Red Onion

Such a lovely restaurant. Food is really tasty and I can’t believe this was our first visit to Red Onion. At the moment they have a really good deal as part of Celtic Connections, which is a total bargain given the quality of food and service. Well worth a visit!

Dropped in for lunch with some friends. Was told this was one of their favourite restaurants in Glasgow. Had the £10 lunch special. Boom Boom Chicken and then a smoked fishcake on a bed of vegetables with a lemon veloute.
Wow.
I have to come back and try the full menu one evening.
Highly recomended.

This week we had another meetup with Vegan Events Scotland, which saw us gathering for dinner at Red Onion.
It’s always so great to have a place make up a special vegan menu but I understand that Red Onion offers this vegan selection all of the time. Since they’re not a specialised vegan, or even vegetarian, restaurant, their selection is quite impressive! Five mains, five starters and three desserts — usually when I go to non veggie places I scour the menu, find the one thing i can actually have, and there it is, decision made. Not this time! Umming and ahhing up to the last moment, finally I managed to choose something out of all the yummy sounding options.
I went for the ‘infamous’ Bang Bang salad (um, avocado AND peanut butter, yes PLEASE!) and ratatouille tart. Both of these dishes were fresh, tasty, beautifully presented. Vegetables have so much colour and vibrancy and really lend themselves well to good plating so it’s lovely to see some pride being taken in creating a dish that delights both the eyes and the tummy.
Same great presentation for the dessert — I had the brownie, which came from well-​known Glasgow vegan bakery Smashing Tarts.
Other than that I should say that the wait staff were all super friendly and efficient and made me feel welcome the moment I stepped in the door.
All in all a great, well rounded experience in a cosy place where both meat eaters and veggies can be satisfied. I’ll have to take along my meat-​eating husband one time so he can’t complain I always take him to «veggie hippy places». I do love veggie hippy places: D

Yum, yum, yum… the burger… ooh goodness, make your own w/​whatever fix-​ins you want (egg, bbq sauce, cheese… £1 each additional item). The burger is legit, the chef knows what he’s doing… stopped by & chatted w/​us americans… fun fact, he’s toured all over including the 50 states w/​Tina Turner & axel rose as a personal chef & been jailed in St louis for drunkenness (can’t be doing that around my hood!).
Ugh, that burger, please check out that burger!

YUMMMMERS!
My work is verrrry generous… they take you out for (a free!!) lunch for your bday! LOVE that!
We pre-​ordered as there was a sizeable group of us and other than having to confirm how we liked out steaks cooked, there was no hooha!!!
I had tempura king prawns for starters, sirloin steak with chippies for main and a brownie with honeycomb ice cream for pud… TOTALLY scrummy! I couldn’t finish my pudding… stilllll not hungry! Nice!
I reeeally enjoyed all the flavours and the steak tasted properly BBQ’d! My mate got scallops and chorizo for her starter and said that was delish too… I’m baaaaad for the olé food envy, so I IMMEDIATELY wanted hers-​ha! I’m not giving 5 stars as the king prawns still had their tails-I’m not someone that usually minds, but the told were underneath the tempura batter, so after my 1^st bit I had to subtly remove crustacean she’ll from my gob… NOT a good look-​lol!
To be honest, I didn’t even look at the prices, so can’t comment on them, but I deffo enjoyed the food!

Their Smoked duck salad exceeded my expectation.
A prologue of sophisticated plating envisaged something happily comestible. While I was not let down by first choosing to try separate each component of the dish, together, each integrant made a harmony of palatable flavours to be eaten with relish.
Company I was with were all wowed by their burgers. The menu selection including the steak frites beckoned for a second visit. Worth the while, ⁵⁄₅ orders were impressive and made a mark for upping standards for casual dining.
Good service. Atmosphere can do with being less reminiscent of a 3 star hotel lobby. but other than that~ a fine lunch.

Thoroughly enjoyed my first visit here. We had the 2 course lunch menu at £12.95 and had a very tasty bang bang chicken with crispy noodles and spicy peanut garnish for starters, followed by grilled sea bass on a bed of tomato and basil risotto… served with complimentary glass of fizz!
Will definitely return to sample the evening dinner menu.

