EDINBURGH & LEITH
For cafes, Leith Walk is bountiful, with a selection that includes Nectar (31 Crighton Place, Edinburgh EH7 4NY / nectarleith.com) Hobz Bakery (106 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5DT / hobzbakery.com), and Not Just Coffee (7 Brunswick Place, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH7 5HN).
For drinks, there are also plenty of places on the walk, such as Brass Monkey (362 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5BR / brassmonkeyleith.com), and Boundary Bar (379 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH7 5HN).
If you’re looking for food after a late night out then make sure to go home via Storries Bakery (279 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 8PD).
If you want to go for drinks somewhere more central, then Rose Street in the New Town is crammed with pubs such as Fierce Beer (167 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 4LS / fiercebeer. com), Dirty Dick’s (159 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 4LS / dirtydicksedinburgh.com), and the Black Cat (168 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 4BA / theblackcatbar.com).
Twelve Triangles – Kitchen Table
22-24 Easter Road Edinburgh, EH7 5RG
Twelve Triangles have a number of small cafe bakeries around the city that are mainly takeaways with limited seating, so Kitchen Table is their first properly established sit-in location. Kitchen Table was born in their Leith location, with guests sitting around a single communal table. They have now relocated to bigger premises on Easter Road, thus allowing more people to enjoy the ever-changing seasonal dishes. All of the bread, butter, jam, pickles, ferments, and ice creams are made by Twelve Triangles, which guarantees super fresh produce on every visit.
Open 8.30am to 4pm every day
Paloma
50–54 Henderson Street Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6DE
Handmade tacos are few and far between in Edinburgh, but Paloma have hit our radar. Taking Mexican influence and trendy Leith guile, they fill their tacos with the freshest local produce to create exciting flavour combinations. Drink specialities are premium tequilas and mezcals you’ve possibly never heard of before, and the house cocktail is, of course, a paloma.
Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open 5pm– midnight Wednesday and Thursday, 12 noon– midnight Friday to Sunday
GLASGOW
Popular hangouts in the city centre can be found along Bath Street, such as the 3am licensed dive bar Slouch (203-205 Bath St, Glasgow G2 4HZ / slouch-bar.co.uk) and Blues bar-night club Howlin’ Wolf (100 Bath St, Glasgow G2 2EN / thehowlinwolf.co.uk), which has live music every night, serves food until 2am and is open until 3am.
Closer to the actual centre you’ll find The Old Hairdresser’s (Renfield Lane, Glasgow G2 5AR / theoldhairdressers.com) and Stereo (22 Renfield Lane, Glasgow G2 5AR) across from each other. Stereo also serves vegan food. Their sister bar-restaurant, Mono (12 Kings Court, King Street, Glasgow G1 5RB / monocafebar.com) in the Merchant City also has a vegan food menu, and a record shop.
In the west end look out for The 78 (10–14 Kelvinhaugh Street, Finnieston, Glasgow G3 8NU / the78.co.uk), Bag o’ Nails (165 Dumbarton Rd, Partick, Glasgow G11 6AA / bag-o-nails.co.uk) which serves food until 1am, and The Doublet (74 Park Rd, Glasgow G4 9JF).
Bloc+
117 Bath Street Glasgow, G2 2SZ
Not only is Bloc+ somewhere to eat, it’s also a cracking wee basement music venue. All artists performing are paid for doing so, which is surprisingly unusual. Open 7 days a week, they offer daily deals such as Pasta Monday, Burger Tuesday, Steak Wednesday, Kentucky Thursday, Bloc+ Dog Friday and Super Special Sundays, which offers all the daily deals from 11am to 5pm. They have an entire vegan and veggie menu, and won Come Dine with Me: The Professionals last year.
Open from 12 noon until 3am all week
The Laurieston Bar
58 Bridge Street Glasgow, G5 9HU
This timewarp of a pub recently changed hands but has lost none of its charm. It’s cheap and just over the river, across from Bridge Street underground, so a popular stop on the ‘sub crawl’ and easy to reach from the city centre. It’s also the ideal stop for a pre-gig drink at the O2 Academy. There’s also a free jukebox, warm pies (if you get there early enough), and a secret room!
