Strata

Came here for lunch in winter… and was cold on entry. The restaurant hadn’t long opened its doors. So, ordered lunch, which was tasty enough, but as time passed by, it just got colder and colder, so much that an elderly couple were sitting and eating their lunches with the jackets on. Probably OK in summer, but stay away in winter, unless you’re an Eskimo or adept with cold climates.

I went along to Strata on Saturday night to have dinner with a friend as it was recommended.
It’s very… trendy, which isn’t my usual choice, but it seemed interesting enough. We booked a table but it was quite a farce to get seated as there wasn’t a designated host. I initially found the staff quite rude, but this improved slightly as the evening went on.
We decided to order small plates as non of the small selection of main meals sounded appealing.
We ordered a bottle of Malbec red wine to get us started which was quite nice. The food eventually came and filled the table. It looked very, uhh, artistically impressive, I guess. But on tasting I’d say they were definitely trying to make it something it wasn’t.
The goats cheese bon bons were very yummy and I could have eaten an entire plate of them, but they were over complicated. The chilli prawns were average, and the chill chicken with sweetcorn was bland and tasteless so was subsequently left on the plate.
We decided to try our luck with the cocktails as these had also been recommended and by this point the bar was filling up and the music getting louder :/​
I guess the cocktail list was extensive, but very lacking in the classics. Again, trying too hard. I went with a Strawberry, Rhubarb and ginger daiquiri and was very surprised. It came in a little port glass with no ice… strangest daiquiri I’ve ever had. It was tasty, if a little too acidic. My friend ordered an Apple and Mango mojito… which tasted of mint and lime, she left half of it.
We couldn’t hear each other talking and the music was, I’m not sure what it was, techno, chart, noise?
Overall quite poor and I won’t be returning.

I had a small function (25) tonight in Strata. The ambience was great, food brilliant and staff were excellent. I had booked a buffet and it was very reasonably priced, loads and loads of food, and really good quality (praised by guests).
Strata is very well placed, right at the bottom end of Queen Street. Great for travelling from outside town. They do all the usual beers, spirits etc and also have a choice of cocktails. The drink is very reasonably priced. We bought a drink for all guests on arrival and the bill was very fair (less than £50). The bar staff and waitresses were very attentive… even though it was a Friday night and very busy.
Could I recommend Strata… definitely.

I have always liked strata and found the food to be tasty so was intrigued by the small plates menu offer which came up recently on an offers website. The deal was four small plates and bottle of wine so I snapped it up and decided to use it on a cheeky wee midweek dinner with the boyfriend this week.
We got a great wee round booth table at the door way so could have a nosy out and settled down to decide what to choose. There were lots of tempting sounding dishes but we went for garlic prawns on ciabatta, scallops with pancetta and peas, pigeon breast and garlic crispy chicken with sweetcorn. We supplemented with some crispy onion rings and fries. When the food arrived it looked really impressive and I wasn’t disappointed. The only things I wasn’t so keen on were the prawns were in their shell, it looks great but it’s a faff to shell them and then you end up with plain prawn as all the garlicky goodness is on the shell and your fingers! But some like them this way so maybe just personal preference!
Service was friendly and overall I liked it a lot and would definitely return to try out more on the menu!

Had a two course meal tonight for £12.95 and it was very good. We both had the black pudding and haggis Bön Bön to start and the duck main course. I could not fault it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the service was also good. I would definitely eat here again.

First time here. Prompt friendly service. Wasn’t busy, but still had that feel of a chilled atmosphere. Can imagine its busy at weekend’s. Ordered the Beer battered haddock with hand cut chips.
10 out of 10! Par excellence! Can’t extole Strata’s virtues enough!

I love having food and/​or drinks at Strata. Great location, nice décor. I like the ambiance here, very relaxed. Service is ok. There was a power outage one time and the other time a suspected fire next door, both times we had to vacate the restaurant/​bar which was a little annoying. But I like this place and will keep going back!

I always loved Strata before it shut down and so was delighted to see that it was back. It is one of my go-​to places for a good quality, decently priced meal out with friends. There is a really cool vibe in the place, whether you visit at lunch, in the afternoon or during the evening. The bar offers a wide range of cocktails but, unlike lots of other places, it doesn’t take the bar staff forever to make them. (This often puts me off, if I have to wait forever at the bar because someone has ordered a round of cocktails.)
The menu is excellent value and I’ve never had a meal here that I’ve not thoroughly enjoyed. Service is really efficient, although occasionally on a mid week night when it’s quiet there can be a lack of waiting staff around.

