Nice N Sleazy

I’ve been visiting Sleazys for years now and it’s definitely the coolest joint in town. Good drinking, better music. Good times. Favourite bar ever.

Ah, Sleazy’s. The place to go if you want £3 Black or White Russians. The place to go if you want to find students and hipsters on Sauchiehall Street who are too cool for The Garage or ‘spoons. The place to go whether you want to sit in a pub with a pint, dance at a club night, or check out the new musical talent at an open mic.
What’s not to love? The food isn’t half bad and £3 is a decent price for a Black Russian — even if the lovely craft beers they have on tap can be eye-​wateringly expensive from time to time. Upstairs is warm and welcoming and a great place for groups if you get there earlier enough to nab a table. It definitely gets overcrowded on the busier nights, though, so watch out for that.
Downstairs is a venue space. Sometimes its used for open mic nights, sometimes for clubbing and DJ sets, sometimes for booked local bands. Occasionally they even put on film screenings or have comedy sets.
As places to dance go this is one of the smaller, more intimate options available along Sauchiehall Street, but that’s no bad thing. You can usually expect a slightly more eclectic mix being played than the standard chart toppers that dominate the larger nearby clubs. If that’s your thing, settle in and enjoy it, but this is fully a hipster den — if it gets a bit pretentious don’t be too surprised.
In terms of the open mic nights it’s one of the friendliest places for new artists that I’ve been to. I am musically untalented and have never braved getting up on stage but those who do are encouraged and are listened to politely. There are a few locals who come back every week but it’s not a hard scene to get involved with and I think if you wanted to try out some new songs with an audience who could promise to be nice to you, this is the place.

Sleazies is a Glasgow institution, with a reputation for being a great place for gigs and drinks.
Hmm, I’m not overly convinced.
I’ve been here many times over the years — and several times in the last few months. My last gig here was so long ago that the memory is more than a bit hazy, so I’ll not review this as a gig space just now.
There’s a fairly uninventive draft beer selection — but they do have Joker IPA, so that’s a win for me. I’ve not eaten here yet, but I scoped out some of their food last time I was in — looked and smelled awesome, so I’ll give it a bash soon.
Staffwise, I’ve found them to be unhelpful, bordering on unfriendly at times. I think this contributes to the cold atmosphere it currently has — it certainly didn’t use to be like this.
If you’re looking for somewhere relaxing for a quiet drink I’d give Sleazies a miss — come back when it’s busy and you’ll have a much better time.

It’s easy to be critical these days. The internet seems to encourage folk highlight every negative, explode them up to something of biblical proportions and decide that somewhere, someone, or something is THE. WORST. THING. EVER.
This attitude nearly got me. I was all set for giving Sleazy’s a 4 star review. I had decided it before I went in and the reasons were clear: it’s focus has moved away from the cool underground dive bar that it used to be towards a slightly rough around the edges burger restaurant, and as a result it’s lost its edge (there are families here! Table covers! Where’s the pool table!). It’s changed from how it used to be back in the day, and I was ready to have a moan about it.
Then I sat down, spent a bit of time there, and I realised the error of my ways. Yeah, the afternoon clientele is slightly different, and it is geared up to handle the folk coming here for the burgers, but the things that made this a bar I loved all those years ago are still there. Look around, and it still has the cool subterranean feel to it — in spite of the darkness it’s a really nice place to spend some time in when it’s quiet. The jukebox is still phenomenal (Girls Against Boys!), it still holds eclectic club nights and gigs, and it has a good selection of beers and spirits. The staff are still on the right side on the cool & friendly v aloof hipster scale, and it’s still doesn’t take itself seriously — any bar that sells Kinder Surprise behind the bar is good for me. I really like all of this, and the fact that it’s tweaked things a wee bit shouldn’t mean that I automatically start dissing it because it’s not exactly like it was 20 years ago.
If you always loved Sleazy’s the fact that they sell pretty damn good burgers is a bit of a bonus. If you’ve never been there before they are good enough to draw you there for a first visit. In an oversaturated market, and as one of the original places to do gourmet burgers it could be easy to ignore them, but they are good enough that depending on how you like your burger this could easily be someone’s best burger place in Glasgow. That person will love a massive tower burger, as these are huge. I attempted to squish mine down, but eventually gave up and used cutlery — I honestly felt I would dislocate my jaw if I tried to eat it in one go. I went for the Braddock burger (basically a cheese and bacon burger) and it was great — a little hint of pink in the middle of the burger (more places should do this in my book), well cooked bacon, and a fantastic bun made this really enjoyable, good enough to break the inevitable burger boredom that I’ve picked up. My only real complaint would be that the chips portion is a little on the small side, which is a shame as they were extremely good. My personal tastes still put Bloc+ ahead of it, but this really isn’t far behind.
Nothing to be critical about then, and the world is good again…

