The Counting House

Ordered some breakfast before we hit the shops. The service is quite slow which was surprising given that it was pre lunch. Our hot drinks were finished before the food arrived.
No veggie sausage left so they replaced it with potato scones which were well received so that got an extra star in my book.

This is a relatively large Wetherspoons right on the corner of George Square. The location is fantastic.
Yet, it is a Wetherspoons, so you know exactly what to expect. Even though I have never eaten here, I know what the food would be like — decent for the amount of money (or lack of it) you pay.
The booze is cheap and even on a Saturday night it wasn’t stupidly packed either. The bar staff was friendly and seemed in abundance and so it was easy to get a drink. As always, one will make a friend waiting at the bar, but compared to some of the other bar conversations I’ve had at a Wetherspoons, this was much more civilised.
There is no music, unlike at the Social Rooms. It’s quite extensive and I think there is plenty of space and seating and there are always the little rooms that you can look into to find a space.
I love that you have a great view of George Square, especially in the Christmas months (ew) when the entire GlasgowLovesChristmas thing is going on.
All in all, a decent pub when you’re looking for a decent pub with cheap booze.

It’s a Wetherspoons… what more can you expect?
Sometimes you just want a cheap drink and some alright food, and when that’s the occasion a Wetherspoons is a good shout. As far as Wetherspoon’s go, I’d say The Counting House is one of my least favourites.
Despite it’s grand interior, it’s often bursting to the brim with punters and as a result takes an age to get served. This is true even at quieter times, which is a bit of a hassle when you want a quick bite.
The food is pretty basic, but the value for money is decent with meals often costing around £6 and some come with a free drink. It’s served relatively quickly and the selection has been improving over the recent months, with the addition of «small plates» that make a great snack/​alcohol buffer.
The range of beer on offer is one of it’s only redeeming factors — being stupidly cheap — but they very rarely have the ridiculously low price cocktail pitchers that I like available which is a big downside.
It’s not the worst I’ve been to, but I’ve definitely been to better.

The food is okay but nothing to rave about. The drinks are quite pricey £1.80 for a Pepsi.

A very popular Glasgow bar right on George square. Have been there several times and was very concerned when Weatherspoon’s took it over. Thankfully they have left the former bank turned bar virtually the same as it was with the previous owner. Reasonable priced drinks with an outstanding selection. Food is bar food also reasonably priced.

I don’t don’t enjoy coming to a JD Weatherspoon’s bar, this one may be one of the biggest in glasgow but as the saying goes bigger is not always better.
Some of the good points are cheap booze and cheap ping cuisine, (ping it’s ready).
The bad points is that it can take time to be served if you could find a server, there is no music just the ear drum busting noise of people talking, shouting & laughing.
The atmosphere here sometimes reminds me of when you go to a friends house and get a cup of tea and No BISCUIT, only to see a box of miniature hero’s on the coffee table and find out later that it was a sewing kit.

A year ago if you had asked me what I thought about a Weatherspoon’s pubs I would of told you «no chance I am going there». In my mind they were neddy and soulless with no atmosphere and sticky floors. This was all based pre-​conceptions and rumours of what I thought the places were like and not really on any real facts. I now realise they have their place in the pub market and I have no issue going to one for a pint.
Focussing on this one in particular, it is huge in size and its probably easy to lose your friends in. I was in a few nights ago and it was a mixed crowd, some dodgier looking folk but also a fair share of less dodgy looking folk out for a pint. There is no music, but it was still noisy inside with the volume of punters. So far it is probably a 2 on the Unilocal start scale, but what pushes this up is the masssssssive beer collection and the cheaper pricing. They have tonnes of imported unusual bottle options and loads of craft beers on draft. The pricing is also ridiculous. A can of Sixpoint crisp lager was 99p… Yes 99p. This is unheard of these days… I could get ten for tenner? In many pubs nearby I would be luck to get two beers for a tenner these days.
So good beer, cheap prices, sadly no music and a «interesting» crowd not somewhere I would recommend you go, but also I would not warn you off if you wanted a cheaper night out drinking good beer.

I’m still a bit sketchy about weatherspoons bars but each time I am reasonably surprised. A quick drink after dinner on a Saturday night and it’s safe to say it was decent. Austen M had a craft beer and I had glengone whiskey and it came to like 3 quid!
Saturday night has a bit of a mixed crowd majority older. Down points it has no music and not much atmosphere but if your with a group of pals it’s generally alright.
The staff aren’t always the friendliest and always seem to have a shocked when you ask for ask for a craft beer or an Ale! They also have some form of Quing system but nobody know what it is!
The décor is very basic with lots of tables and chairs, the building itself is massive inside and out and always bouncers on the doors but you get what you pay for and its cheep as chips!

Like a reliable chap, TCH stands as an easy meet up or good backup to other disappointments. A decent array of drinks priced well below average at other pubs, the comfortable atmosphere and the constant buzz allows this venue to thrive.
Its one of many Wetherspoons but this one has a distinct character to it; with a beautiful dome ceiling above the bar and many separate nooks to snuggle with a pint and engage in hours of chatter.
It can be overcrowded at times but you can at least find a spot for a 3 – 4 group to squeeze into before a place opens up soon enough. Good turnover and friendly staff. Mindful patrons and good selection of drinks. A definite pit stop when to & fro at Queens St. station.

