Gandolfi Fish

Delicious and sophisticated Glasgow dining. Encapsulating all that is wonderful about the Merchant City– Scottish style, elegant and clean design with a friendly and professional vibe. You could visit here for business or with friends and both would be grand.
The service was pitch perfect– friendly and attentive and a really consistent tone from all staff, like all the best places have.
The décor inside is lovely, really in keeping with the Scottish sea theme, atmospheric mood lighting and great details like high quality cutlery and glasses make for a high end feel to the dining experience.
The pre-​theatre is £15.95 for 2 courses or £17.95 for 3 and has a great selection of signature dishes. The portions are very generous, especially for a pre-​theatre, so you need a big appetite to do it justice!
The soup of the day– spiced lentil– was gorgeous and a truly epic bowl which left me pretty much full after just a starter.
The fish pie was absolutely outstanding — as a frequenter of fish pies I would say this is up there with the best I’ve had.
The food is really great quality, quite high in salt and butter and the naughty things so probably not the best option for the more healthy eater unless it’s a special treat.
I’ll definitely be back to try more of the menu.

Loved this place ! We were going to just go to the take away fish and chips side of the restaurant but decided to sit down instead. Such a great choice.
We had a pre theatre two course meal for 15.95 and it was worth it.
I started with the black pudding and venison and then finished it with the fish and chips we came for (some of the best in Glasgow). My friends also had fish and chips but one had the soup of the day to start, carrot and ginger soup, and the other had the smoked salmon.
The service was great and I would recommend this place to anyone.

What a great place! My guy and I, along with the sister in law came in here for lunch to celebrate my guys birthday. I planned ahead and made reservations and let them know we were in to celebrate. Upon arriving, we were greeted and given a complementary glass of fizz as a way of saying happy birthday. That was a really nice touch and just added to the experience.
We all ordered off their set lunch menu. I went with their smoked salmon started which was covered in capers and gherkins, with little dabs of mustardy mayo. It was devine and I really enjoyed it. My guy ordered the black pudding started and the sister in law ordered the thai spiced prawn cocktail. We all really enjoyed the starters.
Our mains were the star attractions, really. I ordered the fish pie, which was delicious. It was full up with huge chunks of salmon, prawns and other seafood, and covered with cheddar mashed potatoes. Heaven. My guy and SIL both ordered the sea bass, which they both loved.
We really enjoyed our meals and the whole ambiance of the restaurant was great. We were pretty surprised at how few tables were full when we got there, but once we were finished, the place was pretty full. The two guys who were on staff were really friendly and helpful and quick to keep our water jug full and our table cleaned off. Great experience only topped off with cocktails afterwards at Bar Gandolfi. We will be back.

Gandolfi = good. Fish= good. So Gandolfi + Fish = very good, right? Wrong.
If you are expecting a light, vibrant, even healthy meal of delicious fish then prepare to be disappointed by what is, essentially, a posh chippy.
I had mackerel pâté with oatcakes to start. It was alright. Nothing special. I’d be very happy if I’d got that in a wee local pub at lunchtime. My friends had scallops with black pudding (to their credit, 3 plump, juicy looking scallops), a pile of very tasty looking salt and chilli squid, and some vegetable tempura and I got major food envy because they all looked better than my starter.
For my main, I gave up trying to find something light and zesty looking, and opted instead for the 20 quid posh scampi and chips. (The menu is heavily weighted towards deep fried stuff with chips, and creamy stuff with chips). The ‘scampi’ was prawns and monkfish in breadcrumbs, hence the ‘posh’. It came with a tumbler of coleslaw, some salad and chips. It was nice, perfectly acceptable even, but not soooo incredibly tasty that it is ok for scampi and chips to be 20 quid. It is NOT ok for scampi and chips to be 20 quid. Even if the scampi was made of celebrity monkfish and Nobel-​prize-​winning prawns, it’s not ok for it to be 20 quid. Full disclosure, though: if I ever find myself on death row, my last meal will be scampi and chips in a doily-​lined basket, of the filthynasty pub lunch variety. Its my all-​time favourite meal. I have opted-​in to rainy Sunday daytrips to climb hills just because there’s a promise of scampi and chips in the pub on the way home. I love scampi and chips thaaaat much, so mucking about with it to make gussied-​up scampi don’t impress me much.
The service was very friendly and efficient so to be honest two of my stars are for the service. There were a couple of mistakes with the order (skinny fries rather than chunky, missing side-​orders) but they were correctly quickly so it was fine.
I paid £50 plus tip for mackerel pâté, scampi & chips, half a bottle of prosecco and an espresso which is kind of steep. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to pay that for a good meal, but this was just ‘alright’.
The restaurant also has a takeaway chippy counter through the glass which adds to the impression that you are in a posh chippy. The warm, wafting wall of greasy chippy stink hits you as soon as you walk in, and then clings to your clothes and your hair til you wash them, so watch out for that special treat after you leave.
If you want the ‘Gandolfi’ experience, you are probably best going to Café Gandolfi down the road, and if you want fish, go to a different fish place like 2 Fat Ladies maybe.