What can I say. There’s a burger war happening in Glasgow. All over people are fighting to make the best one but somehow Nice N Sleazy gets ignored. It’s a great burger… coming from the States, we don’t take these things lightly; so trust me.

This is a nice place. But the thing that annoys me, is their quiz. They need to introduce the app for the quiz.
Because when you are doing it the old fashioned. Way on paper. You see teams on their mobile phones cheating that both my friend and myself have reported before.
While they are on the next question, someone is searching for the answer from the question before on their mobiles. I know some might say it’s a game. I hate losing.
But to lose to people that you clearly can’t win against, unless you cheat yourself is bad. Please update it to the app. Nothing worst than a group of friends coming out, to lose to cheaters.
Apart from that. Everything is great with this place. Great hangout place, esp being so close to the Garage. And the staff are always speedy to serve, and very polite.

MUUUUNCHIES!!!
Robin B and I had a mate-​date last night, having food and drinkies in Sleazy’s then going to a gig… GREAT FUN!
We planned on having Meat Hammer burgers, but after I saw pics of them, we thought we’d be ready for a nap rather than a boogie, so we opted for «lighter bites»…
We both decided upon quesadillas, mine with pulled pork and R’s with chicken… they’re a BARGAIN, and come in 2 halves, so we swapped a half each-​GREAT! We also had some triple-​fried chips with cheese and deep fried macaroni with sweet Chili dip! LOADS of food for £15.95… I REALLY enjoyed the quesadillas; they had picked red onion and wee olives in-​yummy surprises! I’ve had deep fried macaroni before and they were wee balls of mac, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried-​not in Sleazy’s. There we had a bowl of unrolled/​unbreadcrumbed actual we bits of pasta, fried… it was reeeeeally crunchily strange, but TOTALLY addictive, we both agreed! We finished them! :-)
R and I actually had a conversation about what out star rating would be, I said four… we agreed that’d be fair; howwwwever, we actually went BACK after the gig (the lure of el cheapo White/​Chocolate Russians was too severe!!) and were sliiiightly harassed by a reaaaally weird dude!!! The bouncer came over and made sure we were ok and that they guy wasn’t annoying us too much-​at that point, R said «five stars for the bouncer»” agreed!
I would DEFINITELY recommend Sleazy’s for food and drinks, most specifically the choccie Russians (white Russians with choccie syrup in) and the quesadillas… delish and inexpensive, two of my favourite things!

Sleazy’s is a legendary G-​town institution, as Glaswegian as a rainy day or a man in a bin shouting abuse at himself. It’s just one of those super-​awesome, chilled out joints where a guy like me can chillax with my guys whilst listenin’ to some super awesome tunes on the juke box and samplin’ some craft beers whilst comparin’ neck tattoos. They gotta burger joint in-​house where you can get some super-​awesome burgers with chunky fries and classic slaw, all washed down with some gnarly craft beer. Don’t be surprised if you find a coupl’a’beard hairs in your burgers though man, this joint is 95% full of dudes like me with awesome, big square beards like mine, maybe they should serve their burgers in mosquito nets in future lol! I’m only messin’, but there are a lot of guys in there with the exact same beard as mine, which is kinda cool as I like to be surrounded by individuals. High five to the max for this joint.

