Six Glasgow institutions that still earn the table, and the plate to order at each

The all-day breakfast at the University Café comes with Lorne sausage, a crisp tattie scone and black pudding that The Infatuation’s reviewer called “especially crumbly” in July. The café opened on Byres Road in 1918, when Glasgow still had hundreds of Italian ice-cream shops: an estimated 336 by 1905. A handful of the city’s old rooms have outlasted almost everything since, and each still has one plate worth the trip. For a visitor’s first night, book the Chip.

How we chose: Glasgow restaurants, cafés and bars trading for at least 30 years, each priced from its own current menu where it publishes one.

University Café

Alfredo Verrecchia, a ship’s carpenter, founded the café in 1918, and his family now runs it in its fourth generation, in the original booths. Have the breakfast, then an ice cream. Weekday mornings are quiet; weekends bring a queue for cones and chips. Byres Road, West End · prices not published · walk-in

Café Gandolfi

Order the Gandolfi Full Breakfast at £15.50, built around Stornoway black pudding from Macleod and MacLeod, with a potato scone and sourdough. Seumas MacInnes’s family café opened in the Merchant City in 1979, and the room is furnished with one of the best collections of Tim Stead’s carved wooden furniture. Breakfast runs until 11.15am, Monday to Saturday. Albion Street, Merchant City · full breakfast £15.50 · Mon 8am–3pm, Tue–Thu 8am–10pm, Fri–Sat 8am–11pm, Sun 9am–3pm

Ubiquitous Chip

The Chip opened on Ashton Lane in 1971 to show off Scottish produce, and this year Historic Environment Scotland listed the building at category B, citing the Alasdair Gray murals inside. Six rooms now share the address, from the restaurant to the Wee Whisky Bar and a rooftop terrace. In the restaurant, the £80 tasting menu ends its savoury run on Newtonmore venison; downstairs, the brasserie takes walk-ins. Ashton Lane, Hillhead · tasting menu £80 · book the restaurant, walk-in for the brasserie

Sloans

By its own account, Sloans has welcomed Glasgow since 1797, which would make it the city’s oldest bar and restaurant. The macaroni cheese pie, at £9.50, is the dish the menu itself calls legendary. On Friday nights the upstairs ballroom holds a ceilidh for over-18s, and there is a courtyard beer garden off the Argyll Arcade. Bring a card: it does not take cash. Argyll Arcade, city centre · macaroni cheese pie £9.50 · Sun–Thu noon–midnight, Fri–Sat to 1am · book online

Stravaigin

Since 1995 Stravaigin has cooked to the motto “think global, eat local”, which Michelin quotes in its listing. It makes its own haggis, and the main to order is the Loch Melfort sea trout at £28.50. The café bar welcomes dogs and has a children’s menu. Gibson Street, West End · sea trout £28.50 · café bar daily from noon · book

Coia’s Café

Carmine and Amalia Coia opened their Dennistoun café in 1928, and the third generation of the family runs it now. The Coia’s Breakfast at £16.95 is the full plate: sausage, bacon, egg, black pudding, fried bread and a potato scone, with beans, tomatoes and mushrooms and a tea or coffee included. It is served until noon from Monday to Saturday and until 12.30pm on Sunday, and since 2006 the café has had a deli and takeaway next door. Duke Street, Dennistoun · Coia’s Breakfast £16.95 · breakfast Mon–Sat 7am–noon, Sun 9.30am–12.30pm

Checked October 2026.