Barolo Grill

When I was 24 a psychic told me I’d fall in love with an Italian. She emphasised time and time again that it wouldn’t just be someone that was a fan of pasta. Ten years later and funnily enough it turns out she got that totally wrong. With her words ringing in my ears I was lulled into a false sense of security. When we first met my boyfriend spoke a handful of words in Italian thanks to one of those translate into any language web-​sites and he is just a huge fan of lasagne.
Anyway if you are looking for a proper decent Italian that won’t leave you feeling like you were slight duped Barolo hits the spot.
«Gertrude» the storm tried to scupper our plans however today we finally managed to venture out for a belated Boxing Day family meal as our original festive booking had to be cancelled at the last minute.
The restaurant is fab décor wise and we received a lovely warm welcome on arrival. Even though it was pretty busy the staff managed to accommodate our request for a table change.
We had a few people at our table that couldn’t make up their minds whether it be about what to drink or what to eat and the staff were patient, giving us space to eventually get there. The menu offered a really good choice of starters and mains. The foods itself was flawless and the various dishes were well received by all.
Throughout our visit the staff were attentive and friendly and they seemed to really gel as a team. We were made to feel very welcome and my grandparents really enjoyed their Glasgow adventure as the recent bad weather had left them feeling a little down.
Great service, fantastic food, well worth a visit.

We are back for a third time. This time I can recommend the pasta. Fresh and well cooked. I had a sirloin steak it was a bit on the thin side which made it feel like a typical everyday British steak place.
I asked for rare from medium rare and get borderline medium rare on the medium side, so close but not perfect. Most places cook a medium rare as medium this place does quite well. Food lacks a little flavour but is still a good atmospheric restaurant and is popular with the tourist/​sports competitor in town.
Downgraded to 4 stars as I’ve raised my bar, but still come here each visit to Glasgow.

Are here with colleagues on a 5pm deal. The service was excellent, the food was delicious and beautifully presented.
I had the goats cheese to start then the duck for mains and of course I couldn’t miss out on dessert and opted for the brûlée.
Overall an excellent meal and I’ll definitely be back!

My friend and I decided to go here for our joint birthday dinner back in January this year. It was a busy Saturday night. Service was acceptable but food not so much. We ordered the tempura platter to share, mixed seafood, the batter was cold, lacked flavour and was oily and soggy. The rib eye steak, I asked for medium rare like I always do came out moo-​ing and was rare verging on blue. Unlikely I will go back again. Very disappointed given the reviews and friends recommendations.

This place was recommended by our host. We stopped in for lunch. The ambiance is upscale and inviting. The service was perhaps slow at times, but we were not in a hurry. The staff was knowledgeable about the food and the wine list.
We started with the seafood appetizer which was lightly breaded and quite nice. This was more than enough for two people. I had the seafood pasta. The pasta was cooked to perfection. The amount of seafood was generous. Overall, a very nice meal.
The wine list was decent. We had a few nice glasses.
If you are shopping on Buchanan street, this is a nice place to stop as it is only one block away. Just be warned that it is not inexpensive. Our bill was about 80 pounds for lunch.

Visited Barolo for the first time ever on a staff Xmas lunch expedition. I had heard good things about this Italian restaurant in the city centre so I guess maybe my expectations were high because of that but also I had again set them a bit lower as we were here dining on their Christmas menu. In my experience most places are pretty duff at providing quality food on a set Xmas menu… not all places, but some I have been to (which usually are lovely) have been awful.
The only reason this is not a 5 star review is purely due to the long wait we had initially for not only drinks but food also… we had all arrived at 2:45pm and came pretty much straight from work via The Drum & Monkey for a very quick snifter beforehand, which was just as well as we waited what seemed like AGES to even get a drink! Sheesh… a few of us were not only spitting feathers but the whole Orville! (I ‘ate that duck!) I shared a bottle of red wine and it was very nice but then again I was VERY in need of a drink by that point!
Regarding the slow service — I can forgive them slightly as there was another (large) table of also Xmas menu folk seated opposite us in the same part of the restaurant (and may I also add they were VERY LOUD! Ooft… we couldn’t hear ourselves think at some points… yowch) so they probably were a bit rushed off their feet & maybe a tad understaffed… Who knows but it did feel like it at times.
Onto the food: for starters I had a very lovely smoked salmon starter ~ it was a tad, shall we say, ‘petite’ but still it was good. My favourite course of the whole Xmas lunch menu was my delicious main course ~ Beef cheeks with gnocchi. Oh my. This was stupendous! Having never eaten beef cheeks before I was very pleasantly surprised by how tasty, tender & simply delicious they were. Oh… just thinking about them is making me hungry! I also hadn’t had gnocchi since I was about 20 (so quite a few years ago…) and again I was most pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was & how wonderfully it complimented the beef cheeks. Wow.
For dessert I opted for the vanilla panna cotta with berries which was again truly yummy. I don’t think I have ever tasted such a nice panna cotta anywhere else.
Considering this was a set Christmas lunch menu for a very reasonable price (my memory is pretty rusty but I think it was about £20 for 3 courses) I was very impressed with the quality & standard of food. Everybody enjoyed their food (and drinks) and we all left a bit happier & a wee bit more rounded in the belly :-)