For an evening of drinks, Strata’s a great place to start and line the stomach. As a bar its vibe is great if on a night out, but the food is just as good as any restaurant and the menu has great choice. We ate from the set menu, 2 course for £11.95, and it was very extensive and very mixed in choice, not limited in the slightest. We both started with the bruschetta, which was tasty though not particularly a large serving and didn’t quite weigh up to other bruschettas I’ve had. Still nice to start with however! For main I chose the broccoli, halloumi and walnut penne which was a really well put together dish. The sauce was very light and the combination of the crunchy broccoli with the melting halloumi and crushed walnuts was really complimentary and full of different textures. My friend ordered the Cajun chicken burger with a side of mac and both were very generous in serving, well presented and full of flavour.
My only real criticism was that serving was a bit slow, but it was a Wednesday night and therefore there was little staff on. However, I do recommend a visit for pre-​drinks and food, the cocktail menu is very good and reasonably priced.

Highly recommend for afternoon tea! Great cocktails, the bramble is very refreshing, and a very generous portion food wise — from sandwiches to yummy cakes & goodies!
The cakes were very, very good! In addition to the freshly made sultana scones, served with butter and jam, there were hot from the oven brownies that were still a little bit gooey in the middle, mini lemon meringue pies, white chocolate posset /​mousse and spiced cupcakes. In fact there was so much food we needed to take the cupcakes and one of the brownies home with us in a tub :)
This place is a great city centre pub, go check it out!

Nipped in here for a quick lunch with my friend and her little girl today. Fantastic service and food!
I opted for the chicken kebab with pitta and dip, which is actually on the menu as a starter/​sharer, so added a portion of fries to my order too. The fries were super crispy and came in a cute little wire basket. The kebab was so good! Lovely, tender, spiced chicken with long strips of peppers, carrot, red onion, coriander and fresh chillies. The dip was something like raita and balanced out the kick from the chillies and coriander nicely.
The girl who served us was really helpful and chatty, she happily filled the baby’s cup up with some apple juice and brought over a high chair. Nothing was too much trouble, it really is nice when you get staff who are like that.
There’s not really any set lunch deals, there is a two course deal though. We just didn’t have enough time for two courses. My friend had a pulled pork sandwich with home cut chips and loved it. It came to about £20 for both meals, soft drinks and apple juice for the little one.
Will definitely be back!

I love this place for cocktails. They don’t take forever, and the barstaff are reassuringly knowledgable. The care they take in preparing your drinks leads to consistently tasty, well presented beverages. For example, the pineapple and vanilla mojito comes with a sprinkling of spice on top (think it’s cinnamon or nutmeg?). They pass the spice through a lighter flame, so it’s lightly toasted!
The pricing is fair as well (given the quality of the drinks), and we often find ourselves in here of a night out. We have never had a bad drink in this place, despite trying nearly every cocktail on the menu. They’ll also make cocktails off-​menu if you ask. The atmosphere is generally relaxed and ‘a bit classy’. It’s never empty or overflowing. Whilst you won’t find yourself surrounded by trainer clad underagers, it’s not snobby and the table service is generally good.
The food is of a very good standard, and again fairly priced, but make sure you get what you ordered. For example, one dish was to come with croquettes, and instead came with mash, with no comment. We also asked if a chicken dish was served on the bone, and told it wasn’t, although turned out it was. These points are generally quickly remedied, and I would put this down to new table serving staff, rather than a lack of attention to the food. I love the fish and chips served on a wooden platter, with a little frying basket of tasty chips.
The toilets are down a set of fairly steep stairs, but they’re not unmanageable. The décor is understated stylish, but I wish they would fix the heating venting behind the seats in the back section. Having the vents propped against the wall just lets the place down a little and is surprising for Strata’s standards.
I really enjoy this place. I have recommended Strata to my friends, and will continue doing so. Whilst some may say it’s pricey, it’s on a par with other places that don’t do what Strata does half as well. Worth every penny.

Nice ! Good face lift for this place, the food is good, drinks reasonably prices & service with a smile ! I don’t really care for the wooden planks as plates or the big chips (personal preference) but its clean, great location for shopping so all round a thumbs up from me

Although it states its closed, it ain’t. Was there last week. Been going here since I was a student. The cocktails are out of this world. Drank myself through the whole cocktail menu (near enough). It is expensive don’t get me wrong but quality you will always pay a price for. Good trendy bar. One of Glasgow’s gems.

