I knew I had to come and have a look at the new and improved Buchanan Galleries foodcourt. To say…read moreimproved wouldn't be hard as it was just Super Generic Food Court before hand. The Burger King is still in place, however, so if you feel the need for a whopper, you can still get that. The star are the independent retailers though. I'm led to believe they rotate and change with a few regulars staying, so I'm obviously just reviewing what I had from Surf Dog. There were many options from lots of different cuisines, but as soon as I saw a chilli dog, my mind was made up. With the dog for £6, a side for £3 - I had onion rings, rather than the sweet potato fries - and a can of soft drink for £1, my meal came to a reasonable tenner. The Taste Buchanan set up is pretty unusual in that it's made out to be an outdoor garden, only indoors and on the top floor of a shopping centre. Garden benches and school style chairs are the order of the day, and it's a nice touch not to be presented again with generic seating from Bland Furniture R Us or wherever food courts usually go. After a short wait for my food to be prepared from scratch, it arrived. The chill dog was gorgeous, presented with just the right mix of chilli, sour cream and grilled jalapenos to be a total and utter mess to eat... that's the sign of a good chilli dog, folks. The chilli itself was warm and wholesome, not too spicy so the heat didn't overwhelm the taste of the dog, but the addition of the grilled jalapenos meant you could add extra heat if you wanted. Of course I did, because that's how I roll. The onion rings were light, crispy and just ideal for dipping in leftover chilli and sour cream. I would definitely get a side order of those again! To sum up, I love the idea of various retailers in one place and changing from time to time, if they're all of this quality and value for money, then it's definitely going to be a hit. I should remember though, that there is no graceful way to eat a chilli dog in public, although at least this time, I managed to avoid spilling it down my shirt, which is a bonus and unusual.

What a great concept, and so far the offerings have been top notch…read more The idea is simple enough - rotate 'street food' vendors in a permanent space - giving smaller vendors an opportunity in a prime location, and giving us punters the chance to sample the wares of some places we might not have tried otherwise. I was lucky enough to be there on opening night and have been back twice since and I've not been disappointed with the food on offer yet. On the first night I tried a few of the offerings including bao from Chompsky - I tried two, the garlic mushroom, and the pulled pork, both delicious - and a sneaky slice of pizza from Nomad (part of the Firebird team I think). Ohhh and of course I started with ice cream from Equis (hey, it's the first stall you see....). I didn't get over to Union Waffles (look right as you come up the escalator as it's set back away from the other vendors, nor could I fit in any cupcakes by Paige, but there is always next time! I managed to chat to the guy who runs it (and the others) and the premise is that they will rotate every now and then, possibly more often at peak times, but the goal is to bring local vendors, offering quality food, to the masses. I was back last week to try Surf Dog which was also pretty good, a good quality hot dog with crushed nachos and a nice salsa. Downsides would be the layout, which on a busy Friday lunchtime ends up with a long queue of people in one place not realising that you can queue for each vendor independently, and the major downside was the time it took to get our food. Hopefully just teething issues, it'll be a different setup for most of the vendors I'd imagine, switching from a van/truck at a site, to peak lunchtime in the city centre! Price wise it runs about average for a lunch, £5 seems the average for most dishes which, given it's fresh food (unlike the processed guff next door at Burger King) seems reasonable. Anyway I don't mind paying a little extra to get these kind of options in the city centre. I really hope it takes off and is successful, I know I'll be back again! Top tip: get the app (there are signs all over the seating area) to keep up to date with new additions and rotations!

I feel honoured and indeed privileged to write the first ever review of The Street Cafe. Although…read morepotentially mobile, this Burger Van has never left its permanent home on the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Woodside Crescent at Charing X. Famous and legendary fry up masterchef Maggie of 'The Maggie' fame on Queen Margaret Drive works in this particular establishment. She work tirelessly late into the night, serving up breakfast style rolls to the hoards of boozed up Glasgow City Centre revellers and always with a smile on her face. On the menu, is your classic bacon, sausage, egg, hamburger, tattie scone roll combo's. If your feeling particularly brave, you can quite literally 'have it all' with the world renowned Scooby Snack (basically everything on a roll). Its quite a sight to behold and will cure even the deadliest of hangovers. WARNING - only attempt the Scooby Snack if you are completely inebriated! Maggie will even offer the customer a classic soft white roll or a crispy one, such service you would never expect to find at your typical fast food caff. Other delicacies include homemade soups, pastries, Tunnocks biscuits and Nescafe / Tetley tea. There is often great banter to be had with your host and fellow customers,so its worth hanging around while you get stuck into your delicious roll. A night out really isn't a night out unless you stop off at your local Street Cafe on your way home.