On a busy Saturday night, my dad was hunting for somewhere to go for dinner. He doesn’t generally like booking a place when he’s indecisive about where to eat so we turned up to Merchant City and wandered around. He went into Gandolfi Fish on the off chance they had a table soon. Luckily for us, they did BUT they needed it back within an hour and 15 mins. Eeeeek.
We decided to stay and ordered starters, I got scallops with black pudding. VERY good. The scallops were cooked to my liking (I’m fussy with scallops after my scallop incident of 2010 where I got vile food poisoning at another Merchant City restaurant). The black pudding and it’s crispiness complemented my scallops.
For main course, I ordered langoustines that were served with fries. Once again, I couldn’t fault how they were cooked. Thankfully they weren’t overcooked rubber! They are a little tricky to eat but that’s all part of the fun.
Before I knew it, the people that were to dine at our table turned up 15 mins early and the staff were trying to now rush us out and said, sorry no dessert. We couldn’t switch to another table either so instead we went to Tinderbox around the corner for coffee and cake.
I would have loved to have spent more time in the restaurant, but it was our own fault for just walking in off the street instead of booking. Morale of the story? BOOK A TABLE.

Delishious food and great staff.
While some of the mains are a little pricey, the taste and ingredients more than make up for it.
The Scallop and black pudding starter was cooked perfectly and nicely balanced.
The smoked haddock main was, again, cooked beautifully and the accompanying sauce and veg lovely.
Wine choice was good. The staff also get a big thumbs up.

I was here on Saturday for the wedding dinner of two close friends. First of all, I like the name. It makes me think of Lord Of The Rings (yes, I know that’s Gandalf). However the name also tentatively suggests that this might just be a fish restaurant, which is not generally in agreement with my food tastes. However, as this was a wedding reception, the bride and groom had chosen a varied menu across the hors d’oeuvres, starter and main course.
I can confidently tell you that the restaurant can hold 57 people, as we had the whole restaurant to ourselves and that was the size of the party! Several small tables and a couple of booths but everyone had a view of the bridal table.
Hors d’oeurvres included haggis balls and tapenade bruschetta (both delicious) and the champagne was fairly free flowing! When it came to the wine on the table, we had white and red but the staff were perfectly happy to swap white out for rose on request. With the temperature such as it was on Saturday, it was fairly warm inside (unless you had been seated underneath an air conditioning vent!) — top marks to the kitchen staff who must have been sweltering! I had tomato and basil soup for starter, very nice, and followed this up with a steak, which I really enjoyed. I dessert was a chocolate torte, also delicious. The staff were very attentive and friendly, overall a good experience!

