Brel

We’d heard good things about Brel before we came up, but I have to say I was seriously underwhelmed with the place.
I started getting doubts as soon as we found Aston Lane, with the neon signed cluster of restaurants and bars with names such as Vodka Wodka (hmm…) making it look and feel like a knock-​off Disneyland creation for p**sheads. Apologies to fans of this neck of the woods.
Venturing inside, the bar was fairly busy but there weren’t many people sat inside — that all became clear when I saw the massive beer garden on the terraced hill out back.
The beer selection was a bit of a let-​down too as I thought it specialised in Belgian offerings, but these seem to have been mostly forgotten about in favour of both commercial lagers and UK/​US craft ales.
Our group had a drink on some benches in the shade (as there wasn’t a patch of free space in the sun available) and hastily left.

We stumbled upon Ashton Lane (or as my husband dubbed it «Diagone Ally») and Brel sort of by accident during a trip to Glasgow. We were exploring the University of Glasgow and wanted some lunch before hitting the Kelvingrove. Of course I Unilocaled and we were headed toward Ubiquitous Chip when we notice the happy colorful Brel logo. The menu and the sunny beer garden had us at hello. They have great choices on their lunch and regular menu and it was a hard decision. Hubby and I both opted for the mac & cheese with added yumminess of smoked bacon and gruyère. I noticed the soda bead that comes with the mussels at another table and it looked good so I ordered a side. The Mac was very good but the soda bread was fantastic!!! A side came with about 5 generous pieces to share and was a steal at £2.50. The garden is a great place to enjoy your meal (we were lucky as it was sunny & warm) and I can see how this would be a great place to enjoy a summer evening. They had a great beer & cocktail menu with so much to choose from that I would have partaken if it hadn’t been the middle of the day and we still had the museum to explore. Next time we are in Glasgow I would definitely return for dinner.

Très bon restaurant! Le soir il vaut mieux réserver, le cadre et le staff sont très sympas et les plats très bons, un des rares endroits de Glasgow qui sert de la Pimm’s. La terrasse est très agreable.

Good food and beer selection. Muscles are tasty (lemongrass option recommended) Interesting atmosphere.

I’ve been to Brel numerous times over the years for food and drinks and I think it’s one of the best places on Ashton lane for both.
There’s 3 main areas to Brel, the front area as you come in which has quite an odd layout with tables up a small set of stairs next to the bar. The bar itself is at the front and quite spacious. Through the back there’s an indoor conservatory area which is laid out well with a log burning fire, ideal in the winter time. There’s also a beer garden area which is packed on the few sunny days we have.
Food wise, the standard is pretty good. There’s a special £6 lunch deal which has quite a few items on it. Portions are generous at the price and the food is very tasty. Mussels are the specialty here, I’m not a big fan of Mussels so can’t comment on them sadly!
The drinks selection is ideal for beer lovers, with a huge range of Belgian bottled beers on offer. The prices for drinks I find on the steep side, but it’s pretty standard for Ashton Lane.
Overall Brel is a good place to go in the area, and fantastic for a drink on a sunny day out the back. One of the better places on the lane

I enjoyed a very nice lunch for one at Brel. The setting is very chill and the music in the background was pleasant and non-​obtuse. The wait staff are friendly and are good at anticipating needs (i.e. coffee at the end of the meal.) The mussels and fries were the best I have had in Glasgow thus far. I would highly recommend this restaurant to any of my friends as a top lunch or dinner spot.