They must be doing something right as they have lasted this long, Maggie's must be one of Glasgow's…read moreoriginal street food vendors. On many a night l ended up here on my way home from o'neils bar in sauchiehall street. a scoobie snack is a must if you have not tried one yet.

The other day my friend thought, "What a wonderful day! I'm in the mood for a Kurdish."…read more A few hours later he was sprawled out on a hospital bed with the doctors contemplating the fate of his appendix, he had been so poisoned by this unfortunate establishment (he said it didn't even taste good!) I would HIGHLY recommend this place if you want: * To lose weight (by means of constant vomiting and the surgical removal of an organ). * Comfortable room & board in your local hospital. * To hasten the inevitable onslaught of death. * A shit meal. Otherwise, there are plenty of better options in the local area.

After having seen a couple of people posting on Facebook about this new place on Allison Street, we…read morewalked up and got ourselves a takeaway. While it looks a bit like a typical kebab shop where you might get chips and pakora and pizzas too, the menu sticks to authentic Middle Eastern food with sharwma and a range of starters including baba ganoush, tabbouleh and fatoush (a type of salad). The starters are all around £3 and there's a mixed starter on the menu for £7.50 so thinking it might be like, y'know, a mix of starters, I asked about that but the guy said they didn't have any. So I ordered baba ganoush and tabbouleh starters but they didn't have any tabbouleh either, so I ordered baba ganoush and hummus. For mains, I ordered a chicken shwarma and a lamb shwarma - I spent some time in the Middle East in 2003 and I'm always on the hunt for a Scottish chicken shwarma that's just like the real thing. The total was around £16 for two starters and two mains. All the bread is freshly made and really tasty. The shwarmas were pretty good, not drop dead amazing but better than your average takeaway kebab. The hummus was good and the baba ganoush had fresh green pepper chopped through it which I've never had before but which gave it a fresh, sharp taste. While we were in, it was quite busy and the rest of the clientèle were all (I'm guessing) Kurdish so they were either all friends and family or this place must do something approaching authentic food. There were a few small tables you could sit at but it's definitely more of a takeaway place. The main thing I didn't like was that there was an overflowing rubbish bin just as you walked in the door. To be fair, it seemed to be overflowing with empty cans and bottles rather than food waste, but it's still not the best sight to see when you walk into somewhere serving food. And given that it was early on a Saturday night, I was surprised they had run out of some of the options on the menu. The food was better than your average kebab shop takeaway and did feel pretty authentic Middle Eastern. I'd probably go back if I was in the mood for a shwarma as there isn't much else around this area, but it didn't blow me away.

If you see a Chompsky sign/event pop up make sure you go. The food is simply delicious!…read more I caught their pop up at the fantastic 'King of the Breville toastie' café Peña. They had an excellent choice for a small menu and catered well as Peña has no kitchen, so it's all in the prep. This was The Breakfast Club so had the choice of fresh pancakes or southern grits. I had never had grits before but the pancakes sounded amazing. I opted for the wholemeal pancakes, blow-torched with brown sugar bananas and coconut mascarpone. Oh man it was just heaven. I decided on a wee cheeky mocha from Peña to add to my sweet breakfast. Why not?! It was a lovely experience and I would definitely look out for another Chompsky event soon.

Checked out the Chompsky stall outside Devils Deli in Partick on Sunday. Thanks to Yelp for…read morebringing it to my attention! They had a small table set up on the street and on offer was American themed sweet, baked goodies. They had S'mores; 2 different types ~ peanut butter & jam or salted caramel and banana. Also on offer were Blondies (coconut & orange) and Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies. Yum. All sounded lovely and all priced at £3. We went for one each of the P&J and salted caramel & banana s'more(s) and also I couldn't resist the brownie as I do love a good brownie and cheesecake so combining the 2 is just genius! The s'mores were finished off in front of your eyes with the addition of mini marshmallows and a blow torch. Having never eaten one of these before I was most intrigued...my boyfriend said his P&J one was brilliant and I did like my caramel & banana one but I can't say a s'more is something I would crave (s')more of (haha!). The brownie was really good ~ not quite enough of the pumpkin cheesecake in the slice I had but what I had of it was truly delicious. Maybe could've done with being a tad more moist, but that's just my preference. I am a fan of blondies (being a natural blondie myself, ho ho!) but I prefer the more brownie textured ones as opposed to the cake-like ones. So I didn't buy one of these although the combination of cocnut & orange does sound good. Nice people & lovely eats ~ just what we needed on a Sunday afternoon.

