Fanny Trollopes Bistro

«Small restaurant big taste «
12 Aug 2015
Glasgow
Heard the name Fanny Trollope batted around many conversations regarding food, having never been it was put on the to do list
So couple of tips for people who haven’t been
BOOK … The place is tiny … So small I didn’t see it driving past the first time as there was a van parked in front which literally hid the whole place
BOOK … Well… the reputation has this place busy
BOOK … Simply cause you do not want to miss out on the food
I’m not going to go in to details about the food we ordered … Needless to say what we did order was well presented, well cooked and tasted sublime
The service was friendly and helpful, even a request on meal accompaniments was no hassle
Also … The price, cheaper than a Spanish or Mexican chain restaurant yet quality above what they can only dream of
(Do not take that as this place is Spanish or Mexican only an example of the similarly priced chains)
Pre theatre was even better value for money with plenty of choice
Go along, enjoy the food and make it one of your new favourite places to go

What a fantastic surprise find, doesn’t look too much from the outside but was thoroughly impressed by the food, although the portions could of been slightly bigger. That’s the only reason I’m giving this place 4 and not 5 stars. Staff were fantastic, service was great and the atmosphere was decent fine casual dining! Certainly recommend the fish sandwich!

A great little eatery along this cool strip in the West End. My wife had the cat fish and I had the vegetarian gnocchi.
The fish was excellent, very well cooked and sauced. The gnocchi was more of an interpretation of an Italian classic — still good though.
Service was also informative and relaxed.

I came here for a work Christmas do and, to be honest, wasn’t expecting great things as I’d heard a lot if ‘meh’ about it and now that finnieston is chockablock with top notch places, I was disappointed we weren’t going somewhere else. I’m therefore delighted to be giving them 4 stars.
To start, I had smoked salmon with crab salad and caviar. It was beautifully presented and the salmon in particular was delicious. Not the oily, slippery, fake smokey stuff you get in other places, this tasted almost dry cured. So delicious. The crab salad was mainly white claw meat which is another plus. For main, I had braised ox cheek which was deliciously, unctuously, meltingly soft and utterly delicious. Dessert was a chocolate peanut butter shortcake which was not quite what I expected. It was more like a chocolate torte in texture so it was heavier than I really wanted. Didn’t stop me eating the whole thing and declaring it divine anyway! The service was very good, speedy and polite (which is a miracle given that there didn’t seem to be many staff but we were never kept waiting. What was he, some kind of Octo-​waiter?). As we were a big party, they asked us to order in advance. On the night, though, it transpired that they hadn’t got our email but that didn’t seem to cause the kitchen any problems.
The only negatives are: it’s very small which means the door is very close to the tables and the icy December wind was a regular, unwelcome visitor. The smallness also means that a group of 15 can dominate the space and the volume level must have been annoying for the couple of other tables. And did they really just charge us 6quid corkage on BYOB wine? I’m sure that’s how much it was and I was appalled especially because many of our party had picked up a BYOB bargain Wolf Blas Shiraz at the Tesco across the road for about as much as the corkage cost us! The Wolf Blas doesn’t even have a cork! 6quid is a bit steep. I’ve seen 4quid mentioned in another review so I shall stand corrected if I am wrong. 60quid we paid for corkage in total. That’s a lot of money added to a bill for, essentially, not very much.
I’d go back, though. I’d sit far from the door and would come with just one single (but hilariously, comedically enormous) bottle of wine so they could only charge us the once. Where do you buy them?

I like the fact that you can BYOB here, although they also have a wine list. The food is good quality Scottish fare, with a lot of red meat on the menu on the occasions I have visited. Some really lovely combinations of ingredients. It is rather cramped, with some of the tables extremely close tether, which means it can get pretty noisy.

