Tapa Bakehouse

It’s just a little place, and might not seem like much at first glance. But I am in love! I came to try the bread, but the lunch items caught my eye, so I had to treat myself haha. With being vegan it can be tough eating out, but they had a wonderful hummus and grilled vegetable sandwich on their nice fresh bread, and some giant couscous salad, very reasonably priced as well. Then I was able to pick out some bread and have is sliced, and that is what I will be back for. The rye bread was SO good! Nice chewy texture to the crust, but still a good softness inside. Their rye bread is my new favourite.

On a quest to find good bread, I ventured forth to Tapa Bakehouse because I heard about TAPA on the Good Food radio programme. The bread was displayed, unwrapped, on open shelves and the elderly customer in front of me was squeezing the bread with his bare hands, probably testing its interior. I left without buying anything.

I popped into Tapa Bakehouse earlier today as the sun was shining and it seemed the perfect opportunity to go out for an alfresco lunch. As a vegetarian it can sometimes be tricky to find good spots for eating out, but with a fantastic selection of vegetarian and vegan sweets and savouries, the problem in Tapa Bakehouse is narrowing your choice down from the spread of choices! I was with my boyfriend and — clearly excited by so many vegetarian options — we decided to order refried bean burritos, mascarpone and broccoli cous cous salad, and a potato and egg frittata to share. It was all absolutely delicious and we did actually manage to eat it all! My boyfriend is something of a burrito obsessive, so, after perfecting our at-​home recipe, we are often disappointed by vegetarian burrito options when eating out, but the re-​fried bean burrito at Tapa Bakehouse is incredible — packed with beans and vegetables, it is full of flavour and cooked to perfection. Even my boyfriend admitted that it is just as good as his own cooking!
As well as the delicious food options, we ordered lemonade and ginger beer by the brilliant Karma Cola — the company behind the UK’s only Fairtrade organic cola, with a direct relationship with cola farmers in Sierra Leone. The fact they sell products by ethical companies gives Tapa Bakehouse some serious brownie points. I had the lemonade which was sweet and fizzy without tasting artificial. I have to admit, the brilliant packaging was also a big perk!
This was my third visit and I’m happy to report the food and service have always been spot on. I’ve treated myself to cake on previous visits and the sweet treats more than hold their own alongside the savoury dishes. I took my vegan friend for lunch there last month and she was seriously impressed by their creamy, sweet vegan cupcakes!
One of my favourite places in Dennistoun.

The parents and I dropped in for a Sunday lunchtime snack after a weekend of sightseeing and libations in the city. On entering, there was a spare table by the window, just big enough for the three of us to squeeze round. The bakery-​cum-​café is compact, but perfectly formed!
I made a beeline for the cakes… and wasn’t disappointed. From the selection of tray bakes, cakes, tarts, pastries and treats, I chose a large strawberry tart AND pain au chocolat, accompanied by a cappuccino. My mum chose a fruit scone with butter and jam, while my dad opted for a savoury choice, having soup and bread.
The friendly service was brisk, with our coffees (beans roasted on the premises) and food selections being delivered in 5 minutes or so. Admiring other customers’ lunches of savoury tarlets, sweet slices and brownies while waiting — I was now super-​hungry!
The food and coffees were awesome. The strawberry tart had a delicious crumbly pastry, soft vanilla custard and huge flavoursome strawberries coated in tangy glaze — by far the best I’ve ever had. My folks loved their choices too, with clean plates all round.
Tapa have a great choice of hand-​baked organic goodies, and GF and wheat-​free options too. A proper traditional bakery, with sourbough, malt, oat, wholemeal breads, with a selection of wholefood groceries too. And delicious own-​roasted coffee (ground/​beans) to take away too. This neighbourhood café and bakery in Dennistoun has it all, I’ll be back again very soon.

Wonderful Staff & delicious food and coffee! The bread is the best in town. My favourites are their rye bread, especially the dark rye bread, which is my most fav Scottish bread at all the times.

I found Tapa when I started working on Duke street couple of years ago, it became a daily routine, open the shop then jump up to get a latté to wake me up.
The coffee is bang on point in my opinion, not too bitter and like any good coffee should goes great with some chocolate or flapjack. Speaking of flapjacks they ones they sell are lovely too.
Easily the best coffee I’ve had in Glasgow. Forget Starbucks or Costa get yourself down to tapa.

When I worked in the East End this was a regular haunt especially for a quick coffee. Although they roast many beans, the Tapa Espresso blend is what they serve and it is superb. «Best in Glasgow»? Who knows, but it is very good and freshly roasted.
The Bakehouse serves lovely bread, cake and soups as well as tarts and salads. Tapa makes the breads for several other Glasgow establishments and it is well worth visiting to pick up some of the best bread in the city. The soups change daily and are excellent with some inspired combinations. The only downside is the food is a little pricey.
Friendly service (regularly pushing cake if you sit in – the moist brownies are too tempting!). There is also a small deli area which is worth exploring.
Tapa Bakehouse also runs bread making classes from time to time.