Red Onion has the reputation for being a place you head for graduation meals, or dinner with your parents for a special occasion. I hadn’t visited for nearly 5 years and was excited to get the chance to go back last week. While aspects of the restaurant are looking a little dated, overall it was a really tasty meal.
First up, the décor. I’m sorry, but I’m not a fan. It actually reminds me a little bit of a shopping centre with the glass paneling and railings. And it’s a pretty bright restaurant — although seeing as I love taking food photos, I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. It could definitely do with a little bit of modernisation, although it didn’t offend me so much as to affect my enjoyment of the food, I’m happy to say!
I ordered the bang bang chicken to start (which is also available with avocado instead for a vegetarian option). I will say that the food arrived very quickly after we’d placed our order — it felt like less than 5 minutes but maybe that was the amazing company I was with. The bang bang chicken was nicely presented if not a little retro, and the peanut sauce with it was just lovely — perfect with the crunchy noodles.
For main I opted for the steak — char-​grilled rib-​eye, skinny fries and pepper sauce and a very small £1.50 supplement. All up this was a really tasty dish and the pepper sauce had quite a bit of kick to it which was nice. I actually couldn’t finish it all which goes to say something about their portion sizes!
The pre-​theatre is £13.90 for two courses and I found the food to be really enjoyable and good value for the price. I’d love to head back to try the a la carte to see if some more adventurous dishes are being offered there.

The Red Onion has always been popular in Glasgow; it’s that one place where someone you know has been there for a celebratory meal for their birthday or a graduation etc. However I’d never tried it (shockingly!) so when an enticing invite popped up, I was more than a little curious to try it!
Their pre-​theatre menu has an excellent range of dishes to suit all tastes and is good value for money. For me it had been a long day and I wanted to treat myself so I opted for the steak. Rare, slight bloody and drenched in peppercorn sauce, an absolute delight! And the portions are enormous! I felt like they’d just slapped half a cow on my plate with a kilo of chips. All delicious however.
I was the only dessert eater of the group — yes I am that person, sorry (not sorry — total sweet tooth!) and I chose a good olé’ slab of chocolate brownie. It was warm, rich and topped with a sweet vanilla ice cream — the perfect treat to end my meal.
Service was OK, I’d ordered a glass of red with my steak that they forgot about but that was no big issue and they were very apologetic about it. The décor could perhaps use updating but the restaurant was comfortable enough and the company was awesome enough that I didn’t really care!
Great night, good food; definitely a good choice for a meal to treat yo’ self!

Unilocal reviews are a funny thing, was I in for a great meal or a mediocre one? It’s hard to tell with such a mix of ratings so I’ll get the important bit out of the way first.
It was good!
I’ve walked past Red Onion many times and never really felt the need to enter, in fact I’m not sure if I’ve even been aware of what type of cuisine they do until last night (answer: fairly standard choices you’d find in most UK restaurants). Admittedly the location is a bit of an odd one for me so I was keen to get inside and get some grub in ma face!
The décor is, as we commented at dinner, a bit 90s. A bit too bright as well, I think if they lowered the general lighting and spotlight the tables a little better it would feel much more inviting. As it was it was airy and bright, not unpleasant but a little too ‘shopping centre’ for my tastes.
The menu is good, with plenty of variety and nothing that I’d class as ‘adventurous’ but for me as long as the food is good I’m not that bothered about the choices I have. As it was there was even enough variety in their set menu to have me hmmmm-​ing and hawwwww-​ing…
In the end I went with my gurgling gut and started with the Bang bang chicken salad with crispy noodles and spicy peanut dressing. YUMMY! The peanut dressing had a nice gentle chilli kick to it, the chicken was succulent and soft, and the crispy noodles and fresh salad all worked really well. A very tasty dish with a good variety of textures.
That disappeared pretty quickly but thankfully we weren’t kept waiting for our main courses and soon a generous portion of Penne pomodoro with chilli, chicken and chorizo was set in front of me.
It’s a simple enough dish but again, the rich tomato and chilli sauce was delicious, the chunks of chorizo fried just enough to have some char but not so much the weren’t still juicy and moist, and the chilli kick was perfectly judged. Some generous peelings of parmesan helped bring it all together and even though I was taking my time, it too disappeared sharpish cos it was so damn tasty! Given the quality of the chat at the table it’s telling that I was enjoying every mouthful, rather than forgetting what I was eating, a sure sign of a dish hitting the right spot.
My waist-​line made me forego dessert but the Hot chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-​cream looked divine… stupid waist-​line…
All in some good food, well prepared and I left feeling happily full.
The staff were good, efficient and friendly.
So, why not a 5-​star review? Well the food is good and I can definitely see me visiting again as it looks like it would be consistently good, but it wasn’t stellar. The décor/​ambience is a bit lacking (sort out the lighting for an instant uplift!) and overall I was pleased but not amazed.
I will be back for sure, and it’s good to have found a reliable brasserie, aka somewhere I can take my fussy Mother!

Red Onion is our go to restaurant to celebrate payday! The food is always delicious — last time I had the duck with sweet potato, and it simply melted in my mouth. My partner is a butchers granddaughter so it can be tough to find meat that meets her expectations, but there has never been a disappointing dish here. The staff are always so grcious when I ask to sit upstairs each time and the toilets are always so shiny.

