Riverhill

Second visit and not been in the slightest bit disappointed either time.
The menu is short but easy to navigate and unusually the staff seem to know each and every dish inside out (including the wine and cocktails menu).
It’s got a casual enough atmosphere that you feel you can drop in any time for a light lunch but the kitchen is serious enough that it’s also perfect for a «special occasion» dinner. Highly recommended.

We popped in and got a table straight away. This is a place where the ‘in crowd’ come. I’ve been to the coffee shop a few times however this is our visit here and first impressions was favourable.
My husband is a plain eater and after scanning the menu he eventually opted for mushroom soup. I on the other hand just wanted coffee and cake so picked the scone.
I husband wasn’t impressed with the soup however the server noticed and offered to change it but my husband didn’t want to be a bother however the young man insisted on returning it to the chef. He came back and advised that they were preparing an alternative and would reimburse us. We were so impressed. The replacement soup was delicious and my husband ate every morsel.
We’ll certainly be back — the personal touch goes a long way.
It would have been full marks if there was a better selection of treats.

Decided to give brunch here a try. It is a teeny tiny place with tables pushed close together. It didn’t bother me however I did feel people at the table next door weren’t pleased when I tried to squeeze through. I had the naan with the halloumi and it was so good! I don’t really have much else to say other than that I was satisfied with my visit and would go back!

In for breakfast this time, again the service was a bit slow and the food could have been hotter, but it is lovely scran, different takes on classic breakfast dishes and it’s still a winner to me.

Our daughter studies at Glasgow Uni and whenever we go up to see her we finish the weekend with lunch at Riverhill, it’s become a beautiful tradition!
The green gammon croque monsieur is a thing of beauty and is my weapon of choice at Riverhill. However, this time my wife and daughter opted for that and I went for the lamb’s liver with mash and onion rings on the Specials board.
A-​maze-​ing.
The best onion rings ever and a healthy and generous portion of liver certainly left me feeling well fed and charged very reasonably indeed for the pleasure.
Riverhill never fails to impress — food, staff and ambience are all superb.

The wife and I popped in this morning for breakfast. The West Nile branch is the newer of the two Glasgow locations and a breakfast seating is a comparatively new thing. Décor is understated and comfortable though the seat part of my chair was completely off, potential health and safety issue there!
We were seated and seven quickly though our server may justify being described as slightly brusque and over efficient with not a huge amount of smiling.
A flat white duly ordered and the wife went for poached eggs on toast and I went for Eggs Royale, basically a Benedict with hot smoked salmon instead of ham. Food arrived, a healthy portion for £7.50 and was well presented and full of flavour. My wife described her eggs as perfectly done. Free water on the table is an excellent touch, sadly so few places do that and it is both welcome and endearing.
Star knocked off for the slightly uninterested server and the loose seat but I would recommend this place very highly over the chain places popping up all over the place. Riverhill do have a few places, but they are an independent and so are well worth supporting!

I wasn’t really aware that this place did proper grub. Always thought it was just a larger version of the one on Gordon Street.
The menu is quite large & has breakfast all the time (which is ESSENTIAL for some of my pals).
I opted for the katsu chicken sandwich & it was fabulous! Huge portion that kept me going all day.
The service was very friendly but I wasn’t too keen on the décor. It’s a bit of a strange colour inside & looks a bit sparse, but that’s just my taste.
Will define it go back!

Location: just near central station
Venue: small but very warm and cosy
Food: we had the aussie pie, black pudding sausage roll, penne pesto salad & the new yorker bagel. Everything was unique and delicious.
Service: prompt and friendly
Verdict: highly recommend. Would come again.

Being a big fan of the original Riverhill on Gordon Street I was very excited when this place opened just round the corner.
The first time I visited for breakfast I had very high expectations and I was slightly disappointed — I felt that the food and the atmosphere of the place failed to deliver somewhat. Since then, however, I have been back several times for breakfast and lunch and I’m glad to say the experience has been much more positive. The menu isn’t massive but there is a wide variety of dishes, many of which use interesting ingredients and flavour combinations. On my last visit I had the spinach, yoghurt and chilli oil skillet eggs which were delicious and it was a very generous sized portion — I didn’t actually eat again until dinner.
The only downside of this place remains the atmosphere. I’m not sure if it’s the interior which is quite dark and gloomy or the layout of the tables but something just seems slightly off. This is only a minor point, however, and the quality of the food means I am sure to return in future to sample the dinner menu.