I had dinner here.
This place is a bar with food, be it posh bar food, but it is not a restaurant. The main reasons I say that is that:
1: not all the items on the menu were available
2: the personnel was not trained in proper restaurant ways of serving food
3: the music was fairly loud
What I also didn’t like was that part of my order was forgotten (when it was delivered it was not charged on my bill though), and that the table was a little sticky (although that seems to happen at many places now).
My t-​bone steak was bigger than expected for the money, however my friend’s chicken with pasty was very little for the money. strange.
As a pub this is a very good place. As a restaurant it is a bad place. Go here to have some quality bar food.

Strata kind of confuses me, and to be honest I think the whole place is quite confused. If I had to sum up Strata I’m not actually sure what I would say. There’s usually a wide range of customers, from ladies dolled up to the nines to guys who look like they’ve come in for a break after working on a building site.
I really like the layout, comfy seats with minimalist décor add to the chilled out atmosphere. It’s never been busy on any of my visits, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, it’s just their choice of music seems more fitting to a club resort on an 18−30s holiday. Most times I’ve been in they’ve been banging out Faithless and other dance classics at full blast to around 9 customers. It just doesn’t fit at all.
I have to admit, I haven’t been in Strata for over a year now, the last time I went I was very disappointed and realised that there are better cocktail bars in Glasgow despite Strata having won several awards. They seem to favour presentation over taste here, as some of the cocktails are pretty vile. I had a Smarties cocktail last time which had various liqueurs with Smarties hanging around at the bottom, the concept is quite cool but it was absolutely disgusting. They also appear to be fans of quantity over quality as they have one of the most extensive cocktail lists I’ve ever seen but most of them sound better than they taste.
Strata really doesn’t do it for me, I much prefer Soba and Blue Dog.

I love Strata although I probably shouldn’t — I’m not exactly their ideal punter. It is overtly stylish, hip and contemporary (I’m not particularly any of those) and it aimed primarily at those who seek such a exclusive atmosphere. However, I never feel out of place here whether I’m with friends or my mum, having lunch, drinks or cocktails and I think that’s what makes it so appealing.
It is classy but without any airs or graces or snobbishness attached. Every time I walk past I have a peep in and mentally plan my next visit.

From the outside an identikit cocktail bar complete with minimalist décor and about 1000 bottles of obscure spirits behind the bar, Strata is in my opinion one of the best in Glasgow at what it does, less elitist than the nearby metropolitan but still with a massive drinks list and thankfully, without the infuriating bottle-​juggling bar staff you might find in other such places.
The cocktail list is huge with the Victorian Mojito and Manhattan being among my favourites. it’s quite pricey so unless you’re a lawyer /​drug dealer your wallet might not last the night, but don’t let that put you off.
They also do food as well which I’ve never tried but the menu looks solid enough.

Ok, I’m not going to lie to you: I was attracted to going into Strata by the light display (glittery, shiny lights… ooooo…). I wasn’t expecting a huge deal as I had been given mixed reviews previously, so I dragged my confused friend to the bar to have a look at the cocktail menu. We were SOLD.
They have loads and loads and loads of cocktails. Seriously, the list seemed endless. Eventually we settled on a classic martini and a sour grape martini. Yum yum yum — they’ll put a spring in your step.
The bar was busy enough, and the cocktails seemed to only take seconds to be made (maybe I was far too busy admiring the bar tender… ahem). Before I knew it, we were siting with 10 glasses between us and very little money — it got to that point where we actually combined our purses, just to share «one for the road». Oh dear.
Needless to say, by the end of the night, I seemed to have convinced myself that it would be a good idea to try their «cocktail master class», and as I was leaving, I told (read: screeched at) the barman that I would be back for it. Soon. The poor man looked petrified (and there went my chances…).
Luckily I was soon home, safely tucked up in bed, a belly full of delicious cocktails and a smile on my face. Happy times.

I’ve always associated Strata with cocktails and it does have a good selection well made, I’ve even been to a cocktail masterclass here which was well done. However the food in the past has been patchy, the last time we ate here the roast vegetable lasagne was not only microwaved from frozen but was actually still cold in the middle while the fish had been sitting under a heat lamp for so long it had the texture of leather. We complained about the lasagne but the managers tactic for dealing within it was to lurk in the shadows at the back of the bar for the rest of the night avoiding us.
Great for cocktails and mostly good for food, great décor too by local designers Timorous Beasties and One Foot Taller