You know what? I take back everything I ever said about Sleazys. Well, almost.
I used to suffer through an evening at the bar after the cooler-​than-​thou staff made it impossible to feel comfortable, and the fact that on a Saturday night you were guaranteed to be squashed up against someone with an unwashed top-​knot and septum piercing, debating over Mark E Smith.
However I genuinely feel this venue has really changed. I attended a gig there last night (Three Blind Wolves — their new album is so-​so but the performance was fantastic, thanks for asking) and was taken aback at not only the bouncers wishing me a pleasant evening, but the bar staff smiling attentively at me as I approached to order. It really is amazing how a change of staff can brighten the place up a bit.
Despite being busy and loud, there were plenty places to sit or stand, and it really had the feel of a bar who has finally cemented it’s place in Glasgow’s nightlife. Combined with the introduction of their award winning daytime food menu, drinking in Sleazys has been elevated from an experience which I suffered due to the fact that I am a (reluctant) art school wanker, to one which is enjoyable and surprisingly civilized.
This Glasgow institution is infuriatingly close to my heart, like a disobedient child, so i’m glad to say it’s finally come through the moody teenager years, and is starting to meet my expectations! I feel like a proud parent.

I used to drink in Nice N Sleazy’s when I was a student (some time ago, I won’t say how long!!!) and recently returned to sample the much raved about burgers served by Meathammer ltd.
They won Glasgow’s best burger in 2012 (or was it 2013, my memory sucks) and hve truly built a name for themselves. I tried the ‘Lucretia’ burger which includes such delights as caramelized pineapple and chorizo — truly delicious. It wasn’t the easiest of burgers to eat as it’s pretty stacked, but when it’s this good you find a way! My husband tried one of the specials, the ‘Pignut’ I believe which he thoroughly enjoyed.
However, we weren’t particularly enamoured with the chips served alongside or the portion size — but would most definitely return regardless!

I ordered the Great White Buffalo; a beef patty on a brioche bun, filled with bacon, Stilton, red onion marmalade, garlic mayo, and a JD, Worcester sauce and Tabasco reduction. The food came in good time, and was served with a side of triple cook chips, which was a bit on the small side. The burger, however, was monolithic!
The meat was cooked to perfection, and melted in my mouth, the flavours a beautiful compliment to each other, quite smokey, with a bit if sharpness from the Stilton. The only thing to let this down was the bun. It was chilled, and had evidently been in the fridge for a day or two. With a fresher bun it would have got 5 stars.

On Monday evenings at Sleazy’s you’ll find the best open mic night in the city, with free beer for performers and everything from old-​time crooners to improvised comedy rap, with plenty of singing and strumming in between.
It’s the most eclectic and impressive open mic night I’ve been to and is well worth attending for an evening of entertainment from Glasgow’s most weird and wonderful.

Another burger review? I can’t quite believe it’s taken me so long to have a Sleezys burger! Now if you like your fine dining and silver service, this is definitely not the place for you! Imagine your typical grungy hipster bar with the with great beers and cool music! We went quite early on a Saturday so it was quiet but still had a good atmosphere! So on to the art! I had the Great white buffalo! Phew it’s a big one!! Squash it down and wallaaa! At this point I was happy everyone was too busy looking at their own burgers as I had it all over my face! My only criticism was that the bottom of the bun fell apart because of the juiciness of the burger (which isn’t a bad thing) but Just made it more difficult! To eat! It came with a small portion of chips — they were good to and all washed down with goose Island IPA! Service was good as usual! Try it just once!!!