i’ve become a fairly regular visitor to the city of the west over this year which means that while i still get lost trying to navigate the streets of Glasgow, i’ve been able to try a whole bunch of new restaurants as well!
it was the morning after boxing day and after a peaceful night in the Malmasion, we decided we’d get breakfast/​brunch on the way back to the station before heading to edinburgh. after a quick search through Unilocal i landed on Riverhill and suggested trying it as they had an all day breakfast menu and weren’t too far away to walk with our bags. the place was packed so if i was going again, i’d probably make a reservation but thankfully we got some seats at the counter and then a table after a family had finished up.
the menu isn’t huge but there were a lot of really good looking brunch options. i usually have a look around to see what other people are eating before deciding but i couldn’t see other tables that well so in a moment of panic i went for the huevos rancheros. my other half went for the veggie breakfast that also sound ridiculously tasted so i felt like i may have ordered poorly. while we waited i watched other breakfasts come out including a twist on the standard breakfast roll using naan bread instead. these looked really good so maybe something to try next time.
ours arrived in a decent time and my sense of panic was soon put to rest when i saw an amazing skillet full of fried eggs, cheese, avocados, pico de gallo, and black beans placed in front of me. it was awesome to the point i actually got annoyed at my boyfriend for asking to try some. that says a lot because i’m usually ok for sharing food (except dessert) so the huevos rancheros were pretty delicious. i pretty much wiped the skillet clean and would have happily ordered the same again after i was done.
my only gripe is that while the prices are reasonable it’s £1.80 for a cup of tea. yes, a cup– as in a tea bag and a cup of hot water. i was shocked as this is something they do in the states where people don’t know how to make tea, in the UK you get a tea pot so you can steep your tea and have move than one sad cuppa while waiting for your breakfast. i mean really it doesn’t cost anything to provide a teapot with hot water so it would be great if they could maybe make a change! otherwise a totally delicious place for breakfast and brunch and i’ll be back next time i need huevos rancheros in glasgow!

With more sublime cakery than you can shake a stick at, free range, vegetarian, vegan and organic loveliness everywhere you look and top notch barista coffee, I can’t think of a reason to go anywhere else. OK I can. The entire population of Glasgow seems to feel the same amount of love for Riverhill Café as I do, which can make finding a seat at this properly gastro café a bit of a challenge. If you spot an empty table grab it while you can. Unlike buses, it might be a while before another one comes along! Purveyors of the best of the best in coffee, cakes, breads, savouries and soups, Riverhill also do takeaway, so if there’s no spare seats grab something good to go. I do!

After seeing the breakfast reviews I had planned an early morning visit; however it became a lunch time visit instead. I opted for the steak baguette. The baguette itself was crunchy (but not too crunchy) on the outside and soft on the inside. The filling of steak, cheese and peppers was pretty tasty. Fries were nice, although chunky homemade chips with a choice of flavours would also go well with the baguette.
My partner had the veggie quesadilla which also got the thumbs up.
Drinks were reasonably priced and the service was great.
This was a lovely first visit and I’m looking to trying out the breakfast and/​or dinner menu in the near future.
N.B Probably worth while booking a table in advance as it can be really busy at times.

I have been here twice now, once at brunch and tonight for appetisers… if Im honest I thought it was more like a café, and that I would be able to get their great coffee and delicious cakes and treats… So it was a bit disappointing when we met a friend at 530 there and we were told, after being seated, that they were a ‘restaurant not a café like our other shop.” The server almost seemed annoyed with us that we didn’t know. We were just going to order dessert (off their dinner dessert menu which was not really what I was hoping for — everything had cream in it!) and coffee, but then the lady was telling us we’d need to move to a side bar because tables were for dinner… There was no way were could have had a engaging conversation with 3 people at the side bar, it was just too awkward. So we ordered some appetisers and stayed at the table. While I was left a little annoyed about our experience tonight, I try to cling to the fact that the food we had was tasty, and my brunch experience was wonderful.
I would go back for brunch or lunch anytime! And the server said they do have cakes and treats from the café in the restaurant at those times.
Over all great food ! Just had a weird encounter and unmet expectations tonight!