I’d heard so many good things about Fanny’s, maybe my expectations were set a little high. We easily got a booking on the first Friday during the Games which was impressive as I was expecting Finnieston to be heaving. We arrived just after 5pm and were shown to our table and had a look over the menu. The restaurant is pretty small, as others have said but it wasn’t really a bother (apart from the fact it was really warm, but Fanny’s can’t really be blamed for that!)
The early bird menu is £14 for 2 courses which is pretty reasonable, and there are lots of locally sourced dishes featured. I opted for chicken liver pâté with apple and pear chutney, followed by Ayrshire chicken supreme salad with Parma ham and truffle dressing. The pâté was fine — nothing outstanding but nothing to complain about it. The chutney was pretty chunky which some people might quite like and maybe an extra oatcake or two would’ve been nice.
The chicken was where I was pretty disappointed, it was overcooked and pretty dry. It was such a shame as otherwise the dish was nice with lovely ham and rocket, but the dryness of the chicken and the lack of any real sauce to counter it is why this has ended up at 3 stars.
I wouldn’t be put off returning to Fanny’s as I think this might have just been an off night — it was really hot, and it was the Commonwealth Games so perhaps things weren’t up to their usual standard.

Fanny Trollopes is a bit of a Glasgow institution, located on Argyll Street this restaurant is so small that if you sneezed you’d miss it. The décor I would describe as Bistro Chic, it is fairly inoffensive there are booths for 4 up one side of the room, loose tables up the other wall and some pretty nice art work on the walls. There is a very small bar and you can just see into the kitchen through the back.
Let me get my niggle out the way first… the noise!!! My god the noise! It was like being at a football match on a Saturday afternoon. When we arrived we were the first people seated for dinner but within about 30 minute the small restaurant was full. 2 of the tables were large bookings, one of which was a group of young very pretty girls who were obviously starting their night. Girls nights out are super fun but my goodness these girls were screaming at each other… I know how easily it’s done but it did kind of ruin our night a little. When we got bored trying to lip read what each other was saying we very quickly asked for the bill. At this point the waiter did apologise for the noise and asked if it was out first visit, we replied that indeed it was. He confirmed that Friday & Saturday nights were always that noisy (I put it down partially to the low ceiling) apparently a week night or a Sunday is a much more comfortable evening to go.
The staff were fine enough, they apologised for the couple of issues we had but we did have to ask for the dessert menus after it was clear they weren’t going to appear after 5 minutes. I wouldn’t describe them as super attentive but neither were they bad. They looked harassed during service but were always polite.
The menu changes approximately every two weeks so there is always something new to try. On Saturday I opted to start my meal with confit duck & spring onion hash, truffle oil, pomegranate & capers. This is normally served with a poached duck egg which I asked to leave off the dish they replaced this with some delicious asparagus instead. My starter was lovely, lots of lovely big chunks of duck in the rosti and the pomegranate added a really lovely sweetness to the dish. It was slightly dry but I understand that is my fault because I asked for it without the poached egg.
For my main I choose the roasted corn-​fed chicken supreme with colcannon potatoes, haggis croton, pancetta crisp & chicken reduction. I also ordered a side of honey roasted vegetables. The dish was beautiful, a massive moist piece of perfectly cooked chicken, a nice sized portion of colcannon which had just enough bit to it and the haggis croton (a slice of haggis) was really nice. The honey roasted veg was mostly carrot with a few small piece of parsnip added, it was a great side which complimented my chicken beautifully.
For dessert I went for the scrumptious sounding chocolate hazelnut & peanut butter shortcake, pistachio angles with a coffee syrup. When the dish first arrived it had a long black hair on it… yuck! When I brought this to the waiters attention he immediately took it away and apologised twice, brought a new dessert back within about a minute and gave me the dessert complimentary. It was dealt with absolutely perfectly, these things do happen and it didn’t ruin what was my favourite part of the meal in the slightest. The chocolate hazelnut was a gorgeous thick sexy ganach which topped a beautiful crunchy peanut butter biscuit base this had a similar texture to a cornflake cake which I loved. I’ll be honest I didn’t really pick up the flavours of pistachio or coffee but I really didn’t care because the shortcake was such a hero.
A fantastic meal but absolutely definitely not for the busy weekend nights I’ll keep my visits strictly to the quieter week nights. Well worth checking out.