So the continuing ‘try all burgers in Glasgow’ quest that I am on, finally brought me to sleazys on Saturday. It’s a place I struggled to imagine as doing food as all previous visits have involved booze and drunk people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool pub, but just not a place for food in my mind.
My visit at the weekend definitely proved me wrong though. I had the Lucretia, which is a burger, pulled pork and chorizo. You can see from my picture below it is MASSIVE, this is more an artistic tower of food than a burger to eat! Anyways I munched in and it tasted brilliant. There was chips on the side which were nice as well. Although I prefer fries than thicker chips, but once sone salt and sauce were on then they were great. Beer wise I got a goose island IPA which is a favourite of mine so all good.
Why 4 stars and not 5? There was not enough bun to deal with the size of the burger and toppings inside. Also it’s just a bit dingy inside the pub IMO, good for beers, but not great for eating food.
Still don’t get me wrong it was an enjoyable lunch and you really need to try it just to see the sheer size of the burger towers. But is this the best burger in Glasgow? Not for me am afraid. (Sorry Rocco)

A short update to my previous review as we re-​visited recently. I ordered the same burger as last time, the Behemoth without a bun as well as a portion of the mac cheese as a side.
The mac cheese arrived first — too much mustard and not enough cheese. I wouldn’t order this again as I really didn’t enjoy it.
The burger was just as good as last time; a really big patty which was nice and juicy and again I loved the bone marrow gravy. Again, I wasn’t really taken with the brisket but I order this burger because I like the other toppings anyway. My chips were a bit of a let down as they weren’t cooked quite enough although Graeme’s portion seemed better.
Another thing worth noting was that service was really good and our waitress was really helpful and friendly. It was noticeably quiet for a Saturday evening although maybe it picks up later in the night.

It had to happen. on my quest to try the best burgers the world has to offer one day i would have to try one of meathammers culinary creations and that day was yesterday or for those of you reading this on channel 5 three years ago.
Sleazys is a great pub and i have frequented it over many years and its various suppliers of food. its a great gig venue and most importantly it sells kinder eggs behind the bar but this review is not about the pub but the burgers or in my case the great white buffalo burger.
when the lovely woman placed the knife and fork in front of me shortly after ordering i scoffed making a joke of how optimistic they were being, little did i know that the joke was indeed on me because soon after i would have need of these implements as the burger that was placed in front of me was an argument for genetically splicing a human with a snake so that they could dislocate their jaw in order to take a bite.
It was a delicious construction of meat.
now one would assume that such a burger would merit 5 jules one the winnfield scale BUT when you assume something you make an ass out of you and me (sorry)
even though it was a damn tasty burger i give it 4 out of 5 jules mainly because its its construction made it impossible to eat as a burger and it had to be consumed layer by layer rather than enjoying all the taste sensations in one bite i had to taste them a bit at a time.
would i go again? of course! it was a fantastic meal! just not one i could pick up and cram into my face.

Ah Sleazy’s, you are a Mecca for hipsters that is true, people with sailor tats and pencil moustaches from all corners of Glasgow flock to you, but, you are a friendly and welcoming joint also, which means for us less hip people we can feel at ease and marvel in your peculiar and quirky ways.
This place has been here so long that I’m not really sure what came first, Glasgow or Sleazy’s? The toilets certainly look like they haven’t been washed since 1950, but its all part of the charm. What I do know is that Sleazy’s is a true Glasgow institution if ever there was one. It has tonnes of character and this place has stood the test of time by being true to its roots. Always playing great music, hosting top notch club nights, that amazing left-​field jukebox and putting on some of the best alternative and cutting edge live music in the UK. Monday open mic nights are also a treat if you want to sample some local music.
And, if Sleazy’s wasn’t great enough already, they decided to employ some amazing dudes, with a passion for burgers and all things meaty to work in their little kitchen to feed all those skinny punter with a vision of fatting them all up. Known simply as «Meathammer» these guys are literally ‘cooking up a storm’ with their amazing burgers, which have been voted by many, as the best in Glasgow! They offer great value too, as all burgers are served with the insanely good triple cooked chips. Most burger and chips come in at around £8 or so, so there is no need for fancy BOGOF offers etc. The chips are oh so crisp and light and not remotely greasy, they are a true chip to behold. The burgers, well, lost for words really, just cooked and flavoured to perfection.
Oh and I almost forgot, this place is open ’till 3am every darn night, amazing! They clearly work hard so you don’t have to!