Previous reviews of Barolo were looking a bit hit and miss but I booked this on a 5pm deal and figured that at £16.95 for 2 courses (non pre-​theatre and a Saturday night) then I’d give it a go.
Modern décor, glass and wood but the multiple booths are a great idea and you have plenty of space too rather than being crammed together.
No 5pm menu this time (eg. 3 options for each course) but a pretty full menu with steak, chicken, fish, pasta, risotto and more. Decent options for all courses. Gluten free options are plentiful too!
The prawns with lemon, garlic and chilli were pretty bland. My prawns looked a bit anaemic but my friends’ looked better.
The main was much better — tuscan sausages, mash and fontina cheese with marsala gravy. Pretty much a comfort food dish — huge portion and tasty enough. Not wow but tasty all the same.
So all in all, the 5pm deal I had was good. Probably wouldn’t have thought this had I paid full price for the anaemic looking, bland prawns but yep, a-​ok! The steaks did look good and available with a supplement (£3 & £5) on the 5pm deal so may check out in the future…

The Barolo Grill is a place I’ve gone to only once before but that’s no reflection on it, I like to get around a bit. My dad, his presently gammy knee, and his friend came into town and wanted a good Italian meal within easy-​hobblin’ distance of Central. Barolo seemed the perfect suggestion.
We went in, and while Pop was outside bemoaning the lack of ashtrays everyone else was in admiring the décor anew. It is a very well turned-​out restaurant. It is mostly the blackest black of black, but it is very cool and slick, and has lots of wood and expensive-​looking fittings.
We were directed to our table by our cool, slick waiter and given the lunch/​pre-​theatre menus, and just for once that didn’t have me grasping for the dinner menu. I thought the choices were not bad at all.
I went for Involtini Alla Piemontese (filo parcels of sausage, mozzarella, porcini & fennel with a spiced sunblushed tomato dressing) and for the main your ubiquitous Lasagne. I never usually go for the seventies option but I figured it might be a good one! Once my father finally found the bathroom, which was cunningly hidden behind a signed door, we could all relax.
Service was good. The food appeared at exactly the right times. When my filo parcels came they made me happier than the ones the hairy chap with the reindeer brings. They were crisp, totally crammed with meat. In common with Santa’s I wish there were more of them but that is just cos I’m a glutton. Could they have come with more dressing? Hmm, well no that would just have made them soggy. They were lovely, lots of flavour and just about right in volume.
Everyone seemed to appreciate their food greatly, when my lasagne appeared I was impressed, it wasn’t one of those sloppy ones you tend to get, it was firm and meaty just like my mum used to make. It was well nice. My partner’s main Spaghetti Al Pomodoro apparently hit the spot nicely, and her Raspberry Brulee Tart with a peach & balsamic coulis looked amazing and apparently tasted damn good too.
Still as good as any Italian I’ve been to — I haven’t been to La Parmigiana though! 5 stars

