Glasgow's gourmet gem

Kate Ennis samples one of Glasgow's finest restaurants

If you take a taxi from central Glasgow to The Buttery – one of the city's best restaurants – for the first time, the journey may take you somewhat by surprise.

First you bypass the sleek modern brasseries of the city centre, and then you head out towards the busy motorway.

But you are not headed for the countryside and a large house with sweeping drive. Instead the taxi pulls up at an old tenement building standing solo in an area of slightly shabby high-rise residential blocks.

The ornate swirly gold ‘B' on the sign outside is the only indication that you have reached somewhere that might resemble a restaurant. It's a sign that represents a Glasgow institution in the culinary stakes.

Built in 1856, The Buttery is the city's oldest established restaurant, with a reputation as respectable as its age. For more than a century, it was the place to eat and be seen in Glasgow.

Despite this long-lived popularity, the last few years have proved to be the restaurant's most turbulent and the legendary eaterie was suddenly closed down and written off in January 2001, amid much publicity.

So it's strange no-one took much notice when it reopened just months later. Even so, it has rapidly re-established itself as one of Glasgow's top places to dine and now the awards are rolling in. The Buttery is very much back in business.

Iain Fleming bought the place without even coming to look at it. He knew the name and reputation were enough to revive the restaurant's fortunes – it ...

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• By : Kate Ennis
• In : Best of Scotland
• Issue : 14
• Page : 64
• Words : 741