I’ve swithered over how to rate Gandolfi Fish, because *most* of the food was fine, good even. But there were some major problems that really let it down.
My seafood loving sister was celebrating her birthday, so off to Gandolfi Fish we went. Things started badly when I was given a cream sherry rather than dry like I’d ordered, but I didn’t bother to flag this up and drank it anyway… Our starters were good — I had the salt and chilli squid which was very tasty, which a good amount of kick in it (although perhaps a little batter light). The other starters all looked good and we ate them happily.
It was when the mains came in that things really went downhill. The baked cod I believe was good, the steak was delicious, the fish pie was so so — the liquour was watery and it really could have done with a few minutes under the grill to crisp up the top and give it some colour. And that’s not mentioning the fact that it was verging on undercooked — chewy prawn? No thanks.
And talking of undercooked. The birthday girl ordered a half lobster. She couldn’t cut it. Eventually, after trying most of the knives on the table she managed to saw a bit off and put it in her mouth, and spat it back out again. Dad tried it too, it came right back out of his mouth too. The verdict? Raw. Raw lobster?! This should never have been served. It was sent back and to the waiter’s credit he apologised profusely, and while we were waiting for a replacement (and us all eating our mains with my sister sat hungry) he brought her a small plate of langoustines — these, I’m pleased to report, were good.
But the second serving of lobster… well you’d hope that one would be fine. It was at least cooked. It was, however, off. Lobster shouldn’t be able to twist round your fork like spaghetti. Nor should it taste disgusting. So this too was sent back. The waiter then informed us that the chef, having had a look at the rest of their stock, had decided just to take lobster off the menu full stop. Another waiter, bizarrely, told us that the chef hadn’t actually been happy with the second serving but sent it out anyway?! Why would a. any self-​respecting chef send out something they weren’t happy with, and b. the waiter tell us this?! Seafood isn’t something you can send out undercooked, it could really make you ill. This time, rather than more langoustines, sister got a glass of champagne and decided she was going to give up on a main course.
By the way, the deserts were pretty good. I had the dark chocolate torte with chantilly cream and ‘dark chocolate sauce’ (three tiny dots). The torte was very nice, the casing particularly so. I’m not sure what it was as the menu didn’t say, but I’d hazard a guess at pistachio. It was £7 though, for a tiny sliver.
The food on the whole was good, the service was fine and they mostly coped well with our complaints. But the lobster incident really let them down — especially as it happened twice. Which for any restaurant, especially a fish one, just shouldn’t happen.

The Portonian and I enjoyed their latest wine tasting evening, «The Spice Route», five courses (cod, clams, halibut, lamb chop and stew) with accompanying wines from Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Brazil, followed by tea/​coffee and chocolate truffle: the wine talk was very interesting, but for me the star was the food, and unfortunately the first course had to wait on the pass until the talking was over; the kitchen staff then took control and thereafter the food came out after the talking was over, and rightly so, we should wait for the food to be served as the chef wishes rather than the food waiting for us. It would be nice to have a chance to hear from the chef, to hear their description of ingredients and inspiration for the dishes. Looking forward to the next adventure.

I’ve been a fan of Café Gandolfi for many years, and upon returning to the city on business i was excited to eat once again at this Glasgow institution. I hadn’t appreciated that it had been revamped with a new found focus on fish, but it still lived up to expectation. The service was great, and I had a little of fun with the barman as I tasted various wines in search of a perfect sauvignon blanc. The menu is extensive and includes Scottish twists, e.g., black pudding with scallops. I opted for the mussels as a starter, which I enjoyed although I would have preferred a small piece of toasted bread rather than the baguette to accompany it. Following that I had their special which was a halibut and crab crushed potato. Overall, a great meal with great service. Would definitely recommend it.