Opens 11am (Sunday 12.30pm) until 11pm (midnight Friday and Saturday)
DUNDEE
For late-night munchies, Clark’s Bakery (3 Annfield St, Dundee DD1 5JH / clarksbakery.co.uk) is a saviour. Closer to Abertay University you will find…
Student life in Dundee mainly revolves mainly around Perth Road, where you’ll find a selection of pubs such as the Speedwell Bar (165–167 Perth Road, Dundee DD2 1AS / speedwellbar.co.uk), Tay Bridge Bar (129 Perth Road, Dundee DD1 4JD / taybridgebar.co.uk), The George Orwell (168 Perth Road, Dundee DD1 4JS) and The Phoenix (103 Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4DH); a selection of cafes such as EH9 Espresso (248 Perth Road, Dundee DD1 4LL / eh9espresso. com), and Pacamara Food & Drink (302 Perth Road, Dundee DD2 1AU / pacamara.co.uk).
CommuniTAYfood
23 Brown Street Dundee, DD1 5EF
A social enterprise cafe and supermarket run by Tayside Deaf Hub and open to everyone, local or not. The full menu is available to sit in or take away and includes filled rolls, sandwiches, wraps, salads, pies, macaroni cheese, tray bakes, and more. Nutritional information is available and they also offer a coffee subscription (one a day) for £14.95 per month. You could easily miss this hidden cafe, which you can also access from Marketgait rather than Brown Street – just look for the red door on the large grey building.
Open weekdays from 9am–2pm (last orders for food 1.30pm)
The Pancake Place
22 Reform St Dundee, DD1 1RH
This used to be a popular restaurant all over Scotland, with outlets in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but now there are only three left and you’ll find one in the centre of Dundee. Their speciality is pancakes – of course – but they also do fry-ups, soup and sandwich deals, hot dogs, burgers, toasties, baked potatoes, loaded fries, and more.
Open 9am to 5pm, Monday–Saturday, and from 10.30am–5pm on Sunday
PAISLEY
As soon as you step off campus onto the High Street you’ll find a selection of great cafes: first en route is Roasters (69 High Street, Paisley PA1 2AY), followed by Nomads’ Coffee (63 High Street, Paisley PA1 2AS), then Food Forty Six (46 High Street, Paisley PA1 2AH).
For drinks you’ll find plenty of options near the university, such as De Beers (59 High Street, Paisley PA1 2AS), The Wee Howff (53 High Street, Paisley PA1 2AN), and Gantry (12 New Street, Paisley PA1 1XY / gantrypaisley.co.uk).
Who’s Cafe
33 Moss Street Paisley, PA1 1DL
An unexpected Asian-fusion cafe next to Paisley Gilmour Street train station with a curious name. This little cafe serves up an assortment of Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese-influenced dishes. They also do one of the best matcha lattes we’ve had in Scotland.
The Grumpy Monkey Coffee House
22 Moss Street Paisley, PA1 1BA
It’s really popular with OAPs and no wonder: a bowl of soup is only £2.90, which we would happily return for. The rest of the menu is basic and no frills but great value.
STIRLING
Cafes worth seeking out are HBW Coffee (54/56 Barnton Street, Stirling FK8 1NA / hbwcoffee.co.uk), Toasted (46 King Street, Stirling FK8 1AY), and Unorthodox Roasters (12 Friars Street, Stirling FK8 1HA / unorthodoxroasters.co.uk).
Pubs in the city centre are all close to each other – the only issue is the hilly streets in central Stirling. Within a short walking distance you will find The City Walls (6 The Back Walk, Stirling FK8 2QA), No. 2 Baker Street (2 Baker Street, Stirling FK8 1BJ), and Nicky Tams (29 Baker Street, Stirling FK8 1BJ / nickytams.com).
Settle Inn
91 St Mary’s Wynd Stirling, FK8 1BU
This is the oldest pub in Stirling, established in 1733. It does feel like it if you look at the fireplace, where a stove fire keeps the pub cosy in winter, or choose to sit under the stone barrel-vaulted ceiling at the back of the pub. All spirit measures are 35ml and they always have at least one cask ale on. They also have Jubel peach beer on draught.
Open from noon at the weekend, 3pm every other day until midnight all week
Gabe’s Diner
Forthside Way Stirling, FK8 1QZ
If you’re heading to the Vue cinema then this is a great place for scran before or after. They have quite a large selection covering breakfast items, crepes, sandwiches, and a lot of home comfort dishes. They aren’t licensed but you can BYOB and corkage for a beer is £1.
Closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday 11.30am–3pm, Thursday and Friday 1.30–8pm, Saturday 10:30am–9pm, Sunday 10.30–8pm