It’s been nearly 2 years since my last Brel review and not too much has changed actually — it’s still one of the better places on Ashton Lane (my personal favourite being Ubiquitous Chip, and a lot of the other venues being G1 owned). I like the décor — part ski-​chalet, part sunny conservatory and a beer garden for those rare really nice days.
They’re promoting the fact the menu has changed and I can’t actually tell too much of a difference — it’s still focussed on mussels and there’s some tasty sounding other dishes on there as well. As we were in for lunch we got a seat in the conservatory and looked over the menu. They have a lunch deal of mains for £6 (a few with supplements). I ordered a mini mac cheese, Parmesan truffle fries and squid as I didn’t really fancy anything on the main menu.
Food arrived quickly and the mac cheese had a nice topping of extra cheese. Thankfully underneath it was still nice and cheesy, not just a white sauce. Overall I’d say it was a pretty decent mac cheese, not the best I’ve ever had but pretty decent. For £4 the mini version was very generous and I actually couldn’t finish it. The Parmesan fries were also pretty good, a nice smattering of Parmesan and a good portion. The squid was disappointing though and I didn’t finish it. It was meant to be crispy but it was really undercooked so just unpleasant to eat.
Overall I quite like Brel and don’t mind coming here for a drink. I’m not sure it’s ever going to be one of my all-​time favs though, especially with competition from somewhere as magical as Ubi Chip so close.

This was my first Brel experience and I must say, I was impressed. I was a little off put at first by the Hipster Vibe, but that soon subsided.
I do love Ashton Lane! The lights, the bar fronts, it’s just so cute :)
We had to wait 20 minutes for a table, but considering it was 7pm on a Saturday, this wasn’t bad. Plus, waiting involved sitting under trees with fairy lights next to the BBQ!
We opted for a picnic style, tapas meals.
The fries were amazing! Sorry, not fries, Pomme Frites: P Camembert Fondue with a meat plater, Halloumi skewers, salt and chilli chicken wings, fried baby squid… which could have been a bit crispier, the batter kept falling apart, plus extra soda bread.
The food overall was pretty good, certainly unusual.
The staff were pretty accommodating and friendly.
We relocated to the bar area for after dinner drinks, and I actually loved the style. The cobbles and street-​vibe indoors was charming.
Will be back soon!

Cool place, great food, great service. We are just traveling through, but this was one of our first stops in the area. We would absolutely eat here again.

This place has an AMAZING atmosphere! Great outdoor dining area! They have SO MANY great beer selections, too.
Our food was delicious and beautifully presented. Our server was friendly and informative, but a little inattentive (my glass was empty for over 10 minutes). I can’t wait to back!

Why hath I not reviewed here? Ahhhh… I did, but on itison. My first visit here (for food) was with the cheese fondue itison deal. It was £12 for fondue for 2 and a bottle of house wine. Cannae knock it!
My friend had visited the week previously and advised to add on the £5 meat board, and that the house white was delightful. Now, he was spot on about the meat board; it gave my pickle hating companion something extra to nibble on, as with the blue cheese fondue 2 out of the 6 crudités for dipping were pickled onions and mini gherkins. All of which I felt the need to devour (I’m not leaving anything edible!) and ended up with pickle sweats. It was, however a bit sparse, but the small bits of chicken and sausage themed accoutrements were very tasty. The wine… well, looking back I think we got an off bottle but just put it down to being cheap and nasty, because a few weeks later, upon my return, we had the same wine and it was much nicer.
Now! My return. Three of us, rather than the intended 2, ended up dining, so instead of the £6 Moules Frites deal we pigged out on two of the £20 deals, consisting of 2 Moules, 2 frites and a bottle of wine. We ate our weight in crustaceans, filled our tummys with frites and bread, and washed it down with a bottle of both the house white and red. A grand evening!
The service has always been top notch, the surroundings warm and cosy (especially in the heated lean-​to whilst the snow and hail are belting off the glass) the food fantastic and a great range of beers. Definitely one of my favourites of Ashton Lane.

