Hengler’s Circus

I’ve now been here a couple of times and both times, I would day it deserved this rating. If you just want drinks, it’s a decent place to go. However, both times I have ordered food, it has come overcooked, dry and bland. The atmosphere is decent enough I suppose, but I would sooner not visit again.

This branch of Wetherspoons is good for real ale and craft beer, as they have a wide range of taps and bottles.
It offers the usual Wetherspoons food bargains, I would suggest that a seat by the window is good for people watching, and a booth in the family dining area good for a group catchup. The display of local history information in frames on the walls is worth a look if you want to learn a bit about the history of Glasgow!

It’s a Weatherspoons. It’s an easy place to meet before going on to somewhere else. We wanted a quick drink with other friends before diverging for the night, and some easy food. We got that. It was crowded (Saturday night) and a bit too bright for my liking! The food was quick, cheap and average, again, we weren’t expecting anything else.
The staff were nice and again all the food was served quickly. We were able to get a large table despite the night, but if it had been any later than 8pm we probably wouldn’t have.

Ah another city another Wetherspoons guilty pleasure! Went here pre the Glasgow rugby 7’s for a fine feed before a day of drinking and took advantage of one of their mahoosive but mega cheap brekkies (well i needed to save the pennies for the beer at the stadium which you know isn’t going to be pocket friendly!!). For under a fiver i got a full Scottish and a latte.
Nothing special on the breakfast front but it was plentiful and cheap the potato cake was a little on the greasy side for me but it was still consumed. Latte wasn’t bad at all considering it was £1.95 for a large one.
Ironically this years 7’s was circus themed and we thought the name of this pub rather apt although there was nothing circus like about it at this time in the morning (what happens later on who knows!!!)
Staff were friendly and efficient. Was slightly disturbed by the lady in the corner with a bottle of wine to herself at 10.30am but hey you gotta roll with it!

In my opinion there’s nothing better than a good whetherspoons and I was say either this one, or Lloyds down the road, is the best whetherspoons in Glasgow. If you really want to soak up the local banter, there’s no place like here. It can get very busy at the weekends, for value you really can’t beat it, and if your looking for something to eat, for around £5-£6 you can get either a pint of beer (few to choose from, including Guinness) or a gin&mixer, vodka&mixer, tea, coffee or softdrink and there’s some other drinks I can’t remember. All in all, one the best pubs in the city centre. They don’t play music which I like because you can really soak up the atmosphere and actually get a conversation!

This circus may not have any elephants, clowns or upside-​down acrobats, but it does have a hell of a good selection of beers and ales, which is arguably better than elephants, clowns and acrobats.
The Hengler’s Circus is one of many Wetherspoon’s pubs in Glasgow, and though it doesn’t play music at all and can be totally dead sometimes, is often quite good when busy as it draws big crowds at the weekends. The selection of beers and ales here are bigger than any other pub I know, but aside from that, the bar is a bit bland. Go here for beer, and enjoy the beer.

The stickiness of the floors in here is matched only by the stickiness of the tables. There is no music, and aside from some dubious smells the air is filled only with silence, or at the weekend the ear piercing screams of hundreds of drinkers all crammed into a single huge abattoir-​esque room with no space for occupants to breathe.
The room in question has no features to speak of, and is little more than a box with cheap furniture and a lurid, smelly carpet. There exists more atmosphere on the surface of the moon than in this place.
Henglers Circus is a toilet.
But from the urinals of that toilet gush some of the finest, tastiest, most varied selections of beers in Glasgow. As well as the usual identikit lagers and ciders, there are at least a dozen guest ale taps, spouting out ales from the length and breadth of the UK. Last night I spotted Dark Star, Williams Brothers, and what I was ensured were other top quality ales.
And not only that, not only is the selection phenomenal, but a pint of any of the guest brews sets you back £1.85. While I was outraged that the price had increased by 10p since my last visit, I can think of nowhere outside a student union in Glasgow where one can imbibe a pint of beer and get change from a two pound coin. And it’s good stuff!
£1.85 for a pint of Williams Brothers March of the Penguins (for example), is cheaper than a 500ml bottle in a supermarket, and half the price of the same pint in Williams Bros OWN pub up the road. I’ve discussed this with other bierheids, and tried to work out just how Wetherspoons manages to offer these quality beers at such a low price; are they selling them at cost, or at a loss? Have they special deals with brewers? I don’t know, but I hope they can continue to offer us these beers at these prices, and continue to support our local breweries.
The food is very edible, out-​of-​a-​tub microwaved stuff, but is fairly cheap. I wouldn’t come here for a meal, I wouldn’t come here to spend time with friends or for a meeting. But if you like beer, you simply must give this place a visit, just make sure it’s not at 9pm on a Saturday night.
If you don’t like beer, this place gets Zero stars from me. If you do, those four stars up there are for you.