As a foodie, I have loads of restaurants that I love for several purposes: family meals, something posh, hangover food, lunch with my gran, sheer indulgence… this list goes on. But when asked where I’d go for a first date I was genuinely stumped. Where on earth would I go?! I haven’t been on a first date since… well, 10 years ago, and even then I was a teenager in KFC before the cinema. Being single again after that length of time is strange. WHAT DO I DO? WHO AM I?
I went to the Red Onion to do research for a blog post on first dates! So began my process: How do you pick somewhere? How do you choose the food?
My ideal first date wouldn’t be a sit down meal; I’d prefer something fun like mini golf followed by a few drinks (I’d want to make sure that I’ve met them, had a bit of fun and conversation before I’m stuck with them for 3 courses!) If they pass the fun first date and progress to the real first date I’d go for a meal somewhere that’s classy but relaxed. I whittled my list down and settled on The Red Onion which ticked all the boxes.
The Red Onion definitely passes the first date test. The restaurant is beautiful — modern, stylish and has nice soft jazz music in the background. It isn’t cosy or romantic in itself, but you could have a romantic meal there. The food is absolutely beautiful — we tried the goats cheese salad, bang bang chicken, Innes & Gunn braised beef and the seafood risotto and they were all lovely!

I was here last night as a party of five and overall found it pretty mediocre. My main gripe was that although we had requested a seat on the mezzanine level, we were advised that someone else was sitting at our table and so we ended up sitting precisely where we wanted to avoid, right beside the front door. Although there is a curtain across said door, it was still very drafty and cold, which really spoilt my overall ability to relax and enjoy the evening. We suspect those in «our seats» had asked to be moved away from the door before we arrived.
Food wise, I wasn’t blown away. I had read Unilocal reviews that the bang bang chicken was supposed to be good as a starter but what materialised was a plate of ice cold cooked chicken breast with a smear of peanut butter style satay on top and a few hard rice noodles. The satay sauce was nice but there was hardly any of it. It is obviously supposed to be a cold starter however this was just too much straight out the fridge icy cold which wasn’t pleasant. I went for a steak for my main, which isn’t like me but nothing really jumped out of the menu. Again, it was ok for steak and chips but all pretty average, handcut chips quite stodgy and would have liked more pepper sauce blah blah.
I shall end on a few positives: staff were lovely, complementary hummus and garlic bread was brought at the start of the meal and the price per head was pretty reasonable £34 each for 2 courses and ¹⁄₅ of 2 bottles house white.
Just feeling a bit disappointed.

I was lucky enough to have won the LeCool Glasgow competition on Facebook recently. When I say I’m not lucky, I mean it. I’d go as far to say that I’m unlucky. (My bike broke AND my card got stuck in the ATM just this week.) So to find out I had won a few dining experiences, I was thrilled. With a £20 voucher to spend, Red onion was first on my list.
I’d booked a table for two for 7.45pm. Unfortunately, we had a change of plans and were super early. I thought I’d phone as early as I could to ask if there was a chance we could be squeezed in any earlier. This wasn’t possible. Not to worry, a few more hours to kill in my motherland! Splendid. But wait… We walk past Red Onion about the time I’d asked if a table would be free. There are lots of tables free!
We killed some time walking and exploring before heading back to Red Onion for the original booking time, when there were still many tables free. We were a little miffed that they couldn’t take us any earlier when the restaurant didn’t seem to be anywhere near full. — It was actually at it’s busiest when we were leaving.
Service was a little slow and disjointed. We were dealt with by many members of staff which meant we had to ask for the bill a second time as it had been forgotten about. It was also quite difficult to catch the attention of the staff as, rather than watching several parties, they were just going from table to table as required. One of the things which bugged us most was that we could hear the kitchen buzzer for waiting staff to come and get the food. Despite the fact that we were at one of the very back tables, we could still hear the buzzer ringing out over the music every few minutes, which was a little irritating.
We decided to try the burgers, and whilst not the pink in the middle juicy kind, they were still very tasty and generous in portion size. The meat itself was a little over seasoned with pepper but still, a good burger, for sure. Coming in at £9.95 with £1 per extra topping, I just wouldn’t come back for a burger as there are far better, cheaper places in town. The rest of the menu was a little more expensive and nothing in particular caught my eye. It seemed a little general, focusing on many different cuisines. I saw there was an Indian option on the menu and I do love Indian food but, for that, I’d fancy going all out and heading to an Indian restaurant.
I can’t pass up on a burger and a decent burger can do no wrong. So, I had my bun and ate it but Red Onion just isn’t a-​calling me back.