I want to like this place, but I just haven’t been impressed either time I’ve been in. My experience over the weekend might just have put me off the place for a while.
We went in around 8 pm on Saturday; it was pretty full, but there were still a few empty tables about. We checked with the hostess and she told us we’d be seated in about 15 minutes. We wandered about for a while and soon it was time. She told us to sit at a table and walked away — immediately a different waiter came and told us the table was reserved. We explained that the hostess just told us to sit down and he let us be. (We found out later that they mark the dining tables reserved to keep people from wandering in from the bar area and sitting in the food service area.)
That sorted, we went to figuring out what to order. We weren’t dinner hungry but were looking for something to nibble on. They do label their vegetarian and gluten-​free options; unfortunately, they are pretty lacking in munchie options for both. The waiter who’d just tried to kick us off our table came back and took our drink order; we were ready to order food too, and started to tell him, but after he took the other couple’s drink order, he ran off as they were trying to order their food! Awkward. Then, when he came back and we tried to finish ordering, he told us it was better for the kitchen if we ordered everything at once; we told him we’d tried but he left mid-​order! Also, he promised us a jug of water for the table «as soon as one was free;» we saw him take a jug to a nearby table about five minutes later. We never did get ours.
We ended up trying the chips both ways (one is just plain french fries with aioli, the other is the the same chips with parmesan and truffle oil.) Our friends order a sharing platter which had a couple croquettes, ribs, chicken wings, bread and maybe something else… I wasn’t paying terribly close attention as I couldn’t eat it! The chips were chips, they were good but they were chips, you know?
We ended up getting the check from a different server, and we were pretty happy to be on our way. It was just an uncomfortable experience from start to finish.

In all the years of frequenting Ashton Lane, I’d never been in here or Vodka Wodka. I don’t know why, maybe just a mental block over the building and it’s many doors and staircases on the outside. Plus, I’d always been a Curler’s or Jinty’s kinda guy.
With time (and brain cells) to kill, I decided to plunge into Brel feet first.
And boy, I’m glad I did. I had the opinion of Brel being a bit of a spirits bar, with not many beers available. WRONG! They have the awesome Williams Brothers Joker IPA with earns it 2 stars, instantly.
Excellent service from the bar staff — guy that served me seemed to have at least 3 different hairstyles and called me any combination of big man, big chap, fella, buddy, mate, Jimmy and pal — always nice to be nice :) They also replaced a bottle of beer that a poor woman knocked over as she was picking up. Her fault, but the staff offered a replacement without being asked. I like that.
I didn’t realise how big the space inside Brel was. I also didn’t realise there was a patio AND a beer garden. The stairs that go up the side of the beer garden? I’ve walked up those hundreds of times when my girlfriend at the time was a student at Glasgow Uni. I never put two and two together that the beer garden was Brel’s.
Probably an example of why I never went to Uni…
But, I did like the look of the food I saw on going by from the kitchen, I *LOVED* sitting outside in the sunshine — where were you earlier on Eclipse day, Sunshine??? — with a really nice, perfectly chilled cold pint of a nice beer. It’s somewhere I can see myself returning to time and time again.

Brel is one of my favourite watering holes, it has a superb range of continental tap beers, a superior beer garden and a lovely laid-​back vibe. I very rarely eat here though. Why? Well I don’t know, I made sure I booked it last Friday though. I had tickets for the Hobbit and being its Christmas I knew food could be hard to come by.
We quickly got seated in the raised bit near the circular stair, and ordered our food. I went for the Langoustine Frites and the Beef Carbonnade, this place no longer specifically says its Belgian but the menu still is. The service was very friendly and very efficient. My slightly dear langoustines were perfectly cooked and the garlic butter made it melt-​in-​the mouth tasty. The beef carbonnade was also quite nice, but it’s just a stew and a very rustic one at that, a hole-​filler I felt it could be better presented. My father’s Stoemp! looked rustically impressive too, the thickest sausages I can remember ever seeing, and his Moules Frites came in a very generous portion. The only major disappointment was with the soda bread, it was too sugary, stiff and crumbly. It fell into bits on touch and therefore got into everything else.
So Brel is still one of my favourite watering holes, judging it on food though I’d be more critical. So 3 stars for the food, 5 stars for the bar, 4 overall!