If in doubt get down to Sleazy’s. This pub has been a wee hipster paradise for many years with an indie rock influence. I have also been to many great nights out here and seen many awesome bands in the downstairs venue.
Today though I’m here to talk about Meathammer. No, not meat that likes to hammer or even MC Hammer but the recent menu revamp. Gone are the days of the Scooby Snack and enter in the Meathammer folks. I had heard on the street that this shiz really is good and you know I have to agree.
I chose here for the start of a UYE event I had organised as I had heard that not many had tried the new menu. So with 11 of us in a big booth, we all got our orders in together with tastebuds at the ready.
I liked the choice and I liked the names. I had a Murderous Hog, imagining it was a right dirty homicidal maniac, I squished that bad boy right in my gob. It was absolutely delicious!
It was however a mighty tower of 6oz beef, pulled pork, smoked bacon and cheese with a bacon and bourbon jam and pork gravy. N.B. I removed the tomato, I don’t do tomato. They had to stab that beast right through it’s murderous heart with a food stick type thing as it was so high. Now I admit the beast was winning but I managed with a side of chips and coke to devour that hog.
I had a fantastic evening with my Unilocal peeps and Sleazy’s were very accomodating and it didn’t take long for our orders to arrive. I can’t wait to go back and try something else from their menu, the Pignut sounds good. Here piggy piggy!

So, I’ve been hearing much hype about the Meathammer Burgers so felt it my duty to pop in one evening and give it a go so thats just what I did.
Not having been in here for a long time I was surprised to see nothing had changed. To be honest I always found it a bit of a dive so no change there. The seats are ripped, theres graffiti all over the place and the décor (if you could call it that) is well tired. For all that though, its a popular venue and still seems a big hit with the young squad (not that I’d know anything about that.)
I wasn’t overly enthused by the place but the sight of the menu quickly changed that. Its been a long time since I had a choice of burger to this caliber. We both opted for the Behmoth which was The Burger with Stilton, chunks of beef brisket, dill pickle, salad and Horseradish mayo, with a bone marrow gravy and chips. I’m not usually one for ordering burgers but these were Awesome! We also ordered between us a side of macaroni which was just as tasty. With a thick topping of bubbly cheese, this wee dish was exceedingly moreish.
Not the fastest of service but well worth the wait and a great selection of beers to keep you going till your dish arrives.

I’ve only been here once, and that was for the food (the Burgers by Meathammer Ltd. which have a residence in Sleazy’s are legendary) but I would definitely be back.
Good selection of draught and bottled beers, good drinks promotions and a very cool interior all point towards «excellent».
Then I had the food… amazing pulled pork, epic burger, lovely chips. A definite winner all for less than ten notes.
A quick tip though, if you’re not VERY HUNGRY I would suggest going for one of the quesadillas on offer. Starting at a crazy £3 this is the ultime bar food. Enough to fill a small stomach especially when coupled with the consumption of beers — and mega mega tasty. DO IT.

A première vue, juste un joli petit bar, légèrement plus cher que la moyenne, avec une salle de concert en dessous de la salle principale.
Jusque là rien d’incroyable. Sauf que le sleazy est le lieu culte des amoureux de la musique indépendante à Glasgow. Le juke box est tout juste incroyable et la programmation musicale excellente. Le lundi sor, soirée open mic avec une ambiance des plus décontractées.
Bonus: le Sleazy Burger (avant 20h). Il vaut le détour si on aime le piment jalapenos!

meine erfahrung mit dem nice ‘n sleazy is zwar scho 7 jahre her (verdammt, muss wieder nach schottland…) aber empfehlen kann ich es trotzdem noch g*
im pub oder club (??) herrscht né angenehme atmosphäre bei leicht versifften charme. das publikum dürfte sich hauptsächlich so um die mitte zwanzig bewegen und ich würde es als alternative/​indie bezeichen — also net groß mainstream. die musikalische untermalung richtet sich ebenfalls in diese richtung aus.
der keller wird nur bei veranstaltungen geöffnet, was konzerte oder ähnliches sein kann.
bericht ohne gewähr, da die eindrücke leider nicht mehr aktuell sind*