Being nearly the end of January ‘Im Indoors and I decided it was about time we managed to step over the doorstep for something other than work and the shopping so clutching a money off vouchers we toddled off to the Red Onion. We’ve been a couple of times before with enough gaps in between visits to notice the consistency or lack of.
Red Onion gets a big hands up for having a gluten free menu (although for those of you out there who are mega intolerant I’m not sure how far their efforts go) but it would be nice if they could have a bash at making their own bread rather than buying in a ready made brand.
They also get a big hands up for having a curtain over the door to try and keep the draughts out, which on a freezing cold day in January is not what you want. The fake real fire (gas?) unfortunately didnt throw out much heat.
This led me quite neatly to having soup for a starter! French onion with a (genius bread) croûton which didnt really work, tasted OK but as the bread’s a bit thin it went soggy too quickly… maybe I just should have just scoffed it instead of looking at it! ‘Im Indoors promptly made straight for the scallops which were perfect.
He had the steak (£2 supplement, OK on a deal voucher I suppose) and I had a burger. Steak was tasty (he shared) but my burger was a tad too well done for my taste. Sides were fresh, chips/​fries were right out of the fryer. No complaints.
Good coffee, as too full for a pud we weren’t capable (having also guzzled an entire bottle of a pretty decent Torrontes between us)
So yeah, will go back on a Thursday when they do the gluten free fish. Four stars as everything overall was good ie service, food etc but just not quite right

Had an absolutely fantastic night here with my work colleagues for our Christmas night out. Couldn’t fault anything with this place.
Starter — French Onion soup with toasted cheese. Delicious! Very filling through, so if you’re going for a large main… Make sure you’re super hungry.
Main — Innis and Gunn braised beef with a crisp Parma ham and Yorkshire pudding. Probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The beef just melted in my your mouth and the crisp Parma ham complimented this so well. Hadn’t had Yorkshire puddings in a whole either so the whole dish was just heaven. Almost forgot to mention the rosemary and salt roasted potatoes, sprouts with crispy bacon and chestnuts and baby carrots with orange and mint butter… Divine.
Dessert — Passion fruit and white chocolate posset with shortbread. Again, just amazing, but by this point I was feeling like I was going to pop. Still managed to scoff the lot though. All the flavours and textures of this dessert came together really well.
The full dinner including a glass of prosecco each came to £32, fantastic price.
The Innis and Gunn braised beef is still available now, would highly recommend it.
Finally, the owner of this restaurant’s wife is coeliac so there’s a full gluten free menu available too, as well as a gluten free pre-​theatre menu. Heard they do a mean gluten free fish and chips!
Big thumbs up from me, can’t wait to go back.

I absolutely LOVE this place! So much so, the boyfriend and I have become regulars! It’s nestled on West Campbell Street, just off Bath Street, and we have been going past it for years, thinking it looked nice and we should try it. Eventually we got in! (It’s often busy, best to book in advance!) Oh my word!
The service is always professional and friendly, even when they are extremely busy. You don’t wait long for your food either, and it’s always piping hot and fresh. The Bang Bang Chicken starter is immense, so I usually have that, although have had the goats cheese salad on a few occasions just to be different. The boyfriend and I have worked our way through most of the menu, and have no complaints with any of it. The steak and chicken are always juicy, and the veg cooked well. It’s a sort of ‘fusion’ menu, so there are excellent Scottish staples like haggis and salmon on the menu, but with a twist.
There is a decent wine list too, and an nice wee selection of beers and spirits. The décor is modern and clean, and the seats are generally just far enough apart so you are not sitting on anyone else’s lap! The lunch menu changes regularly, and they do a ‘two courses for £9.99′ pre theatre set menu too.

Went here at Christmas and had the set menu. It was terrible. Now, I realise that this should come as no real surprise, Christmas menus are reliably awful wherever you go, but this is especially bad.
Maybe the regular menu is fantastic, but on the strength of this evening I won’t be coming back to find out.

Well… I’m here now!
Lovely room, good seating, very nice to see proper salt and pepper mills and a real flower on the table. My starter, goats cheese bruschetta with onion salsa (?) was tasty enough. My waiter, and the man that greeted me, didn’t smile. Don’t they know things like that make all the difference? Shame. I actually only came here cos Two Fat Ladies around the corner was full, and the waitress sent me here. Still, main course has arrived and looks AWESOME! Lamb with Couscous. And it melts in the mouth :-) it’s gone from ‘Meh’ to ‘Mmmmm’ in a single bound!

I noticed this restaurant a few months back mainly because I liked the name. After giving it a try to celebrate my birth last week I can gladly report that I like everything else about it too.
The menu has a good mix of dishes including Italian, Oriental and modern Scottish influences, and my starter of bang bang chicken was absolute dynamite, as were the mussels that followed. I was too full up for a dessert, though ended up ravenously scavenging the remainder of E-Bot’s blueberry sundae as she wasn’t too crazy about it.
I was a big fan of the laid back, brasserie style feel of the place, our waitress was friendly and efficient, and the price for a 3 course pre-​theatre wasn’t too bad at all.
All in all, full marks to the Red Onion.