I’ve been in here a few times over the past year. Basically, it’s a Wetherspoons. But it’s a Wetherspoons that I like.
Good points:
I love the building. The pub itself, is a warren of different rooms, with a huge central bar. I’ve had burgers, noodley chicken thing, pasta etc — all pretty good, much better than I’d expected, and cheap. Also, there’s always a good atmosphere here too. Whenever I’ve been in its been HEAVING. Like, sinceriously, über busy. All the time. But everyone seems really chilled out and relaxed.
Bad points: service can be slow — due to the size of the place. Also, trying to find friends can take hours!

Large airy pub– no music. Great for meeting friends /​groups. Also has a food menu for pub style grub

Another Wetherspoons establishment, the Counting House is a refurbished Bank of Scotland turned restaurant in Glasgow. It’s close to George Square across the way and down the street from Jamie’s Italian. I made my way over here to meet up with the rest of my tour group who had dinner here for a quick drink. I ordered a half pint of Strongbow cider and they only charged me £1.40. Not bad! I can’t say much for the food as I didn’t dine here but from the looks of things, the plates are gigantic and cheap.
The place was full to the brim when I arrived and it was humming with chatter from the patrons. I really liked the décor and some of my friends had dinner in a converted bank vault. Super cool. This place is great for large groups. Most Wetherspoons have extensive menus with affordable pricing so if that’s what you’re looking for, check it out.

It’s Usually more Beer than Food for me, but…
What’s a man got to do to get a lunch date nowadays? They all screwed their noses up at me, their lips curling into perfect sneers, as if they would rather have lunch with Katie Hopkins! «No» and «sorry» they said (they didn’t mean it one jot, of that I am sure). «I’ve got to clean the toilet», one laughed and when you’re blown out for the sh*t stick you know things are bad. Well, their odious snobbery is misplaced in my opinion.
But after my lonesome £5.50 burger and drink combo deal (with a BrewDog This.Is.Lager) I started to feel strangely content and the love returned for my pretentious friends. Everyone in here — the students, workies, ladies who lunch, codgers, tourists and business folk — seemed to convey the same contentment. There’s no music, no televisions breaking the news and I turned off my phone (yip, you heard). In fact, you’re almost hermetically sealed from the outside world, where the beer’s good and cheap and you don’t have to acknowledge the dreadful state of World affairs. Well, I’ll have a crafty drink to that and on the odd occasion a semi-​decent burger.
It’s just a pity the service isn’t quicker, but that’s part of the price we pay for cheap tasty ale :-/

I’m and unashamed fan of the Counting House. The huge glazed dome above the bar is stunning and you can even take a peek into one of the bank vaults from the days before it was a pub! It’s full of interesting architectural features and is perhaps more interesting than the usual Wetherspoons venue for that.
I’ve not eaten at this branch, but its a favourite pre-​dining meet-​up spot or a good place to rest the weary feet after some serious retail therapy. Yesterday was a combination of both and on a dreary cold Wednesday afternoon the place was packed to the rafters. My favourite spot is the traditional pub booths (through the main door from George Square and turn right) where we can spread out our bags and have our own wee private spot.
As usual with Wetherspoons pubs, the ales are well kept and very keenly priced. Yesterday they seemed to be doing a roaring trade in jugs of cocktails, a sure sign that the festive season is almost upon us. I’m not saying this place is the best Glasgow has to offer, but it has a bit of character and it won’t break the bank!
PS The cheap and cheerful pub grub menu includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options.

Always nice and busy inside, good selection of lagers and ales. Also they offer a lot of meals including a drink! So it’s great to go there with some friends.
Forget about getting a table Saturday evening, it’s really busy by then

I’ve read some bad reviews of this place in the past, but for me you get what you pay for in here. The building itself is really impressive and I love that the old vaults are still there from when it was a bank back in the day.
The food is the usual Wetherspoons fare; cheap and cheerful. I wouldn’t come here for a special occasion meal, but for a good value pub meal it does me fine.
There’s a much improved wine list which now includes some decent quality stuff as well as good value options. It’s a good way of drinking champagne cheaply in the city centre as their bottles are much cheaper than any other city centre venues I’ve been in. I’m not a fan of their cocktails personally, but they are great value and seem really popular.

The big Wetherspoons sitting right on George Square in the centre of Glasgow.
That in itself is all you essentially need for this review! It’s a WETHERSPOONS! You either take that as a bad thing, or a good thing — nothing I can say will change your mind.
Having said that, this is one of the better incarnations of that chain of pubs. It’s an old bank building, so there is at least a bit of character to the interior, with it’s giant pound notes and huge safe.
The range of beers, ales and lagers is impressive and ever changing, and the prices are as low as you would expect from a chain pub.
I can see why people don’t like the big chain pubs, but honestly, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this place. It’s not somewhere I would stay for lengthy periods of time, it does have that usual lack of atmosphere that permeates a Wetherspoons pub.
It is what it is. I’ll happily pop in for some cheap breakfast and a coffee, equally, I’ll pop in for a cheap pint of real ale and move on.
Very much the definition of «it’s awright» for me.