Despite Briony warning us that we would be served in 2 sittings I hadn’t anticipated just how bijoux Riverhill is. That sounds like a criticism, it isn’t. It is intimate, cozy and all those other adverbs estate agents should be ashamed of ruining for times of genuine requirement such as this.
Arriving at a packed, brunch serving establishment at 11.15 on a Sunday is always going to involve lots of ‘excuse me’s’ ‘whoops’ and ‘can I just…’ Add a buggy and a toddler into the equation and thank heavens for wonderful staff who were genuinely helpful. Magic-​ing highchairs, stashing buggies and cooing over a very grumpy scowl monster — puff not me!
I ordered a latte and eggs Royal. Yep predictable should be my nickname but I know what I like and Riverhill did not disappoint. The latte was as good as the coffee served in the Gordon Street Riverhill, phew! And also in the same glass tumblers which make me slightly sad I’m drinking coffee in Glasgow and not red wine in the South of France.
That said the latte was a much more suitable accompaniment to the delicious Eggs Royal. Perfectly poached with flaked salmon, much easier to eat smothered in hollandaise sauce than smoked salmon. My only small gripe was that the bread this was served on, whilst delicious, was very crusty and therefore a pain in the bum to cut. It would have been amazing to eat with my fingers but covered in hollandaise, salmon and 2 poached eggs it might have proved a tad messy.
Riverhill has exactly what I was expecting based on the coffee bar in Gordon Street. Since I only have good things to say about Gordon Stret my expectations were high and I’m no used to them being met so effortlessly. This place is friendly, relaxed but with lots of effort put into excellent food. I’m looking forward to going back to try a lunch or dinner menu.

Brunch club here a few weeks ago was close to perfection!
The menu had loads of delicious sounding dishes to choose from, I was intrigued by the breakfast naan (think giant potato scone type flat bread), thinking about going for the waffles and tempted by one of the many egg dishes.
I finally opted for the veggie breakfast, after hearing Briony order it, and it was amazing! All of it. The perfectly poached eggs, the halloumi, the beans, the spicy falafel.
I will be going back soon and I will be having the veggie breakfast again. And usually I would go with a black pudding or bacon loaded brunch.
The staff were lovely and very helpful and after we stuffed our faces with the main event, we’re happy to twist our arms with coffee and cake after :)

The vibe in Riverhill is very cool: think dark purple walls, reclaimed wood bar, cool music, packed tables, laughing and eating delicious food. It almost felt like we were brunching in Brooklyn! A word of warning though — it’s pretty small and so unless you have a booking, be prepared to wait because it is extremely busy.
The staff were super friendly and very helpful. I would say the only slight negative might be that we did have to wait quite a long time for our drinks to arrive.
The brunch menu is really exciting. It is packed with Egg options, Butties, Porridge, waffles (although they had no waffles in — awww man!) and most intriguingly a breakfast naan?!?
I ordered the Hebridean Eggs, this consisted of a piece of toast topped with 2 slices of black pudding and finished with 2 poached eggs. I asked for my sauce on the side to try to save a few calories.
The food arrived quickly and was amazing. The toast was slightly greasy but remained crunchy, the black pudding was generous and cooked just the way I like it (is there anything worse that burnt black pudding?) the eggs — once burst — gushed runny egg yolk over the dish and the sauce was buttery but remained light… it was the perfect brunch dish!
After sitting looking at trays of cakes for an hour there is no way I could leave without trying something so Roz and I decided to split a Billionaire Shortbread.
This was such a decadent treat — thick coconut biscuit base, lashings of think creamy carmel and topped with dark rich chocolate. I am really pleased we decided to split it because if I have eaten the whole thing I probably would have fallen into a sugar coma.
For this including 3 tasty lattes my bill was £18 which I was perfectly happy with and thought it was good value for money.
This is a venue I seriously recommend and is well worth trying if you are lucky enough to snag a table.

We had intended to try breakfast/​brunch here but with a 12 o’clock booking it turned out we could only have the lunch menu. The menu isn’t massive, which is usually a good sign that everything is freshly cooked from scratch, but unfortunately the lunch menu somehow managed to cover pretty much all the things Him Indoors won’t eat. He’s not massively fussy, but he has a short list of half a dozen things he doesn’t like and this had all of them. As soon as I looked at it, I knew he was going to struggle to choose something. In the end he went for the rabbit and said it was pretty good, although I thought it was a bit expensive for a lunch dish at £10.50. I had the shwarma sandwich and it was very tasty with an authentic Middle Eastern flavour.
While I liked everything on the menu, it felt like they were trying a bit too hard to be ‘unusual’ — the sandwiches were Middle Eastern shwarma, Vietnamese Bahn Mi and a fish finger sandwich — there was nothing resembling what somebody might think of as a ‘normal’ sandwich and I think people with un-​fussy tastes might struggle a bit to find something they would like. Him Indoors is definitely not a fan, but I thought the food was good quality with interesting choices and the staff were friendly.

