The best places for a home-style dinner in Glasgow

There are few meals that channel British home cooking as much as the humble Sunday roast. And while everything at this small gastropub is about home cooking, Rogue’s Roast Sundays provides the ultimate in comfort food. Come here for dinner, where you can tuck into a two or three-course meal, including Speyside beef, Yorkshire puds, beef fat garlic roasties, brisket mac ‘n’ cheese, honey root veg, vegetable ecrasé and red wine gravy.

Joe and Amalia Lazzerini run the two three-year-old Rogues in town — one in the east, the other in the west of Glasgow — bringing experience gained from working in notable kitchens including Brian Maule @ Le Chardon D’or and the Number One restaurant in Edinburgh. You can try the Joe Goes Rogue taster menu from Wednesday to Saturday, or opt for a la carte, with classics such as pork loin and ox cheek pie on the menu.

Fine dining is personal at Fanny’s. The quirky little venue has been a Finnieston fave since long before the trendy gastropubs and designer restaurants with tasting menus moved into the neighbourhood. It’s distinctly Scottish, friendly and cosy, with an art-deco nautical meets family dining room aesthetic.

A small number of covers and staff make you feel right at home and everything is cooked fresh to order (it also means you really need to book). You can peek into the kitchen and watch the front-of-house team members ascend the ladder to grab additional bottles from the loft store above the bar. Portions are plentiful and recipes are hearty, taking cues from across the globe while remaining rooted in Scottish produce and traditions. Choose Fanny Trollopes for a special occasion, date night, or dinner with the family.

Another long-standing establishment, The Left Bank was launched a little after Fanny Trollopes, in 2006. It was the brainchild of Catherine Hardy and Jacqueline Fennessy and inhabits a former Clydesdale Bank beside the River Kelvin. And its name reflects the bohemian and arty neighbourhood in which it resides — Glasgow’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris! The food is international, but not fusion.

Each dish is an authentic replication of a world recipe, freshly prepared in-house with local ingredients wherever possible, using home cooking techniques. Diners choose a main and then a side, so there are no limitations on pairings and eating is made easier for those with dietary restrictions. The environment helps create this sense of homeliness too; with warm-toned reclaimed oak floors from Cumbria, “painters’ planks” for tables, Timorous Beasties wallpaper, bespoke wall hangings and a concrete bar crafted by a Glasgow-based sculptor.

Needing a spontaneous, no-fuss feed that’ll warm your heart, soul and stomach? Swing by Ranjit’s Kitchen. The venue is walk-in only, with a handful of tables and always has a bustling kitchen-like atmosphere, as well as fantastic aromas sweeping out through the door. Here you’ll eat just as you would if you visited a Panjabi village household, thanks to the skills and passion of Ranjit Kaur, who moved from Jandiala in Jalandhar to the UK in the 1980s.

Ranjit’s children (and sometimes other family members) are part of the close-knit team that cooks up daily curries, sides, snacks and hard-to-resist sweets  — the gulab jamun filled with buttercream is very moreish). Ranjit is a hands-on chef patron; you’ll find her in the back, making authentic items like maki do roti, a cornmeal yellow bread typically enjoyed with Saag.

The Duke’s Umbrella cooks the kind of food you might do at home, but better. We’re talking sausage and mash (vegan or meaty), rib of beef, seasonal pies and that most quintessential of Scottish foods — haggis (also available as vegan or meaty), neeps and tatties. Then there are desserts like sticky toffee pud and brownie.

Or maybe you’re just in for a snack and a bevvy, in which case you can order up a square sausage slider with HP sauce. If you want to make things feel even more like home, invite a bunch of your nearest and dearest and reserve a cosy, candlelit, private curtained space for yourselves. It’ll feel like you’re in the house, except someone else is doing the hard work, including the washing up.