The Best Coffee Shops in Glasgow, Scotland

One of the pioneers of Glasgow’s coffee movement, this family-owned coffee shop now has six locations throughout the city, each working with local suppliers. It all began in 1998 when the brand set up shop with its first outlet in the West End at 189 Byres Road. However, the one on Ingram Street, Tinderbox Merchant City, is by far the most seductive, split over two floors: head upstairs and settle into an inviting leather armchair. It’s unpretentious and serves various treats, from pastries to bento boxes, as well as the perfect pick-me-up coffee.

In the thick of the West End, by Kelvingrove Park, Artisan Roast is a coffee stalwart – it began spreading the good-caffeine word in Broughton Street, Edinburgh, in 2007. Now Artisan Roast is in Gibson Street, by the park, as well in both Stockbridge and Bruntsfield, Edinburgh. Beans are bought directly from farmers, to be roasted in-house many times per week, and served up in a minimalist, no-frills fashion that lets the java itself take centre stage. A nice touch – if you’ve got caffeine fiends for friends – is the gift subscription (from £63) for a monthly 250g bag of beans for six months or a year.

With its slick, metal-window-framed facade and minimalist timber interiors with stone tiling, Laboratorio Espresso might lull you into thinking you’re getting your caffeine fix somewhere chic in Milan. In fact, you’re just a block over from Glasgow’s Queen Street Station. It’s certainly a great place to wait for a train. The bespoke blend is supplied by Dear Green Coffee Roasters, and there’s a weekly “special” espresso option. This coffee shop takes its craft very seriously, and the attention to detail pays off. We like the cappuccino with textured milk and micro-foam, taken with something sinfully calorific from the choice of cakes and pastries.

This cafe, in the Shawlands area of leafy Southside, is a perennial classic, covering all the bases. Great coffee and food come as standard – Glasgow’s celebrated Big Bear Bakery supplies the cakes and pastries – there’s beer on tap, including he ever-popular Williams Bros Brewing Co, and constantly changing displays of prints and artworks on the fashionably bare brick walls. Devotees of the place rock up routinely for the frequent film screenings, plays and performances by local musical guests. If you want to mingle with Glasgow’s creatives, make your way here.

This hub of indie West End creativity, serving great food and coffee, shares a classic stone townhouse with other shops and cafes, and takes localism to new levels. Glasgow-based art and ceramics are as lovingly hand-made as the almond croissants and the delicate raspberry-and-white-choc pastries, not to mention the chard, cheddar and spring-onion quiche. Alistair Dearie’s pale-glazed pottery, menu cards and labels from stylish Passenger Press and arty neon signs by David Shrigley give the interior an individual aesthetic. Not far from the River Kelvin on the Great West Way, Cottonrake has benches and a table outside on the cobbled pavement of Bank Street.

Whether you’re looking for an extra-shot latte or an oat-milk cortado, follow your nose to this shop near Central Station, where the aromatic coffee beans are roasted on-site – when it opened in 2014, this was the first place roasting its own in Central Glasgow. There are many blends to choose from, headed by the bold, chocolatey Glasgow Roast, winner of a 2020 Great Taste award. Recently they launched a Premium Collection featuring fruity Kenya Blue Mountain and nutty organic beans from Araku Valley in India. A freshly brewed cup with a pastry makes a great start to your train journey.

On a busy corner of Pollokshaws Road, close to hilly Queen’s Park, this bustling, inventive, dog-friendly cafe serves up first-class coffees and arty lattes plus pancakes, Stornoway black pudding and eggs all day, all kinds (we like ours baked with cream, mushrooms, spinach and Roquefort on sourdough). Glasgow Southside is loved by the brunch crowd and this little place, with its casual-cool decor and Formica tables, won the local Shawlands area’s best brunch award last year. Daily blackboard specials might include generous crayfish and artichoke bagels and bacon-blueberry or pineapple-turnover pancakes. Air-con in summer helps dial down Scotland’s rare scorchers, as do the iced lattes.

Dangling pot plants and old leather trunks frame the big windows at 300 Crow Road, where the first Kothel opened in 2015, bringing the Greek spinach pie spanakopita and cappuccinos to the young professionals of Broomhill. You can sit outside, too, on a covered terrace of olive trees and linger over the home-made chocolate Guinness cake. There are now two more branches, also serving well-brewed coffees in vintage cups with Mediterranean food: we’re talking baked moussaka or antipasti platters featuring grilled veg, olives and hummus.

Italian coffee culture is alive and well at Smile on Douglas Street, not far from the old School of Art. With ornamental gilded plasterwork on the ceiling and bags of imported pasta on the shelves, this sophisticated corner cafe-deli is just the place to sip a Neapolitan-style espresso with choc-hazelnut cannoli, those tubular Italian pastries filled with cream. With wood floors, blue-and-white walls and ironwork picked out in post-box-scarlet it is a light-filled, colourful space. If you’re feeling peckish, summon a slice of home-made pizza or a croissant with sundried tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto.

The coffee beans come from the obsessively ethical Dear Green roastery, the sourdough from the socially conscious Freedom Bakery, the free-range eggs from Nith Valley – home to Scotland’s finest producers – and the organic milk from Mossgiel Farm near Kilmarnock. Portions are big at this neighbourhood gem, just over the River Kelvin from Glasgow’s botanical garden. The all-day vegan breakfast is a feast of mushrooms, tattie scones, avocado and seeds while the fish bowl comes loaded with oak-smoked haddock and truffled hollandaise.

Friendly service and old-school home-made cakes are the superpowers at Coffee Cup, a little Southside cafe on the Clarkston Road between Cathcart and Muirend stations. The dozen cakes and biscuits – perfect with a tasty cup of coffee – vary from jam and coconut sponge to gluten-free lemon and lime. Book ahead for afternoon teas that include the legendary Mars bar cake. There’s a great-value all-day menu doing soup, sarnies and a classic soft morning roll with a square of Lorne sausage and HP sauce.