Dessert (cheesecake and pudín de caramel) plus coffee, alcoholic and non options, were delicious…read more the waitstaff was courteous although not attentive at all. We sat with our menus closed and ready to order for 15 min before we had to wave to someone. They wouldn't even make eye contact. Same for during and after the meal. Plus they were not busy.

Had a delicious meal of two salads. One salad featured asparagus and artichokes. The other was a…read morebean salad. Topped it off with a sorbet.

Enjoy generous portions with Old World flair at Elena's. They've won a bunch of awards for a…read morereason, maybe due to the unique concept, but they do a nice job combining Scottish pub and Spanish panache. Of course many come for the tapas, and you'll get more than the typical microscope-required dishes at other places. Get your imported beer here on tap as well. It goes well with the diverse choices that should keep everyone happy. Croquettes are sharable but that didn't stop me from eating them all. You get a variety but notice: the chicken ones remain hot! The lamb was tasty and sides filling. A couple drafts later I'm waddling out satisfied. It's a nice alternative to the Argyle area dining scene, and I'll hope to return and try much more.

This is the best Spanish food to be had in Glasgow by a country mile and then some! Why haven't I…read morefound this place sooner? We'd recently returned from a short break in Malaga and were pining for some Spanish ambience, so I was very pleased to discover Elena's, even more so when we spotted the Paella de Marisco (seafood paella) - I'll be having half of that, yes please! They have a pretty good wine list too, and we soon settled on a nice fragrant Alberino, which was a pefect accompaniment to the seafood. The table was soon very cluttered with dishes, wine cooler and glasses, but we managed. I'm afraid I forgot to take any pictures of the food, it was too yummy not to get stuck in. For dessert, I couldn't resist the chocolate brownie, although I opted for coconut ice cream instead of the lemon. I probably shouldn't have had either given my lactose intolerance, but sometimes you have to be prepared to suffer. It did almost finish me off, it was so chocolatey, but wow, it was worth it. I'm only giving four stars as I thought the service was a little lacklustre in places. They didn't offer to pour or let us taste the wine, didn't provide a finger bowl or any wipes for the sticky fingers, and - more importantly - didn't tell us about the menu specials when we were ordering. We only found out about those when I spotted the specials board on the way out. I don't know if it would have made much difference actually, as we were pretty committed to the paella before we arrived, but it would have been nice to have had the choice. Annnd.... I've just spotted that they have Caipirinhas on the cocktail menu - now I'll definitely have to go back!

Not bad service, tasty food and not badly priced, you cant fault this restaurant for what it is.read more

I just visited this place and I don't know what the other reviewer on here is on about! The waiters…read moreand witresses make you feel totally welcome and it is laid out for you that the cheapest option is the set menu. Drinks are always on offer and they are really quick with food and drink. Kids love it, the place is nicely decorated like a real Spanish cafe and the food, the other reviewer forgot to mention, is kick-ass, out of this world. The lamb you have to try! This sounds like I work here, I promise you I don't. I just had to defend them against a snobby review!

Myself and family attended 'Ola' one weekday evening. The meat dishes were fine, but vegetarians…read moreare looked at as if they fell from Mars and, frankly, a giant bowl of rice and peas passed off as a Vegetarian Paella simply shall not do. The portions are small - when they say Tapas they mean Tapas - and my own party, as well as one I spoke to on leaving, felt a bit ripped off. The set menus are recommended as, if you stray onto maitre de recommendations, you may find the bill balloon. The maitre de, a Spanish national I believe, has to curb his tactile histrionics - like Basil Fawlty crossed with Manuel - if all but lunching workies are going to enjoy themselves there. If you are used to chain restaurants with a Spanish or Hispanic theme, like Nando's or Chiquito's, 'Ola' will come as something of a shock. It does not know what it wants to be, it is a small business with chain aspirations and will have to work on a more welcoming atmosphere - the maitre de thinks sexism and sarcasm pass as this and the otherwise friendly Eastern European waitress needs training - and better deals if it is to survive. If you are not a drunken work's group or hen night, with the bill spread about many people, avoid!

An excellent find in Helensburgh, and one of the best tapas restaurants to be found in Scotland…read moreIMHO. There was only one server on duty, but he coped admirably with the increasing numbers who arrived during a Monday lunchtime. The portions are large enough to satisfy the appetite, the menu is quite extensive, and the prices are reasonable. Lunchtime price was £16.45 for three tapas. I had Paella Verduras, Champinones con Huevo, and Calamares a la Anadluza. Herself had Tortilla Espanola, Boquerones en Vinagre, and Vieiras (Scallops - which had a £4 supplement). All delicious, and with such a good range of dishes to choose from, I'm sure we'll be making the trip 'doon the watter' again soon.