Finally got to try this hot and new café restaurant :) Went over to Riverhill for lunch yesterday with the partner.
First impressions, this space is kinda awkward huh? Yellow walls in the front and dark purple at the back kinda makes the place just a wee bit gloomy. The double doors as you enter the space are a bit uncomfortable too, especially when you’re sitting directly in front of it (which we did, unfortunately). That transitional space is connected to the kitchen I’m sure, but … it’s just … I dunno. You can see even the staff members struggling to slowly bring food over to the tables through that awkward door!
Ok enough about that, onto the food! We had the specials for lunch; Pea and Mint soup for starters, then me; the Bahn Mi sandwich and the partner; vegetarian curry!
The soup was very nice. Didn’t know peas and mint could go so well together!
Also, wasn’t expecting to eat asian inspired main dishes but hey, they were pretty awesome choices! The Bahn Mi sandwich was delicious and refreshing! For £8.50, it was huge, and came with fries and coleslaw! Pretty damn good. The partner had a yummy and generous portion of vege curry with rice and flat bread for £9! He was happy and said he’d fall asleep within minutes. A bit pricey overall but generous in portion so it’s ok.
The staff members were really kind and friendly too. Good and prompt service!
Go ahead and try Riverhill! Also, let me know what you think of the space cause that’s probably the only flaw I wish they’d change haha

Despite being a fan of the original Riverhill coffee bar, I’ve never been able to do more that pop in and grab something go due to the limited number of seats, so this expansion round the corner was very much a sight for sore eyes! Keeping with the homey, country cabin style feel of the original branch, the café makes use of lots of natural light and wood furnishings for a bright yet calm atmosphere.
The menu includes both contemporary Scottish favourite as well as featuring international items such as pierogies and beef rendang. However, I was in the mood for something light, and having read Briony’s review earlier, I knew I had to have the scallops and I was not at all disappointed! Six succulent wee scallops were baked in a creamy bacon sauce and topped with crunchy breadcrumbs with a handful of fresh rocket on top were a perfect lunch alongside a helping of chunky chips! The scallops can be found on the starter menu but the serving was generous enough to be a main.
I found the experience to be wholly enjoyable, with the delicious food and the location being the perfect spot for people watching on a sunny afternoon, and will most definitely return for seconds!

I was so excited for Riverhill’s new place opening on West Nile Street that I made plans to visit right on their opening on Good Friday at 4pm. We were the first customers which was pretty exciting, and I’m delighted to say the food is just as perfect as you’d expect from Riverhill.
I’m a huge fan of the Riverhill Coffee Bar on Gordon St, and was delighted when I heard they were opening a restaurant space. My only complaint about Gordon St is that it’s hard to get a seat so it’s great news that you can book here and enjoy the delicious food to eat in.
The menu is more restaurant-​style than I expected and has a lot of exciting/​adventurous options — like horse whelk (Scottish snails) and rabbit. I decided to get two starters and tried the grilled octopus and the baked queenie scallops. As we were the first customers, food arrived quickly and the portion sizes were quite generous for starters. The grilled octopus was flawless — lightly grilled enough to have a delicious charred flavour and the right amount of tender. The matching flavours of chorizo, garlic butter and almond were just delicious and I really enjoyed this dish. I loved the scallops too — so moreish with the generous amount of cheese and I loved that it was served on the shell.
Service was as warm and friendly as you’d expect from Riverhill (they did win the Unilocalie for friendliest staff in Glasgow in 2014, you know) and I thought everything was reasonably priced. At the moment they don’t have their alcohol licence (it’ll be ready in 3 weeks apparently) but that’s no reason to delay visiting, especially with so many bars nearby where you can pop for a drink after your meal. The restaurant space isn’t huge so I would recommend booking as I expect it’ll be busy — after an hour of being there, the place was about ½ full already. I’m excited to see the menu evolve and also pop back to try their breakfast offerings.