My mom ordered Gamberoni con Pancetta (King prawns with smoked pancetta, garlic, chilli, white wine & butter) and I shared Fritto alla Portofino (Lightly fried calamari, scallops, prawns, courgette & sweet pepper in a light batter with aioli & a spiced sunblushed tomato dip) with my dad. We also got a side of Rosemary & Coarse Sea Salt Focaccia for the table.
My moms prawns were cooked perfectly, great flavour and the pancetta made a great combination. The star of the Starters was hands down the Fritto alla Portofino. Perfection on a platter. It’s really hard to cook seafood in batter and getting it cooked just right while keeping the batter lightly brown and crispy. I could have happily ate the entire platter to myself and not have a Main Course. My dad, who is THE ultimate seafood lover, could not fault anything either. That in itself is a great compliment. My dad is rather fickle when he wants to be The Focaccia we ordered for the table was light, fluffy and full of flavour. The Spiced Sun-​blushed Tomato Dip should be bottled and sold. I want the recipe, badly.
Needless to say after stuffing our faces on Starters, we needed a break before the Main Courses. My dad ordered Trota alle Erbe (Whole de-​boned rainbow trout with Italian herbs and celeriac creamed potato mash) and my mom ordered the same as me; 12oz Rib-​eye Steak with Chunky hand cut chips and Gorgonzola sauce. I opted to add jumbo king prawns to my Steak which were spiced with smoked paprika & garlic butter.
My dads trout was soft, flaky and once again, cooked perfectly. If he did want to pick faults, he wished his fish had slightly more flavour to it and that his Broccoli wasn’t cooked as long as it was. For me, his Broccoli was cooked just the way I liked it, but he’s a lover of al dente.
Now the steaks…
Barolo Grill made me fall in love with a steak. A steak cooked to perfection. Hot damn. It’s hard to describe how beautifully cooked (Medium) and full of flavour the steak was. It cut softly and melted in your mouth. The steak had no tough edges, fat was to a minimum which was great. A pet hate of mine is hard fatty bits in steaks. I can honestly say, hands down, it was THE best steak I have EVER ate and boy have I ate a lot of steaks.
The only problem was, because I ate so much to start with, I was struggling to finish my Main Course. I had to give up half way through it and beg the waitress to let me take the steak home. Yes, I loved it THAT much. I wanted to save room for dessert after all! Oh Steak how I loved thee!
For dessert, I ordered Torta Di Formattio al Choccolato (Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut Cheesecake with Toasted Hazelnut Praline), my dad ordered Fromaggio Misto (a selection of Italian Cheeses with grapes, assorted biscuits and celery) and my mom ordered an Italian Meringue which I sadly cannot remember what it was called.
My cheesecake was full of chocolate goodness & to die for. It was rather heavy and sickly but so worth it! My mom enjoyed her Meringue with Raspberry Coulis and then stole some of my cheesecake and then helped my dad with his cheese. I never had any of the cheese but told that it was all really nice, even though the strange addition of Mozzarella on a cheese platter.

Heard a lot of good things about this place. So we decided to have our staff Christmas night out there.
The inside of the restaurant is lovely. That’s as good as it gets unfortunately.
There was a large group of us, we had booked it months in advance. But for some unknown reason they decided to separate us into 4 separate booths when they could have easily accommodated us towards the back of the restaurant on one table. Was rather disappointing that we were not all together as a team.
I ordered the Game terrine that smelled and looked as though it came straight from a dog food tin. It was bone dry and I had to ask for some bread or oatcakes for with it. The bread served was delish though.
The main was braised beef with gnocchi, man alive the gnocchi was like chewing a piece of bubble gum, (very unpleasant) the beef was nice and tender but the portion sizes were ridiculous. A tea saucer sized portion of food placed in a giant plate. A big strong boy like me needs to feeding lol. The panna cotta was lovely though.
I was absolutely starving when I left. (preferred my 4am portion of chips and cheese to be honest)
If it wasn’t for the company and the countless pints of Peroni the night would have been a complete write off. After the meal we got our coats and left swiftly.
I would not recommend this place. Maybe it was just our experience but put me off going back.

I was here as part of a large Christmas party but, even allowing for that, the service wasn’t great. The waitress who took my order looked like she was ready to burst into tears, another waiter had a very haughty air, and I asked a third member of staff on 2 occasions for a drink which never appeared.
My starter of veal was alright, my main course of trout was again just OK. Judging by the bizarre amount of broccoli on people’s plates (including broccoli as pizza topping!) somebody in the kitchen must have miscalculated a broccoli order.