Greated by surly Joe , shown to a table with nowhere to hang our coats , kitchen door was open…read moreassume to help cool the chef ,not so good for the freezing customers in the draft Joe and to top it all off one hour for six tapas dishes ,,come on six small plates can't be that difficult ,, in a nutshell overpriced and over rated but if you do decide to go take a jumper

I've decided to give this a bit of an update since August I've probably visited about 7 times…read more The service is getting a lot better, more polished and they've completed downstairs which is great. I had quite possibly one of the best takes on a fry up this morning, called the scone stack. It really is good. Potato scone, black pudding and square sausage. You have to see it to believe it. Also, the staff are friendly, even had a very eccentric person in this morning (not sure if he was the manager) seemed very upbeat and perhaps not gone to bed after the night out but very good humoured.

This place is gorgeous to look at, really interesting and unusual design for Glasgow with yellow…read moretinted windows, lots of light timber and a long, clean, slick bar area. We'd booked in for dinner at 7.15pm on a Friday night and were seated by the door. There is outdoor seating (with leopard print throws for when it gets chilly, nice touch) which would be nice for a nice day. It got quite cold by the door after a while but thankfully a nice waiter offered to close it for us which was really appreciated. Our waitress was a little brisk but it seemed like she was run off her feet the whole night. The other staff we encountered were all friendly enough as well. Having a look over the menu I felt a little rushed to decide what to have but perhaps they wanted to turn our table over. The menu is a little odd, to be honest. Pasta dishes on a tapas menu? I just don't get it. There is also a selection of Brutti Bread Piccolo which I'm guessing is something like pinchos but never found out as the waitress didn't seem to have the time to answer questions. I avoided the section of the menu that baffled me and stuck with the more traditional tapas dishes: croquettes (cheese and bacon), pan catalan (tomato bread), peaceful prawns (butter and garlic prawns) and deep fried halloumi. Other dishes I tried thanks to my dining companions (Graeme H & Katie V) were chorizo, patatas bravas, albondigas and I'm sure there was also a squid/calamari dish that I can't see on the menu just now. The stand out delicious dish for me were the croquettes. Super crispy on the outside and really cheesy in the middle, these were really amazing. So much so, as I excited tucked into the last one I was proclaiming how much I loved them, only to find the last one was empty. Yes, just a shell of a croquette and no filling inside. It was hilarious/devastating. If they weren't so good, I probably wouldn't have said anything but seeing as I really wanted that last one, I told the waitress who got another portion bought over pretty quickly. I forgot to check the bill to see if we were charged for the extra portion. I hope not. Everything else was ok. The pan catalan was tasty, but perhaps needed more soaking time for the tomato into the bread (and to cover the whole piece of bread as well). The chorizo was crispy and almost a little burnt. The halloumi was really good, but nothing really outstanding in terms of being anything different. Dishes I wasn't impressed with: the peaceful prawns and the patatas bravas. The prawns were really bland tasting, I couldn't taste any garlic. The patatas bravas was more like a potato stew than crispy individual potatoes. And the albondigas was really hard, too hard for a meatball and it was pretty unpleasant to try to eat. The sauce was really nice though. When eating a tapas meal it can be easy to bypass the disappointing dishes, but now I've come to write the review there was quite a few things I didn't think were great. In terms of a cool place to go for a drink, I would definitely go here again. It's a nice space and had a really nice Friday night vibe. But I would hesitate about going here for tapas - although I would order those croquettes again, for sure! Edited to add: I would head to Brutti Ma Buoni rather than here as I found it much better overall! It's their sister restaurant, also in Merchant City.

Amazing. We tried about 5 dishes and they were all delicious. The grilled octopus was among my…read morefavorites. I will need to return to try the Paella.

I give 5* because 10 or even 15 is not available!…read more Best Spanish meal in Glasgow by far!!! OMG! I can't describe here how good and real it is. Let's start from the beggining, the restaurant deco is similar to my favourite restaurants in Madrid, modern, a little dark at night and full of typical products (cheese, wine, garlic, ham's leg). We were invited to wait at the bar to wait for a better table , and a super nice Spanish guy gave us recommendations about the wine and the ham. Just 5 minutes later we had our table ready. We ordered a verdejo wine, d.o rueda, a porron pot. As starter we ordered the Presa de lomo iberico and bread with olive oil. All of them was amaZing, the wine was perfect and the lomo was super tasty!! After that we ordered the tapas, difficult choice! The selection was: black rice with alioli, aubergine with honey, chorizo lolipops with alioli and ham croquetas. I can't say which one was the best, absolutely incredible, but the croquetas was same as the best in Spain!! Even the rice... To be honest it was like beign in Spain! Furthermore the Staff invited us to try the 3 hams selections and cheese with mojama. No words!! After that for sure it was dessert time: tarta de la abuela (chocolate, crumble...) another 5* The staff and service was excellent as well. To be honest, and not because I'm Spanish is the best restaurant I've tried in Glasgow! And the price was only £52 !!!! I want to go every single month!!!!!!!!