The Waverley Tea Room - Glasgow

Don't be deceived by the name or the pretty font, the Waverly Tea Rooms is sadly not a teahouse. To be fair, the Waverley (a bar and restaurant) has a sedate and subdued atmosphere most of the time, but this is usually through circumstance rather than choice. The truth is that it is yet another slightly soulless member of the G1 franchise. The drinks are ridiculously expensive (especially the beer I believe) and the clientele (especially at the weekend) are proud members of the white shirted brigade men with ludicrously gelled back hair, overwhelming aftershave and a liking for labels who think that standing at the bar holding a £20 note will get them served quicker. It is popular for a reason though. It is one of the few pubs in the south side that opens past 12 during the week. Plus, its conservatory and beer garden means that it is as good a place as any to enjoy a leisurely afternoon in the sun. However, I would stay away at the weekend as it becomes cramped and uncomfortable. There are better things to do of an evening than stand in a corner shouting over rubbish music, whilst your friend queues for half an hour for a £4 drink.

We dropped in here today because we were nearby and the kids were STARVING!! You know the kind of 'I 've not eaten in 30minutes now and I 'm going to pas out ' kind of starving. It was after 4pm and my wife and I were peckish too. Parking was a doddle, plenty space right outside, we actually got a space directly outside the front door! We wandered inside to a busy looking pub, and spotted one lady behind the bar, and another who seemed at the time to be taking care of every other table in the place. We were never greeted, so I went to the bar and asked if there were any tables, We were directed down stairs to an outside conservatory area, and after being seated for maybe 5 minutes the same waitress from upstairs arrived with menus and took our drinks order. The kids were given a fantastic activity sheet/menu which they couldn 't wait to get stuck into, except there was no crayons available for them, so they had to use their imagination I guess, that lasted about 30 seconds! We looked over the menu and settled on a burger with peppercorn sauce and calamari, and macaroni for the kids! I was actually pretty excited, it sounded delish!! The kids were hungry, cranky and did I mention hungry? We waited 30 minutes on our drinks arriving, (our food order had still not been taken at this point) and after that long in a restaurant I 'd be expecting my food to arrive, not to still be waiting on our drinks! We ended up leaving without paying for our non existent drinks and went for a wholly unsatisfying KFC. Totally disappointed!

As it was a sunny afternoon in Glasgow we decided to go out for lunch which turned into more like a dinner, we shall call it Dunch!! And of course as its so close to the word brunch alcohol should be involved! My partner Jen suggested we go here which was fine by me as its been in my sights to take her to this for awhile. After a fruitless search for a seat in the sun we opted to go inside and order a couple of drinks whilst we perused the menu. First i ordered cider which i was told there was none of. They have alot of drinks on offer but unfortunately our first choice of cocktail was scuppered as they had no peach liquor to add to id. This was then rectified when we ordered our second round of drinks so not sure if it was actually out or they just had to go an a merry quest of adventure to find it. We had to ask a second time for menus as i believe they thought we were going outside to sit and could look at the menus out there. I ordered a great staple of the fish tea. This came with delicious chunky chips, the fish was haddock and the batter was golden and crispy. On the side we had whole peas and some tartare sauce. The dish was tasty but the peas slightly too hard which was a little disapointing. After this we had several more cocktails which were tasty enough but a little on the sour side for some of them. We managed to get a place outside stand which was like a little pagoda around a tree with somewhere to put your drinks and really nice to chill out at in the sun. This is a really nice wee place, nothing spectacular or different but a great place to spend time in the sun. Only a 3 star due to the menu problems, no cider to be seen and the confusion with the cocktails and hard peas. Id definetely go back but possibly on a quieter day. The staff looked quite rushed poor guys!

A sort of on the cusp of 3 4 really as I didn't order food, or use the bathrooms, but it was an overall pleasant experience. We had a rare day of summer today and were fortunate to find a free table on the upstairs decking area. It was really busy and staff seemed rushed off their feet. I couldn't tell if it was table service; I saw some people approach their tables with drinks in hand, but I also saw people with menus on their tables looking like they were waiting for a staff member to come over to take their an orders, so it was a bit confusing. After about 5 minute I decided to be lazy and check the drinks menu on their website, as there was lack of a drinks menu on the table. Wine.... wine.... more wine.... cocktails.... sharer boozy teapots.... ok, so if I want beer I'm going to have to go downstairs and physically use my eyes to see their selection. I'd seen a sign for craft beer so I looked at their draught options which are usually cheaper than bottles and I suspected this would be a pricey place and went for the £4.65 pint of Drygate IPA. Ouch. That's what I get for developing an attraction to craft beers. I got a little top up though after receiving my change and the beer had settled (and I'd already had a wee cheeky sip because I get nervous carrying drinks filled to the top further than 5 paces! . Once I was settled back at my spot it was lovely to sit in the sun with a beer and some tunes in the background and almost could pretend I was on my holidays!

Oh dear. Things were not looking up from the start. We wanted Sunday lunch but couldn 't get into our first choice restaurant so we headed here. On entry we were informed that the card machine was broken so we would have to pay cash. No problem, technical problems happen. Then we ordered drinks. Nothing complex just cokes, diet cokes, lemonades. These took forever to arrive and when we enquired with the absent waitress (we had to go into the bar she wasn 't in the least bit apologetic as she barked that they were coming. We ordered food, at the same time as drinks, from the menu imaginatively clipped to pieces of old wine crate nice touch except that A4 is larger than the board so the menus were tatty round the edge (again, not a deal breaker but symptomatic of worse problems to come! . The propaganda at the beginning described something about the proprietor 's love of food (he obviously doesn 't eat here very often . Like so many others I went for the 'Famous Sunday Roast ' which was shocking. The roast pork loin was ok not over cooked but the 'seasonal veg ' were non existent. I had peas and carrots which had painfully obviously been frozen (rubbery carrots eugh . Carrots might be seasonal but peas not in January. What about some Kale or cabbage? The potatoes weren 't great, but by this time we were so exhausted by the waiting for everything that we couldn 't be bothered to send it back. We just wanted to leave. As a final salute to terrible restaurants, as she neared the bottom of her green salad, my friend found a hair mixed in with the leaves. On drawing this to the waitress ' attention, she wasn 't greeted with an outpouring of apology but an indifferent grunt. No 'comped ' salad for us then. We finally fished out the loose change (remember no card machine to make the bill exactly (no a snowball 's chance in hell of a tip and left. For £7.95 I don 't expect caviar served by my own personal butler but I don 't expect the horrific experience that I endured.