Wow. It actually makes me feel a little ill and wrong to be giving this place a four star review. In all honesty, it’s probably more of a 3.5 review rather than a 4, but hey what you going to do?
So why? Well, let’s get the obvious stuff out the way first. This is an airport lounge that’s not in an airport. It’s a the waiting room to yer local dentist, doctor, prison (i’m guessing?!)… namely it’s got hee haw atmosphere and looks like it’s stuck in the 90s.
No, this 4 star is not in anyway connected to the quality of the décor, not the ‘vibe’ of the joint. These four stars (count ‘em) are entirely attached to not just the selection of beers (around 8 in all), but also the price!
So here’s where my blatant lack on knowledge lets me down. I know not which beers they had on tap, but was reliably informed by the one called Jess that they were all of a very high standard. In saying that, I did see a few Williams Bros beers on tap and am fully aware as to their quality.
Ok, so far we’ve established that the selection is decent. So what? Plenty of bars in Glasgow are going down the craft beer route and increasingly doing it to a high standard. What makes this place stand out is clearly the prices.
Whilst you’ll pay anything from 2.80 upwards to almost a fiver for a pint of something in another craft heavy bar, you’ll pay a measly… wait for it… £1.85 for a pint here. Yeah, you read that correctly.
Rather than spend anymore time reading this review, questioning whether you’d read the price correctly or wondering just why I’d even consider lying to you, just go and check it out. It’s a shit bar. But really, if you’ve a few good folks with you, surely you make the atmosphere yourself!

This is part of the JD Weatherspoon chain this is a great bar for the reason that you can buy a round of drinks for three people for under £6.00 and still have change for crisps or nuts. This place is recommended for people who are on a kind of budget, student or just someone wanting a cheap night out and for it not to cost the earth. The food is basic and cheap, you get what you pay for you don’t see people coming for a fine dining experience here you only come for a cheap meal a cheap drink and you are happy. There seems to be no standard with the food at times you come one week and order the sunday lunch come next week and half the items are different.

I have called Wetherspoons the McDonalds of the pub world and I stick to that statement.
I remember this place from endless office nights out. Why did we go here? Because no one would complain too much. It satisfies and never amazes. Don’t come in here expecting a great meal or wonderful atmosphere. It is mostly clean, definitely dry and serves reasonable booze at good prices. Mickey D’s wrapped up like a pub.
Use it accordingly.
BTW The State is across the road if you are mildly interested in a real pub — but half of the crowd you are with will not like it.

Oh… there it is… I’m going where no man has gone before — five starring the feck out of a Wetherspoons!
Over the past couple of years this Wetherspoons has almost become a local of sorts to me and my pals (even though none of us stay remotely close to it). You never have any bother getting served in here, the staff are lovely as previously stated, and even when it’s busy (which it will be at the weekend) there’s a limited amount of leary behaviour from the punters.
Have developed a habit of eating Spoons’ chicken burgers on a weekly basis so I’m in here a lot, but like an old, comfy jumper I have come to love this place.

As a real ale drinker, this has to be the best Wetherspoons in the city. Not only are the beers great value at under £1.80 a pint, the management here do their best to source great local beers as well as the standard fayre you’ll find in any spoons in the country. A must-​visit for the avid ale drinker. Lots of food promotions on there too.

Popped in here for lunch the other day (the 17^th Aug). Same good menu that we enjoy in all the other branches we’ve visited and a great selection of real ales; the house red wine is always very nice too and the coffees lovely.
However, I must say that the staff were the least friendly and welcoming that we’ve come across in our travels to Wetherspoon pubs. The man who served us was very offhand and the women quite cool on the whole. One girl, bearing food, barged past me while I was waiting, without any ‘excuse me please’ or even a glance. The girl who brought our food to the table was very nice but she was the exception.
Although on a main road the pub is nice and quiet inside. There’s a taxi rank around the corner in Holland St and nearby bus stops. It’s within walking distance of the city centre too.