Unfortunately my experience at Gandolfi Fish was less than I’d expected.
Maybe I expected too much?
A few days before our day oot in Glasgow, I looked up the menu for Gandolfi Fish (having heard such great stuff about Café Gandolfi) and had what I wanted all picked out. I was pretty excited to get some oysters, scallops with black pudding, and was torn between the amazing sounding mains of baked fillet of cod with pea risotto, and fritto misto.
The day of, I specifically arrived hungry so I would be able to eat the oyster + two courses I had my eye on. I love seafood, and I was excited.
The service was attentive and friendly, but professional as well. The service was really the highlight of the evening, especially considering the fact that the FIL is more demanding than his tipping warrants…
But the food… oh hum.
The food was fine. The food was at times nice, but was mostly fine. But, for roughly £30 per person for three courses (and I would have been too hungry after just two courses), I wasn’t impressed.
Here’s what was weird, though —
The starters and desserts were well presented and were arguably worth their price tag. But the mains? The mains were well it really fell flat — they were poorly presented and were smaller than I would have expected. They were in fact small enough that I ordered a dessert as I wasn’t in the least bit full.
My fritto misto (which was about a dozen mouthfulls of food) was accompanied by «roast garnic aioli» which had not only been sitting in the little pot long enough to have a thick skin on it, it was bright yellow (no idea) and did not have (in my opinion) nearly enough garlic flavour.
My MIL ordered the baked cod with risotto and was served a pitifully small piece of cod in a large bowl of risotto.
For dessert, the panna cotta was gorgeous but I unfortunately ordered the chocolate tart which was hard chocolate in a too-​thick, hard shell, served with a too-​tart berry compote. Meh.
Even The Man commented to me later that he felt Gandolfi Fish was really just a hyped up chippy and not worth the steep price tag. The Man likes all food, so when he makes that kind of comment, it’s definitely worth noting.
All in all I felt let down, and within hours I was starving. I definitely wouldn’t be returning to give Gandolfi Fish another go.

when free from work to socialise with friends on a night out, or even lunch out this is the best place to be.
Best ever fish & chips, best choice of fish dishes, only down side was the last time there (August 12^th) dessert menu was lacking

A very friendly upmarket fish restaurant. If you fancy fish then you can’t do worse than to check out this place. The only problem is every dish costs a small fortune, even the fish ‘n’ chips, so just be prepared…

Oh my COD!
This is an amazing restaurant, service A1 and food to die for. I’m going back to Glasgow so I can eat here again. If you like food and you appreciate good food — book yourself a table and enjoy.

went in for the early evening menu £15.95 for two courses £18.95 for three.
was tipped off that the fish and chips were right up there with the best so went with that plus a sweetof sorbet, this comes with a small glass of wine.
the fish was delicious and the batter as crispy as ive ever had, the chips were fine but could have been crisper, the house wine was a highlight, a citric acidic but no too acidic chilean with a fruity nose of grapefruit lemon, all in all a fine experiance

Went on a Saturday lunchtime, had just ordered and there was a powercut. We were brought a cold fish platter ‘to keep us going’ and were updated with the power situation regularly. We were told the power wouldn’t be on for a couple of hours so it was up to us if we wanted to leave, or come back later. We opted to come back later and left our mobile number.
We were not allowed to pay for anything and there was no guarantee that we would come back, depending on the power coming back on.
After about 30 mins we got a call, the power was back on, we went back and had the most delicious meal, the high point of which was the Lemon dessert with Limocello sorbet. Service was excellent, thanks Matthew, and we still weren’t allowed to pay for what we had earlier. We will definitely be back as what started off as a potential disaster was a wonderful lunch, fabulous food, can’t praise it enough

Recently opened sister restaurant to the long established Gandolfi’s. Serving a small but well thought menu of fish dishes which arent cheap but for the quality of the food served are great value. The surroundings are very comfortable and the staff very efficient but not overly formal.

Food is beautiful. Nice fresh produce and very reasonable.

It’s not cheap, and prices certainly add up once you add on a bottle of wine and some side dishes (accompaniments do not come with your main, you have to select and pay for side dishes individually), but it is quality, pure and simple. Fish is served up simply and delicately, and tastes as fresh as if it had just been plucked out of the water that very afternoon. Which is entirely possible. A couple of items were off the menu, which only goes to reinforce the fact that only the freshest ingredients are used, and in each case, a replacement was provided, as delicious sounding as the original. Staff were friendly and professional, topping up wine and offering assistance without being intrusive. Atmosphere was classy, but accessible.