gamba

attractive restaurant, friendly attentive staff, excellent food, however, this reviewer has one major gripe. mywifehas a gluten intolerance, which we informed the establishment of when we booked. fair enough, her need was catered for, but this obviously meant a degree of restriction to the menu. what let this down for us was when the bread basket came round. now i don't know about staff training here, but judging by our server, i wasn't impressed. he offered a rye bread to my wife...uh uh. rye contains gluten. plus even if it was ok for her, it was contaminated by being in the basket beside other breads and also served by using the same tongs as same. our meal was lovely, but this error overshadowed our dining experience. if anywhere offers a menu catering for dietary requirements, of which there are many, then is it too much to ask for the staff to be fully competent with said requirements?

first night out since mrs c discovered her gluten and dairy intolerance. friendly welcome on arrival followed by a seat in the cosy bar as your table is made ready. mywifeinformed the staff about her dietary requirements and a menu was quickly presented. pretty restricted choice because of her dairy (lactose) intolerance, limiting her to only two or three options. however, the food was beautifully prepared and presented when it arrived. seems to be a popular destination of an evening judging by the amout of diners that were in.
ok, enough ego pumping. let's look at the down side. despite advertising a decent gluten and dairy free menu, it didn't seem that way (see above). in my opinion, if you offer a menu for those with allergens then surely the front of house staff should be well versed or trained with regard to what customers can and cannot have. case in point; mywifewas offered a bread roll. she informed the server about her condition and he sought out the manager for advice. in the end she was offered a rye roll. i tried to warn her against this for several reasons. the roll was in the same basket as the other gluten packed ones and was served using the same tongs. cross contamination! also, thanks to chef training, i know rye contains gluten. sadly our night was cut short as she quickly became ill.
nice place. lovely food. good atmosphere. but that incident let it down for us.

very good + very expensive. sat across from celtic legend pat bonnar which was a nice start, not so nice was the freezing cold aircon that i had to ask the staff to turn off. glasgow in october and they had the aircon on!!

the food was faultless, fish soup followed by spaghetti + mixed seafood, mywifehad cod and prawns. we also ordered some chips and they were a delight - nice and brown and made by a chef that certainly knows his / her chips. take note everyone an eaterie that sells real (as opposed to frozen) chips.
no complaints whatsoever about the quality of the food and the presentation.
the house wine we opted for was a light, fruity italian red (i know you should have white with fish but who cares) reasonabaly priced at around £15.00'ish.
the loo was spotless and my overall experience was very good indeed.
you need deep pockets for this place however, we spent £116.00 ! 9/10.

extraordinarily good seafood. gamba is one of those restaurants that has been so good for so long that it is really easy to overlook it's virtues. for 11 years it has been arguably the best seafood restaurant in glasgow. the food isn't cheap, but it so beautifully prepared & professionally served that it seems churlish to complain. the fish is lovingly treated and never overpowered by the accompanying sauces. i have never been disappointed by the desserts (always the highpoint of a meal for me) & mywiferates the fish soup as being the finest she has ever tasted.