i stopped in here with a friend and wasn’t sure what to expect. We were both pretty hungry and were sat in the patio area of the restaurant after waiting at the bar to be seated by a member of the staff.
Being students, we try to live on a students budget when we can, so when we realised this wasn’t the cheapest of restaurants we could have chosen, we both went for pretty basic things.
I ordered the chicken and chips, which, to my surprised for what it cost, was soaking in grease. The chicken was tasty enough, but because it was resting on the chips, the chips were literally sitting in a pool of grease, which put me off completely.
My friend ordered a burger, his usual go to when we go out. He said it was pretty good.
The restaurant itself is pretty great if you’re looking for a nice place to eat. During the warmer days, they have outside seating, and even a grassy knoll to sit on if you’re so inclined. I love the way the outside smells when walking by, as they do a lot of wood burning cooking here. The smell of wood burning is enough to attract me to anything!
I’ll need to go back from a proper meal when I’m not trying to waste time in between classes. It seems like it’s always busy and people are always happy about being there.

Brel is fast becoming my favourite hangout in the West End. I have had food here once (a while back!) and it was amazing, but I can’t remember it enough to do it any real justice (and Gordon M has already reviewed that particular meal — check it out!) but I really enjoy coming to this place.
The service has always been great (apart from on Hogmanay which was expected so I can’t blame them for that at all!) and we’ve always been lucky to get a nice seat (even if it’s on a hill) outside if we needed one.
For either a quick drink post-​work or a nice chilled out Saturday afternoon in the sun, this place is most definitely the place to go on Ashton Lane.

I only recently discovered the delights of Brel after being invited along for the relaunch when it was bought over and then again to sample their Christmas menu.
The food was delicious both times, I particularly loved the ribs at the launch party and the beef brisket with truffle mash at Christmas was divine! I wonder if that might stick around on the normal menu or come back next year — I’ll have to check it out soon as I’d love that again! They also had hot mulled cider which was so delicious and I was very impressed with the roast turkey (I tasted Roz’s) as I would never usually order that on a festive menu but this was actually lovely, very tender and not at all dry!
I can’t wait for the summer when we can enjoy being in the beer garden, not just admiring the pretty lit up trees from the conservatory. :)

Last time I went to Brel for food was a few years ago and I was very underwhelmed. I popped in the other night and loved it. The mussels were really good-I’m getting a main course portion next time & my two beef main was yummy. Try it for a pub setting with better than average food

Brel has been my preferred Ashton Lane bar for some time now and the recent, subtle, refurb, rebrand and relaunch have only made it better. Especially when it comes to the food!
I liked the previous menu, tapas-​style small dishes as well as some good main courses, the new menu steps away from that approach to a more traditional 3-​course style but the quality of the food we had last night was a definite improvement!
My partner ordered the smoked haddock Mornay which was wonderfully cooked, in a delicious sauce with a generous helping of creamy mash on the side. I’m not the biggest fish fan but I’d have happily eaten all of that!
I ordered the beef brisket with strips of steak with dauphinoise potatoes. The brisket was a tiny bit on the dry side to look at but was delicious and melted in my mouth! There were small fried bits of pancetta to help the dish along but the succulent steak strips were wonderfully cooked, all accompanied by some perfectly cooked dauphinoise!
It really was excellent food. Around us the pots of mussels (wisely kept on the menu during the revamp) were being devoured and their burger looked great, a nice chunky homemade pattie!
Given it was a Saturday we were surprised to get a table and the service was excellent, friendly, relaxed and efficient.
I think the revamp was perfectly timed, and it certainly looks like they’ve followed the tired and tested «if it ain’t broke don’t fix it» method whilst improving in the right areas.
If only they’d bring back West’s Munich Red on tap!

