Kember & Jones

K&J provides a cosy and intimate environment perfect for catching up with friends. Their cakes are unusual but full of flavour! The coffee isn’t anything to write home about but it’s good quality nevertheless. Their hummus and tapenade are tasty options so don’t forget to check them out in the deli counter. The takeaway sandwiches are delicious if you are on the go. Their Artisan breads don’t offer a lot of variety but what’s on offer tends to be good.

Now, I’m verrrry biased because I used to work here, but I’ve got to throw K&J a bone because their food really is top quality.
All the ingredients are organic and locally sourced, and the flavor combinations are always stunning. The bakes, cakes, and biscuits are delicious and HUGE portions, so even though they’re pricey you can easily share between two.
Winners include:
–Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
–Banana Toffee Pecan Cake
–Vicky Sponge
–Lemon Almond and Polenta
–No nut brownies
–Scones
–Cherry Amaretti Bisicuits
–Macarons if they are made that day (they’re often left too long and become crispy)
–The platters, which are great value for money– you get a good selection of cheeses, meats, and accoutrements with big baskets of bread.
People also go nuts for the meringues which are the size of your head and come with loads of fruit and cream. Personally I’ve never seen the appeal in a giant dome of sugar but it sells very well.
All the bread is baked at their bakery unit, and it’s pretty perfect, but is too expensive and so often gets chucked out at the end of the day. I wish they’d lower the prices slightly so that they could sell out every day instead of wasting so much!
You can get small or large tarts. The small tarts come with cold french bean salad and a nice lettuce/​tomato salad, so although the tart itself is smaller, you get a bit more actual food. The large tart is more expensive and uses fancier ingredients, but just gets served with a bit of rocket on top. So it depends what you’re in for, but I think the small tarts are better value.
The coffee can vary in taste: this depends on the roast (they roast their own beans) and also who is making the coffee, as only some staff members can properly steam milk and no training is given to new staff members. (A big mistake in my opinion, but then again with their high turnover rate it might not be worth the effort)
It can seem expensive at first, and I do think it’s on the pricier side for lunch, but a lot of people don’t realize that they’re open until 10pm and do hot mains as specials as well, so for dinner it’s actually really reasonable. Again, just depends what you’re looking for.
Now on to the service. I feel like I should defend poor K&J’s employees a bit! I can totally understand why (most) people are underwhelmed with the service here. The queues are massive sometimes, it can take ages to get served, and it’s often snappy. That said, the place is open from 8am to 10pm, shifts are long, breaks are short. There are SO many staff members as it’s so busy, half of them have no training, and I’m sorry if i offend anyone but honestly the Byres Road customer base can be pretty self-​entitled and rude to servers a lot of the time! Waiters are people too! Add to this the fact that they’re working 2 levels, running up and down the stairs, getting shouted at by customers, management, supervisors, chefs… All for a measly minimum wage and nonexistent tips! You can hardly blame them for not being bothered about whether you wanted your dressing on the side. I’ve never worked in such a mentally and physically exhausting place since.
This isn’t meant to justify bad service, just to maybe help people see that there are reasons behind it which have nothing to do with the staff themselves, more the style of management and training. If you take a second to be a little extra nice to your server it often pays off massively!
In conclusion of this massive review: K&J– great food, a little pricey, good décor, and staff that are often grumpy, but with damn good reason to be so.
PS– It’s table service, so wait to be seated ;)

Visited tonight for coffee & cake as one of the only places to go after 8pm. Lots of

I’ve tried to come here before, but the place was way too packed, and I didn’t want to wait for a seat. So I went this morning for a little Monday breakfast instead.
The waitress from Sydney who served us was absolutely lovely, the coffee here is one of the best roasts you’ll find in Glasgow, and the food was nice too (we just had a beautifully presented basket of muffins and croissants and things).
I’ll definitely keep to coming off-​peak for this place, because even then there were a healthy number of occupied tables, but absolutely no wait on the coffees etc.
I’m going to grab a loaf of bread to try next time — looks delicious!

Went over with my partner and close friend for some coffee and cake. This time, my experience was definitely much better than before.
The caffe latte I had was pretty good, not bitter at all (perhaps their coffee depends on the barista working the shift? Who knows).
I steered away from the macarons, seeing as I can’t trust theirs anymore (I’m too much of a macaron fanatic and the ones he disappointed me before). Even though I noticed they were freshly made (or stocked up I’m not sure), I wasn’t gonna take the risk! Instead, I tried their beetroot, poppy seed cake with vanilla icing. This cake, I enjoyed! A little bit on the dry side though, but in terms of flavour, it was yum and not too sweet (which is a win for me).
At the end of the day, we managed to get the last of their bread too. One with figs in it and another, tomato and basil. They were £1.25 each, since those were the last ones for the day. I’ve tried the fig one and it’s really good!
The staff today were really friendly.
I shall conclude with one short feedback for the business. Your baked goods and coffee are pretty good (I’m sure the food is too but I’ll have to return to give it a try), but please, be more consistent! Can’t be having hit and misses, especially with so much competition in Glasgow now!

Kember and Jones is impeccable foodwise. It’s hard to know what to write because the food here is always amazing no matter what you order. It’s a very «West End» type of joint but you actually get a mixed crowd in here with students and older (wealthier) people sitting side by side.
I find the serving staff a little unfriendly, not rude but not the type of waiters/​waitresses that you’d have a chat with. This is probably because they’re very busy almost all the time and that’s the one drawback to the place, you may have to queue for a seat. However once seated you don’t feel like you’re in a hectic environment and can really relax and enjoy the food.
I went today and had a slice of pecan pie which was wonderful. In the past I’ve enjoyed their salads which are huge. I’m looking forward to trying one of their platters after seeing photos on Instagram, wow!