For some reason, I’ve made many trips to the UK, but this particular establishment was my first introduction to the Wetherspoons chain (we dined at SEVERAL before the end of our trip). This particular location is probably the best Wetherspoons pub that I’ve been to…
For those of you that don’t know what a Wetherspoons is, it’s completely affordable pub food and drinks — some of the cheapest beers, ales, and ciders you’ll find at pubs (there’s about £1 of taxes on each drink served at a bar — Wetherspoons has a few drinks under £2), and even though a lot of the food is frozen/​microwaved and/​or bland, I’d venture to say that the general quality of ingredients is better than something comparably priced in the US, and the menu selections are a mix of classic English and Scottish fare done properly.
At this location, the bartenders were particularly friendly, tables were kept very clean, and there were even staff checking to make sure the food was okay (which seems to be a rarity at this type of place — definitely not expected, but much appreciated, especially when our «curry Thursday» samosas were still frozen inside).

Call a spade a spade. Call a Wetherspoons a Wetherspoons. It’s all relative.
It’s a pub, a cheap pub at that, with sub standard microwaved food and not a great deal of ambience. It’s not a place for a romantic night out, unless you plan to drink so many Kopparberg’s that your date falls for you as a result of double vision.
We found ourselves in here before we went for a lunch in April. It was a Sunday and the place was pretty empty. The staff looked like 8 year olds who’d just found out the Tooth Fairy was a myth. And they were soooooo… sllloooow.
Not a straw to be found in the place either. Weird.
Upside? Cheap booze which is just as boozey as anywhere elses booze. Large clean toilets. Did I mention cheap booze…

A decent-​sized Wetherspoons on Sauchiehall Street in close proximity to some of the best pubs and clubs in the City Centre.
It looks much the same as most of the others, most in line with The Sir John Moore perhaps with some good seating on the go in here if you are lucky enough to snap it up.
It can get really busy at the bar, making service a bit of a pain, but it’s all part of the Wetherspoons package.
Long gone in that package for me is the food, I just cant force myself to put it in my mouth after countless let downs from other branches.
Could do worse than start off your night in here, but with so many other places up here doing drinks promotions to rival JD’s low drinks prices. there’s not much reason to come here.

Wetherspoons pubs are like action films starring Steven Seagal — they have different titles but they are all much the same. In saying that, I do have my favourites but I am sorry to say that the Hengler’s Circus isn’t one of them.
I would agree with the other reviewers that this place definitely lacks atmosphere. A bit of music would ultimately help this. And although I would say that most of the bar staff are friendly and efficient, I’ve noticed the duty manager to be rather abrasive. Things like this rub off to give the place a bit of a bad vibe.
On the plus side, there is much comfortable seating, including a family area, and I haven’t found the punters to be particularly unpleasant. I ordered a scotch pie and chips on one visit (a great value meal), which arrived very quickly. However the pie was slightly overcooked — I’ve ordered the same thing in several other Wetherspoons and never had this problem before.
The Hengler’s Circus is in a good location near the nightclubs on Sauchiehall Street, so it’s handy for a big night out. Sadly though it is one of the poorer Wetherspoons in the city.

This big branch of wetherspoon’s is great for a pre night out munch, where there is a huge choice of food for amazingly cheap prices. The most bargainous of all has to be the two main meals for £5, offering great British classics such as bangers & mash and fish & chips.
The big comfy couches are great for groups and ideal for getting settled into on a Sunday afternoon with a full fry up for just a few pounds, for the perfect lazy Sunday to recover from the weekend.
My favourite treat tipple would have to be amaretto, and at £1.50 per measure, it’s a luxury I can easily afford. A great place to head if you’re skint and starving, or perhaps after some bargain boozing out on the town. I just wish they’d play some music.

Perhaps because it is a Wetherspoon’s pub, Hengler’s Circus doesn’t draw in quite the same crowd as the other bars on Sauchiehall Street. The best time to visit is during the day: the generic menu is pretty cheap, it is quiet and the staff aren’t rushed into the misery that display during the evenings.
It is one of the few places on Sauchiehall Street that doesn’t cater to the party animals, sticking to the classic Wetherspoon’s ambiance. Yet the location stops it being an old man’s pub, and the relative daytime calm makes it a relief.
In the evenings, especially at weekends, the Circus is packed, and this really does the place no favours. There is little room to stand, the bar is packed and the service slow.

I love a good Wetherspoon’s pub — the cheap food and drink make it what they are. However, this place is just… lifeless? It’s far too generic, and always busy (most likely because of it’s location). It reminds me of an airport hotel bar, in a way. Light wood and green décor — it’s slightly dated, no?
As the last reviewer pointed out, there is no draw to the place. Except for maybe the toilets.
Anyone remember when it was Shenanigan’s? Now THAT was a decent place.