Where is good for Christmas parties and dinners in Glasgow? The eternal question. Up until recently I would have given a blunt and honest «No idea» as I have been relatively well behaved in terms of eating out for the last few weeks. I’ve been pretty busy with various bits and bobs and my foodie adventures have (reluctantly) taken a back seat to me working and sleeping! I got an invite to go visit Brel Bar & Restaurant in the über trendy Ashton Lane, and I really couldn’t be bothered. I hummed and hawed, and decided to «just go». I am SO glad I did!
Ashton Lane is a cobbled back street with a mixture of bars and restaurants in Glasgow’s West End. It tugs at my heart strings with it being lit with overhead fairy lights. Brel has carried this gorgeous atmospheric lighting in their restaurant — I felt immediately relaxed, warmed and just happy and cosy when I entered.
I was greeted by the lovely staff… so lovely that I was mocked my my ‘Sod’s law’ luck with car parking. The barman gave me cash back for parking. If you ask for a £5 note and £5 in coins, you know that the coin machine will want £6. So you take £10 in coins and it comes to £2. Typical. At least my purse feels heavier which is a boost to my self esteem, ha!
Brel’s new campaign is called ‘Brelliant Christmas’ and they have a ‘Brelliant’ menu, let me tell you. I tried the 16 year old Tobermory Home Cured Smoked Salmon, Pickled Veg & Crème Fraîche — the salmon was really smoky — it was gorgeous. I loved everything about this dish apart from the bread which was too dense for my taste. I always prefer salmon with a soft or crunchy (as opposed to chewy) bread, and probably not a strong flavoured bread either.
I also had a Rey of the Caramelised Chestnut, Wild Mushroom & Baby Spinach Tart with Spiced Tomato Chutney. This was a great starter — the photo makes it look like an ASDA pizza which it looks nothing like! Sorry! I absolutely love mushrooms so this was right up my street. There were loads of different mushrooms which gave a great earthy flavour and texture, and the spiced chutney just sparked the entire dish. My plate was cleared.
For our main courses everyone else received well dressed plates… I had a parcel delivered! I had the Cod, Salmon & Clams en Papillotte, Saffron, Fennel & White Wine. «DING DING DING JACKPOT» I exclaimed as I opened my silver parcel! I was one of the only ones to order the seafood course, so everyone was tres intrigued about the contents of my package. The cod, salmon and clams had been gently cooked in this sealed foil bag of white wine et al to provide a beautifully tender set of fillets with tastes that compliment each other beautifully. I love that clams are that little bit more al dente and give you something to chew. I ate this with the roast potatoes to soak up the sauce. I was in heaven.
I scored a taste of Slow Braised Beef Brisket with Truffle Mash, Pancetta & Horseradish from another guest and it was glorius. If I couldn’t pick the fish dish, then this for me was the winner. The meat was slow cooked to tender perfection and matched with gorgeous autumnal flavours. It was very luxurious, wintery and it’s a must-​try Christmas dish!
When the Orange, Mango & Rosewater Pavlova arrived I really was convinced that it wasn’t meant for one person — it’s huge. Despite its size, I can tell you all that after my extensive reasearch, it is suitable for one person. The pavlova is flavoured with Rosewater and is as light air. The sweetness is offset by the tart fruit pieces and coulis. It was the perfect end to a very heavy and very tasty meal.
The food was absolutely stunning, especially my parcel from the ocean. Every single course has something for everyone, and I didn’t try a single thing I didn’t like. For the quality of the food, £20/£26 for lunch/​dinner is a bargain price. If you’re looking for a cosy meal in Glasgow’s west end, I whole heartedly recommend Brel!

Brel’s had a facelift… In a good way.
It had been some time since we were last in Brel. Before it was still under different ownership with a lacklustre beer garden and under-​utilised space. We were meeting some friends for drinks, and I immediately noticed changes with the sign, bar, and back garden. All were positive improvements to bring warmth and atmosphere to the establishment.
This particular weekend evening was heaving, but table service for drinks was spot on. However that could have been influenced by the presence of and sitting with a certain VIP.
Typically favouring Finnieston or the City Centre, Brel isn’t a bad shout when venturing along Ashton Lane. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the lights lit up next time in the beer garden.

Un joli bar assez petit (on sera serré, mais l’ambiance est bon enfant). Au programme: superbe bières belges (Chimay quand tu nous tiens!) et bonne musique rock/​club. Un bon starter pour une soirée dans le West End, avant de rejoindre le Loft ou le Vodka Wodka. Attention, c’est un peu cher, mais bon c’est Ashton Lane!
Bonus: Les portraits de Jacques Brel