Lovely food, a touch different and very tasty. The service was friendly & efficient — it was busy so a touch noisy but we had a booth so it was fine — certainly recommend this place

I’m swithering between 2 stars and 3 stars here, as to begin with the service was pretty ropey. First, an early arrival in our party of four was seated in a completely different part of the restaurant to the rest of us due to a staff member mishearing the booking name. Second, it took a good 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive. Third, we were sat for approximately 45 minutes before our food order was taken (and after asking two different staff to take it) and fourth, the four cold starters (2 caprese salads, 2 pates) took 25 minutes to arrive after that, and again, only after we had to practically collar a member of staff and ask about them. People who had been seated after us had already been served their meals! In general, it seemed to be quite difficult to make eye contact with one of the dozens of passing waiters/​management. The first person we spoke to about the lateness of our food was polite enough, but seemed a bit dismissive of our query, pointing to the fact that they had lots of Christmas parties in (though by 20 December, you’d have thought they’d have got the hang of having a busy restaurant). However, our man obviously went away and checked what time we’d arrived and what time our food order was taken, because to his credit, he did come back again to apologise for our wait. No offer of a drink or anything though, which might have been nice.
However, once our food arrived, it was pretty tasty, and the service picked up a bit after that. I’d gone for the traditional turkey dinner, which was presented very nicely, turkey wrapped in prosciutto, and was generally an example of a traditional meal done very well. The sprouts, however were the spiciest and pepperiest little buggers we’d ever encountered. Not unpleasant at all, but my genuine query as to if they were cooked any particular way was answered with a noncommital ‘just boiled and finished with butter’, which to be honest, seemed a bit of a fob-​off, given the whiffs of pepper and horseradish emanating from them.
Actually, after recording the service failures here, it just has to sneak onto a 2. Sorry Barolo — we did overall enjoy the meal, but the service could have been way better. I would come back for the food though, so hopefully you can tease more stars out of me on a second visit.

Booked Barolo Grill for my birthday dinner with Friends and had a fantastic experience here. not only do you want to indulge on every item on the menu but the service we received was 1^st class.
Myself and my friends also rated the food first class all agreeing it was the best meal we had had in the city recently.
Will definitely be returning sooner rather than later :-)

Although not on a busy main thoroughfare the Barolo Grill was busy the lunchtime the Portonian and I visited. Although the wait person acknowledged that our table was «shooglie» (wobbly) nothing was done to remedy this. When my starter cutlery and crockery were cleared, so too was my napkin, and this was not replaced, so I had to ask for one when I was well into the ravioli-​not a pretty sight! Not sure what their policy is for smoking outside, but occasionally our table became engulfed in the unmistakable aroma of cigarette smoke. All this said, if we make a return visit I may try their other menu.

Think this a bit overrated. Had much better Italian food elsewhere. Staff are lovely though and the inside is authentic (unlike a lot of new poncy Italian places).

I love L’Ariosto, but then me and hubby had one of our first dates here so it does have special meaning for me. It is so romantic. The décor is lovely and the whole ambiance of the place is relaxed. The staff are wonderful, they are really attentive but never intrusive. Food is also excellent, totally fresh and really well cooked. Menu is extensive and loads of choice on it. It is not the cheapest and be prepared to pay a bit if eating from A La carte menu (it is worth it). But if you are on a budget and want to try it then there are other options available. They serve reasonably priced set menus at certain times.

Fantastic food. That sums it up. The quality is first class, the staff are really helpful, the atmoshphere is electric. There is a dance floor there, so you can stay all night. I love italian food and for me, this is right up there. Everything is authentic. It is expensive, but worth it.

Love this restaurant!
Great for a special night! it’s a little pricey but worth it, the staff cannot do enough to help and make you feel very special.
There is a small dance floor and the band that play are great and not too loud and overbearing!
The food is also great, not to be disappointed!

L’Ariosto is a perhaps one of the best places to eat in Glasgow. They not only offer great food and drink they also offer great surrounding with a happy atmosphere. The restaurant stresses that all its food is fresh and made from the best ingredients and I have to say I agree because I have never found any fault with the food. I love Italian food so this place had a lot to live up to because I have eaten at some amazing Italians, fortunately it rated very highly for me. This is a very classy place as you eat on an evening you can hear and see people playing violin and this helps create a very romantic atmosphere. This is an idea place if you have an anniversary or even on a first date it is bound to impress. The décor is lavish and the staffs do everything they can to make your meal special