I live locally and this place is one of my favourite places to eat. It serves the best coffee in Glasgow by far and the cakes/​pastrys/​breads/​soups are amazing. I believe everything is vegetarian and there are lots of vegan options. On my days off I like to wander around Duke Streets charity shops and I always stop off in here to get a cup of coffee, slice of banana bread and some sort of veggie savoury pastry afterwards to chill out with a new second hand book. All of the bread is cooked fresh that morning and I’ve never had any complaints. So tasty and satisfying. The café has a very relaxed and laid back feel to it, which includes the staffs attitudes. Some take that to be stand offish but all of the staff I have encountered are super friendly but don’t rush or fluster. I like this as orders don’t take too long and I only really go in on special occasions to treat myself and enjoy the atmosphere of the place. If you were in a rush to go somewhere I could understand if this annoyed you. The quality of the food and coffee paired with the laid back atmosphere makes up for the lack of urgency in my opinion.

Kiwis Robert and Ginny arrived in Glasgow on a mission to bring us good organic bread and great coffee, and they certainly managed to do just that. I’ve been coming here since they first opened as a tiny bakery with just a couple of tables and a grungy industrial look that seemed to scream short-​term tenancy about the place. It was very much word-​of-​mouth that drew customers back then — a genuinely organic bakery making delicious bread that happened to serve great Fair Trade organic coffee, original soups and snacks. The ‘long black’ quickly became my favourite cup of coffee in Glasgow, and it still is (although it’s so strong that I can’t drink two of them without my eyeballs doing a shimmy!).
Some years on, they have not only doubled in size by expanding into what was a neighbouring newsagent; but opened another branch on the South Side, supply many places in town with bread and also run stalls at the many farmers’ markets around town. The ‘Whitehill Light Rye’ is still our staple bread; we buy a week’s supply at a time and freeze it.
For a while, Sunday brunch at Tapa was a regular occurrence; the soup choices are always unusual and delicious, usually accompanied by a veggie sandwich and of course, a Long Black, with perhaps a slice of ginger crunch or an ANZAC biscuit or two to follow. With Sunday papers and free wi-​fi, it’s a wonderfully indulgent experience, especially on cold winter days where you are sustained by the warmth of the ovens and the smell of fresh-​baked bread and fresh-​roasted coffee (yes, they have their own roaster). With its increasing popularity meaning that it’s sometimes difficult to find a seat at busy times, plus the convenience of having them at our local farmers’ market in the West End every couple of weeks, we don’t manage to get over there as often as we used to — making it even more of a special treat when we do manage the trip of course.
The bread choices have expanded over the years as they experiment with new recipes, many of which you will never see elsewhere — the spelt is yummy if you’re gluten intolerant, and even the basic wholemeal is so much tastier than you find elsewhere. They also have a small selection of delicatessen goodies to tempt you, all organic naturally.
Tapa have definitely pioneered and other coffee shops have followed in their wake. Come prepared to indulge yourself and remember to bring a shopping bag with you, as you’ll be wanting to walk out with lots of yummy goodies.

I found this little café when I was visiting Glasgow over the summer. It was pretty small inside and the ambiance was nothing to write home about, but the staff were pleasant and there seemed to be quite a variety of bread and baked goods. I didn’t have any bread which people seem to rave about. But the banana cake was really good.

I just don’t get it. Any bread I’ve had from here has been chewy and stale, no crunch at all and for me it is all about the crunch. I find the staff quite unhelpful and stand offish — when I asked if they did decaf coffee I was looked at as if I was an idiot. I want to like it as I think it’s great when Dennistoun gets anything that’s not a betting shop! But they need to have better service, better products or ideally, better of both, for me to consider visiting again.

Best bread in entire Glasgow. Despite it closes early I can see every time I pass this place in the morning or in the middle of the night people baking bread. Fantastic coffee.

As a new arrival in Dennistoun I have been keen to find out the cool places so I had to check out this place after quite a few enthusiastic recommendations. And they were all right: the bread is amazing. It’s not cheap but then you get what you pay for. I haven’t tried the coffee yet but the staff are friendly and courteous which makes it a nice place to visit.
To touch on Andrew’s comment about parking on Duke Street, there are generally plenty of spaces in the streets off Duke Street so parking’s not really a problem.

The BREAD! Oh, dear, my goodness, the BREAD :)
Try it — you won’t be disappointed.