One of my favourite places to eat in Glasgow. Great selection of food which never disappoints in look or taste. Got be tried by everyone at least once.

Fantastic place, excellent, very eclectic selection of food, great service, very friendly staff. To be recommended! One of the best places in Glasgow!

First of all I have to say I love the name of the place! Quirky and cool.
Now on to the food. I really liked it. It was the special Xmas menu that was on offer but there was lots of choice. So much that I was still deciding when the waiter came!
I had the garlic mushrooms on toast and the smoked haddock… both were delicious. The house white wine was from Portugal and extremely drinkable.
Special mention has to go to the chocolate brownie desert… it was deeeeeellliiicccciiooousss. One of the best I have ever had. Would go back just to eat that.

This restaurant has such an affect on me that I resolved to write a review of this restaurant during our main course earlier this summer. It’s taken a few months, but I’m finally doing it. This restaurant is a real find in Glasgow. It’s small but the service is very intimate. I had a lamb shank was the best that I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. Our whole party –all of us Americans — really enjoyed the culinary experience at this restaurant and the service its staff.
The only downside is that they don’t accept credit or debit cards.

Something has changed at Fanny’s. The menu — on my visit — had lost its Scottishness. I chose Thai Fishcakes, my friend had pumpkin curry and couscous. Fish was a bit dry in mine. Pal didn’t like her oversized cous cous. Service was very attentive as always. Price was reasonable.
I was really underwhelmed with the cooking though. I loved the deceptive simplicity of the old Fanny Trollope menu. Perfectly cooked seasonal Scottish sourced food.
What has changed? New owners? New Chef? Compared to a recent week-​night visit to Roastit Bubbly Jocks (which I used to think was on a par with Fanny’s) this was quite poor in comparison.
Sad face.

Been coming to Fanny Trollope’s for years and always go away happy. Great, simple food, well cooked and with friendly service. It’s BYOB although have recently introduced a wine list which you can choose from. Make sure you bring cash as no cards!

Very tiny place, GREAT waiter. I thought the pricing was good. My food was amazing, and I would, without a doubt, eat there again. My Mother also enjoyed her meal.
Our waiter was amazing, and even as the place got busy, didn’t forget about us.
I loved the ambience and thought the place was wonderful
NO CREDIT/​DEBIT ACCEPTED. Cash or check…

Went to this restaurant last night for my husbands birthday. Booked it on sister in laws recommendation and dragged along 11 of our nearest and dearest.
Altho the place is pretty small they were able to accomodate our large party.
The menu is very Scottish with a varied choice to pick from so everyone was happy. The restaurant has recently gained its alcohol license but also still does BYOB at £4 corkage. We opened to purchase from the restaurant.
The staff were friendly and prompt at serving us.
So why only 3 stars? The price. I felt it was extremely steep for what we actually got. For my main course i ordered a vegetarian tart with a chickpea salad which didn’t really consist of much yet it cost approx the same has the meat course. Very disappointing as i also went home still a big hungry.
I think on price alone would put most of us off going back.
They also don’t accept cards so be prepared to carry a big wad of cash in your purse.

If you think I’m going to walk past a place called Fanny Trollopes Café, especially after going to the Sandyford Clinic, you are clearly mistaken.
Regrettably though, I couldn’t bring myself to take a photograph.
An amazing menu, far too fancy for me and far fancier than you would have guessed from the modest exterior, it was also really Scottish, with alot of seafood that extends way beyond my usual fish supper. I opted for a tasty, well presented lamb dish which I thoroughly enjoyed after some poking around.
Good service, in a friendly wee place that doesn’t command much attention to my awareness.
Curiously they are BYOB, with no alcohol license. I rarely drink alcohol with a meal so soft drinks were sufficient for me, but it’s something I will consider, having only experienced it once before in Northern Ireland with disasterous consequences.
I enjoyed Fanny’s and will come again.