It is one of the larger bars in the Weatherspoons group. Unfortunately it is one of the proofs that bigger is not better. The service in here is terrible. Staff just wander around and don’t seem to serve anyone in any particular order. The beer is very hit and miss, They get a good selection on the cask lines but you can’t guarantee that they are going to taste any good.
On the past couple of occasions when i have been in the wifi has not been working and the management just fob it off as it isn’t their problem to deal with.
The place is a always a big let down and the only reason I am giving them 3 stars is that they have recently added craft beer to the fridges in the shape of bottles of Brewdog’s Punk IPA, and cans of six point beers from Boston.
Get the finger out people and serve your customers in some sort of decent time.

Wonderful building. Awful awful food.
I’m willing to concede that our experience was down to bad timing but there is no excuse for what was served.
The Big Scottish breakfast was ordered at 11.45am, the breakfast menu ends at midday. Despite that it was clear that the food had been sitting under heat lamps for at least an hour.
The black pudding was two dried out discs of bland, the square sausage had the consistency of ceiling tiles, and the potato scone was dripping in the grease it had obviously been lying in. The beans were that thick consistency they go after too long under a heat lamp, the fried eggs were clearly on the brink of drying up completely and even the toast was cold.
It was a perfectly produced plate of bad food.
I’d much rather they’d have said, despite the timing, that they wouldn’t serve us the food because of the quality and have us re-​order from the lunch menu.
Why anyone thought it acceptable to plate up that food and serve it is beyond me.

Taking a tour around Glasgow for the day, a friend and I decided to pop in to The Counting House for some cheap eats. He had been here before, but this being my first time, I was intrigued to say the least. The building itself is grand and gorgeous, the seating is a bit sporadic; the chairs and tables seemed to be just as old as the building. The scene on a Monday afternoon was that of an old mans pub, literally with loads of pensioners and woman with prams. Luckily we found a seat among the crowd and had a look over the menu.
The strange thing about this place is that once you decide what you want to eat, you then need to go to the bar to order your food as there is no table service. Once your order is placed though, the food arrived at our table with lightning speed. My friend ordered the Tennessee burger that came with a honey BBQ sauce, and I ordered the 6 oz gourmet burger that came with Stilton and bacon on it. The prices really can’t be beat for what you get. For just over £6, you can get a burger, chips, onion rings and a soft drink. Not too shabby when my friend and I try to eat on a university students budget! The only real negative about the burger was the bun. After a few bites, the bun completely fell apart so much that we both ate our burgers with a fork and knife.
All in all, not a bad place if you’re looking for a quick bite in town on the cheap. The food menu is quite extensive and the booze menu is even bigger! I’m sure my friends and I will be back!

Ce pub a l’avantage d’avoir le meilleur emplacement de la ville. En plein cœur de Glasgow, donnant directement sur Georges Square, et à moins de 5mn de chacune des deux gares.
L’endroit est très appréciable de par sa taille et sa décoration (ancienne banque, salle très volumineuse, plafonds hauts, reproductions de billets sur les murs). De quoi tâter la véritable ambiance des pubs glaswégiens.
Les consommations né sont pas chères, surtout pendant le Ales festival au mois de novembre.
La nourriture est dans les standards de la pub food traditionnelle, et les prix sont une fois encore très attractifs (promotions si on commande deux menus dans l’après-midi).
Un endroit très agréable et incontournable pour se poser. Un seul bémol, qui peut s’avérer très important parfois: l’attente est longue pour commander, même de temps en temps par faible affluence. N’y allez pas pour manger en coup de vent!

En plein centre ville de Glasgow, the Counting House vous permet d’avoir un aperçu très vivant de la vie à la ‘Scottish’.
L’entrée au sein du pub est souvent accompagnée d’un agréable étonnement pour l’architecture du batîment.
Pub appartenant à la fameuse chaîné Weatherspoon, vous y trouverez ni musique, ni tv. Néanmoins l’ambiance environnante vous comblera vite d’un sentiment jovial.
Plutôt calme en début de matinée, the Counting House devient très vite ‘busy’ durant la journée.
Un large choix de boissons, à prix raisonnables, vous sera proposé. Le niveau de cuisine est comparable à l’ensemble des pubs apparenant à la chaîné Weatherspoon, ceci étant: le prix bas justifie la qualité qui elle est raisonnable.
Le pub participe aussi au Festival de la Bière (les Bières sont issues du Royaume Uni, d’Irlande mais aussi d’autres pays Européens) plusieurs fois durant l’année.
Au final, c’est un endroit où l’on peut découvrir beaucoup de traits associés à la culture Ecossaise (tout le monde au pub, gentillesse, joie de vivre, et plus spécifiquement le Scottish Full breakfast, Haggis, Fish and chips)
Il est préférable de s’y rendre accompagné(-é)