Having read all the reviews and heard all the hype surrounding this place and their coffee in particular, with its supposed almost orgasmic taste, i reckoned it was about time this intrepid Unilocaler made the voyage to the distant lands of Dennistoun to pay it a visit.
Well, whats the verdict. Yeah its good coffee… the best in Glasgow… eh? You see i have a fundamental problem with anything being called «the best», «number one» «the bees mid leg bendy bits» especially if its to do with taste and not something you can physically quantify. For me so many different things make up «the best cup of coffee in Glasgow». Yes the coffee itself is mucho important, however what about the vibe of the joint your drinking it in, what about the music playing in the background, the chair your sitting on and the company your with.
I very much doubt i would enjoy even the mot exquisite cup a joe if i was sitting astride a spike in a pro neo Nazi joint, talking to David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher and that annoying guy from the Cillet Bang adverts… Ok so maybe that’s a little too far.
So it was with this in mind (somewhat) that i tried to judge Tapa without all the hype banging about in the back of my easily distracted… oh look a shiny thing… brain.
So the basics, Tapa is a nice wee organic coffee house that offers good quality coffee’s teas, snacks and cakes. Most of the gear looks bloody yummy and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. Its not the biggest of places and only has about 20 seats max, but the service is quick, friendly and the smells are wonderful.
Its the kind of place that must give some of the locals a warm feels inside knowing that it exists among the throngs of greasy spoons that are in ascendancy in the surrounding area.
It must be noted to that Tapa has a Bakery in store, which again adds to the wonderful smells, and thus sells a great selection of fantastic organic bread (soda bread… yum). In addition they also sell a small selection of organic and free trade sundries including milk, eggs and other bits and bobs.
Now, given all the hullabaloo surrounding this joint would it make me jump on the bus each day to make the pilgrimage here for my first cup of brain jolting caffiene… in honesty no. Given the abundance of top notch coffee shops in the west end area and their proximity to other shopping, eating and touristy delights, i would be more than likely to give this joint a miss, however there can be no denying that Tapa is the number one coffee joint in this area and a supplier of some of the tastiest bread on offer in this fair city. A definite organic, fair trade, free range guilt free thumbs up from me.

It’s rare to find a place like this on a side street in Dennistoun, but discover it I did. Enticed inside by the sign that boasted that Tapa was «one of the world’s best bakers», I decided to have a nosey inside.
I was instantly in love with the place as I was greeted by the sound of old time jazz and the sight of a counter full of cookies and cakes.
Customers are able to have a seat and chill out with one of the newspapers provided as they enjoy the fabulous food within. I opted for a latte and an organic blueberry muffin, which were delicious and cost just over £2 in total.
The homely tables and chairs are surrounded by shelves of local and organic produce, including a great variety of bread baked on the premises. I love that this place offers a great selection of veggie and vegan options, with bread and cakes able to be ordered and made freshly to your requirements.
I’ll definitely be back, as the wonderful combination of the smell of fresh coffee and freshly baked bread is enough to have me hooked

The coffee is very tasty but the reason you go here and brave the Duke Street parking is to find yourself some bread.
A multitude of baked goods — foreign aand domestic. Be prepared to walk away with a bag filled with bready goodness.
If you choose to eat in — then there may be a spare table but be prepared to wait at busy times.
Finally — great place for Veggies and Vegans. All of the loaves are marked if they are suitable for vegans. Vegans cakes can be made to order.

Tapa seems to be very proud of the fact that a review in The Herald said it has «the best coffee in the city by a country mile». And why shouldn’t it be? Now I must admit I’m not usually a fan of the whole organic, artsy-​fartsy kinds of food in places like this — I find it a bit pretentious. But I had to come in to see sbout this coffee.
It’s fairly cheap with a latte and a giant foccacia sandwich costing me just over £5 to take away. The mozzarella, pesto and tomato sandwich was really tasty, but perhaps could have done with a little more than the two slivers of tomato. I’m no coffee connoisseur, so I don’t know if it was the best coffee in Glasgow or not. I did thoroughly enjoy it though, and that’s what matters, I guess.
The café itself was pretty full– with either intellectuals or tramps, I’m not sure which. The service was really friendly too and not the least bit pretentious, which, to be honest, was what I was expecting.

One of the best places to get coffee in Glasgow and when it is at its best the Chocolate Brownie is amazing, try the Ginger Crunch, my other favourite. Free WiFi and they have a branch on the South Side too.

I didn’t know bread could taste this good until Tapa opened literally round the corner from my flat. From the finest organic coffee roasted and ground on site to the most amazing bread, also baked on site.
They serve sandwiches (Cheese and Coleslaw is my favourite) a selection of interesting stews and soups all served with their own bread and also tasty tortillas and savoury tarts. If you want to taste the finest cheesecake in Scotland (perhaps the UK) then this would be a good place to start.
Only five stars will do for this café. This is the café that has everything.