Eats from the Street is a pop-up village at Glasgow Fort with 5 different vendors - it was on this…read moreweekend, and will be back on 1/2 November, and then 29/30 November and 27/28 December. I'd never been to Glasgow Fort so it was quite the adventure for us to head along and check it out (although I wanted to cry when I realised the Fort is an outside shopping park!). The set up of Eats from the Street is pretty cool, there's a double decker red bus parked outside Argos and the 5 food vendors all have their own set up around the bus. You grab your food and take a seat in one of the booths in the bus to eat - meaning you're out of the wind/rain which is nice. There's also dining tables outside if it's not raining. When we visited, the foods on offer were from Zoete Koek (crepes/waffles), Mighty Mexican (tacos, burritos), Breaking Bread (bahn mi), Nusou (noodles), Fat Hippo (burgers). I was impressed with the range and that none of the stalls were selling the same thing, meaning there was a good range of variety. I'd never tried any of these stalls but decided to go with Nusou noodles of the chicken variety. Most stalls seemed to be selling food at the £5 mark which I thought was a really good price for what you go. The noodles were super tasty, fresh and packed with veggies - I'd definitely get these again! Graeme tried a burger from Hippo and it had a crazy-good sauce on it which I'd have happily scoffed in a tub on its own. Sitting in the bus was a nice way to spend a Sunday lunch and generally the street food area had a pretty cool vibe to it. Check out the website for details of who'll be popping up for future dates, it's well worth heading along to check it out, especially if you live close to the Fort. (It's worth noting that there's some construction work happening at the Fort just now and there were really long queues of cars to get in when we were leaving - we arrived just after midday and didn't have any problems getting in, it seems to get busier later in the afternoon. Be warned!)

Brilliant night out! I've never eaten at Babu Bombay Street Kitchen and I've never tried Curry…read moreGoat before so I spent the week before this event more excited about the food than is really decent. We went to the 6.30pm sitting on the Saturday night so I was already aware of the good reviews from the Friday night, and it totally lived up to my expectations. Two long tables in the function room of the Glad Cafe, with reggae on the stereo and Bollywood on the big screen. Sitting at one big table encouraged people to chat and the whole place was chilled out and fun from the start. The rum punch didn't have quite the kick I was hoping for but it was yummy (and I was with a friend who was off the booze for January so I got hers as well!). The Sev Puri starter was awesome - lovely and spicy yet fresh as anything. When it came to the main courses, I really struggled to choose between them - I was in a party of three and we ordered everything between us and shared. The Curry Goat was fantastic, but in my opinion it was just pipped to the post by the Vanu Pau, the spicy potato burger served with chilli and coriander chutney and tamarind sauce in a Morton's roll. I'm not sure if that's because my Scottish tastebuds can't see past a dish which is essentially a potato fritter in a bread roll, but it was absolutely amazing. If I worked in the city centre, I'd be in Babu Bombay Street Kitchen every day having one of those. The other two dishes were both perfectly lovely and I'd happily eat them again, but the Curry Goat and the Vanu Pau were my two winners from the night. The ginger cake and chai combo to finish were also fantastic - seriously, there wasn't a bad dish served all night. It was a heck of a lot of food, but it was so yummy that I hoovered it all up and if I hadn't been so full I'd have happily have had more. All the staff present were friendly and relaxed and the evening was great fun. For £20 including the rum punch, I thought it was excellent value for money. The girl I spoke to from the Glad Cafe said this was the first event like this they'd done and they had been waiting to see how it went, but already by the Saturday night they were pretty sure it was a success and they'd be looking to do more. That gets a big thumbs up from me - I can't wait for more nights like this.

