the best ice cream in Partick.

Crows Nest Bistro

846 Crow Road, Anniesland (959 1477). Skirting the edges of the West End but too popular to leave out. A long established favourite for tea, coffee and snacks.

North Star Provisions

108 Queen Margaret Drive, North Kelvinside. Tel. 946 5365. Strongly recommended by the discerning Bowes Family this is a real find and very different. Very handy for the Botanics and the BBC crowd. Brilliant coffee, ‘little plates’ and deli. “A new type of food shop and pocket cafe with specialities from Portugal and Southern Europe”. It’s bound to be a winner – the proprietors were the original owners of the much lauded Cafe Gandolfi.
Northstar has now changed hands but retains much of its charm.
“No longer any connection with Iain McKenzie, ex-Gandolfi owner, who started
it, but still doing the same little plates of food, excellent Portugeuse
coffee and great home-made cakes. They have sensibly re-arranged the seating”
so there’s more chance of getting a table now”. (Tom Cannavan, West End Wine Guru – Feb. 2002).

The Tea Garden

9 Gardner Street, Partick (339 9174). Always busy this traditional bistro/tea room serves some interesting and substantial dishes. Very good value it is a popular lunch place for shoppers.

University Cafe

87 Byres Road (339 5217). A great old favourite – an old fashioned cafe with all the traditional dishes – very big on comfort eating and brilliant for cold winter’s days. Students could not survive without it. Established by the Verrecchia family in 1918 this West End institution is now run by the fourth generation (Gino and his wife Lidia). You’ve got to try their prize winning ice cream – made on the premises.

This section: Cafes and Bistros, Eating and drinking Glasgow West End