What a feast! I'm still full up now an hour after the amazing dessert…read more Set in the back room of glad cafe, this was a hipstastic homage to two great street food vendors in Glasgow, Babu Indian Kitchen and Fire in Babylon. One great starter followed by 2 out of 4 main choice selections (I had an excellent butter chicken that wasn't sickly buttery, I'm looking at you Mother India's Café, and goat curry) and then a sublime ginger cake with an excellent Indian tea all for £20 was grey value. That included a cool rum punch served in an old bottle too. Glad café is a perfect location for such an event and I hope some other vendors will come back and carry on the battles!

I came along to Burnswick street to check these guys out l reticently been to a few street food…read moreevents and quite enjoyed what they had to offer. On arrival My first impressions where "oh is this it" l was a little disappointed with the selection that was there, the highlight of the show was the fruit & veg stall that was beside them where l bought myself some bananas. Food With the street food l expected quick fast, home cooked basically something different. The first stand that l went to was fire dog and this truck sold hot dogs & burgers. I chose the Firedog and for sure this did look amazing, but the amount of hot sauce that was put on was way overkill and the only flavour that l got was hot sauce my mouth was on fire all the way up the street. The hot dog was on a large half French baguette and when you calculate the size of sausage you would have to have a massive gob to take a bite. Next time l need to really check out all the vendors before choosing what to go for, l just saw the picture of the firedog van on Twitter and as l don't normally do hotdogs maybe that's why l went for it straight away. I would love to buy one of these vans though, but not sure what l would do with it.

Ok, I now feel like I've tried enough of what's on offer here that I can write a fair review. I'm…read moreall about street food and this seem to be a good idea. The times I've visited they've had about 6 different food trucks or stands, plus a market stand selling fruit and veg. There are usually places to get coffee and cake, ice cream or crepes in among the more substantial food options. What have I tried? Firebird pizzas: Sure, nothing new. I've had these pizzas in Firebird itself and their food truck is a common sight at events. Thing is, the pizzas are really good and they can be ready in 3 minutes. I chose the truffled mushroom and brie pizza and everything about it was perfect. Fresh Revolution: They do this seafood gumbo that's just amazing. I got so many mussels I thought I must have cheated somehow. Too good. Everyone else was into the Irish pakora and I'm sure it's great but the gumbo is important. The Buffalo Truck: These guys do buttermilk fried chicken rolls, chicken wings and fries. I got the buffalo chicken roll with parmesan fries and it was all really good, especially for the price but I wait about 35 minutes for it. They hadn't really found their rhythm when I arrived though, and I suspect they'll get quicker. However, if you see a queue, know that it takes a while to clear. Rost: Sliders and salads with pizazz. I tried the chicken slider which was nice, but smaller and pricier than the chicken rolls available from Buffalo. Also the guys running it were kind of rude. Maybe they were cold. So I still need to try Might Mexican, Firedog Hotdogs, Babu Kitchen, Chompsky, Cav&Co, Flat Out, Linton and Co, Equis, and on and on and on. Neither my waistline nor my bank balance will thank me but I doubt if I'll regret it.

I have to admit I do rather like it here. I was super confused the first time I came here and found…read moreit hard to understand the staff's thickly laid Italian accents. Fortunately I ended up with an absolutely delicious pasta dish. After a few visits I noticed the signs above them staff. Take your time before you head to the counter so you know what you think you are ordering. Aye OK it comes in a cardboard box but this is the fast food Italian so you can whip it away with you if you're in a hurry. There's also an outside kiosk window for even more quickness. I like to sit in, although it's not the comfiest seats the stools do the job and there's various adapters and power points for you to charge your phone. Once you get the hang of it you can get some really tasty Italian dishes here. I love the pasta best. I love it so much I tried to replicate it at home. It was well... interesting and just proved how good Via Italia is. I have also signed up for the Swipii loyalty card, I've still to reap the benefits but look forward to it and also in my other favourite Swipii places. It's definitely worth popping in and trying, it's quick, fresh and handy with it being right next to Glasgow Central Station. Maybe too handy. Hehe!! PASTA!!!!!! Yum!

Not my cup of tea in terms of food, too much of a "fast food" for me - but i often pop in for a…read morecoffee (their espresso is one of the best in Glasgow) or a wee slice of cake. They also have ice cream (Porrelli). Their location is ideal and right next to Central Station, so it is always packed, especially during the weeking. They have few tables outside, and that's where my boyfriend and I had a wee break yesterday, enjoying the sun. I had a coffee frappe and he had a peach granita and a slice of caramel cheesecake - delicious, didn't expect it!