hillhead bookclub

great venue. loving this place!! i visited here last weekend for afternoon drinks with friends, had heard loads about it so thought we would pop in for a visit.
it looks amazing inside, quite retro but with a modern edge.
the mezzanine level is really nice for sitting at for a drink as it overlooks the main bar.
they do a special on the mojito's you get them for £3 and they are delicious!
for food i had the veg bean burger - it was really tasty and the chips are sooo good!
my friend had the all day breakfast and really enjoyed it.
i really like the atmosphere in thebarits really relaxed and the music modern.
i would highly recommend a visit its the type of place you can relax for an all day session!

terrible service. service is awful. i'm a very patient person but i ordered pancakes with bacon and for some reason, this took 40 minutes to arrive and that was after managing to flag down a "waiter" to ask what on earth was going on. i say "flag down" because it's almost impossible to attract their attention. they're all very good at running around but very rarely did i see them actually attending to any tables. my pancakes arrived and for some reason had syrup on them instead of bacon. that can be fixed, but is it that difficult to get right in the first place? my friend's food arrived about 10 minutes after mine - again, had to flag down someone as for whatever reason they didn't notice my food had arrived but my friend's order hadn't. the waiter didn't check if everything was ok and it was another huge effort to get the bill. ended up paying at thebarbecause i was past sitting around looking like an idiot.
you shouldn't have to go out of your way to order your food and they can't seem to get something as basic as that right.

i'm afraid this place is pretentious, very much so, it's evident throughout the place (the "quirky" touches like mismatched cutlery and charity shop plates, the retro games, even the type of staff they employ) which i wouldn't mind if the service wasn't so darn terrible.

terrible service!. i regularly drink in the hillhead bookclub at the weekends and have often found the service to be a bit slow. however, i was recently extremely annoyed and frustrated when i tried to order a drink there on a saturday night. it was very busy, about three deep at the bar, and thebarstaff spent all their time larking around, chatting to each other and showing each other texts/photos on their mobile phones. i waited at least 10 minutes before any of thebarstaff even looked at me and when i was served the barman seemed as though it was a hassle to serve me. i am really disappointed at the level of service that is offered in thisbarand will not be giving them any more of my business. i emailed the management to highlight the problems that i had with thebarstaff but i did not receive a reply, so that leads me to believe that they dont think customer service is very important. there are plenty of bars in the westend which provide much nicer surrounding and a much higher level of customer service, so in future i will spend my hard earned cash in one of these instead of the hillhead bookclub.

where the hell are the staff???. deleted a previous ok review for this place as few visits later it has been bad each time.

the staff are one of the biggest problems. they just aren't very attentive. even after a few visits we are still unsure if it is meant to be table service or order at the bar. staff hardly around and hard to track down. our wine took almost 20 minutes to arrive after we almost forced someone to take our order. took us ages to get our plates taken away and to pay the bill. the place wasn't even packed at this time. as other reviews say, all a bit pretentious too and trying to be cool.

food didn't go down too well. they brought us wrong thing but apologised and quickly fixed it. we went for a beef and a bean burger as mains. chunks of burger were collapsing onto the plate as you tried to eat it so obviously the chef hasn't used enough to bind them. so more than half of our meal was still on our plate when they finally came to take them away. and they didn't ask if it was ok.

bad service and bad food i'm afraid. nice venue though and good as a bar. terrible as a restaurant. reckon they should give up the food part or have the downstairs asbarand upstairs as food only.

quirky fun food for laid back people. my oh and i happened across this place by accident and we're very glad we did!

quirky decor, laid back staff, a well stockedbarand decent food at a decent price - what's not to like?!

there was the odd downside - the proximity to glasgow un meant we were treated to a rather loud rundown from the people at the next table of their weekend and their course requirements. but having been students ourselves, we saw this more as a chance to reminisce about the good old days!

food was good - considering the price we paid. my minute steak suffered slightly from being a bit tough, but the horseradish mayo was perfectly balanced, and the salad fresh. with big chunky chips and a price tag the right side of a tenner, it filled a hole perfectly. mr bint's burger was perfectly judged - the right size, with bacon and cheese as additional extras, and the same chunky chips cooked to perfection, with the added addition of creamy coleslaw which finished the dish off a treat!

a carafe of water with strawberries and mint appeared as if by magic, and staff were attentive but not overbearing. the specials are listed by thebaron an ohp, and the whole place has a kitch, vintage feel with mismatch china of the sort your gnranny used to have, and bone handled knives which are better than you would expect at cutting meat!

all in all, i loved this place. it's not a high end restaurant or gastropub. it's a student hangout where "grownups" can also feel at home. it has a real buzz about it, with some lovely little touches (the basket of essential lady products like hairspray, anti-perspirant and other stuff you forget to take on a night out, in the ladies loos is just one example). i'd recommend it to anyone who wants a decent bite to eat, a good choice at the bar, and doesn't take themselves too seriously.

would not go back. it needs to be emphasised that thisbaroccupies a tremendous space and has a lot of potential as a venue. sadly however, it tries too hard and falls down when it comes to basics.

the food was average: ok chips; a decent burger served with uninspiring cheese along with a fairly pathetic bun; and a very salty half pint of fried whitebait. also, personally i found the menu, which was written in a ridiculously small font and attempted to include a witticism with each item, very annoying.

this however paled into insignificance in comparison to the truly awful service. it was difficult to attract the attention of any service staff to begin with, then our food order was taken without the server asking if we wanted any drinks. when the food came we lacked cutlery and had to ask for it; similarly we were not offered ketchup etc. one of the waiters was all over the place - taking ages to fetch our bill because he was talking to other members of staff and generally acting strange.

perhaps if you like to wear wayfarer glasses with no lenses, sport dubious facial hair and dress like an effete lumberjack this place is passable for a quick drink; otherwise avoid.

poorly trainedbarstaff. i went her for birthday drinks on a saturday night. as you would expect from anybaron a saturday it was pretty busy, this is fine. what annoyed us was thebarstaff couldn't serve in turn, so my boyfriend waited 45 mins at tehbarwhere people came up and were served straight away. the music is also ridiculousy loud, barely able to hear the person next to you let alone accross the table, although the choice of music was great. the decor is lovely but the heat, noise and poor staff means i will noot be hurrying back. oh and despite what they say you should always book a table, it was heaving.

yum. we recently went to hillhead bookclub and couldn't believe how cheap it was for lunch. nothing on the menu was more than a fiver. we enjoyed a burger each, which was stuffed to bursting point with a very tasty filling and a couple of beers each. the full lunch cost us no more than £10 each. the décor is something else that is worth mentioning. a see through moose head…..enough said. so much better than the boring old salonbarthat used to be. this place has to be seen to be believed. we will definitely be making a return visit.

lucky lucky. we went here last week having seen the place getting ready before and it looked good. its a quirky littlebarand restaurant just off byers road. the décor is really trendy and the staff are friendly and quick to serve. we ordered the bookclub burger for our main and chocolate fudge cake with amaretto cream for desert, very tasty! really liked the feel of the place and enjoyed having a go on the ping pong after our meal. overall it looks good, food good, service good...it's all good.

bookclub. really coolbaroff byres road. it does cheap lunch and dinners and the drinks are pretty reasonable to.
its quite trendly decorated, kind of rustic looking.
it also has a really cool smoking area!
its got a ping pong table and loads of table space.
we had burgers and fries which were all really good, the chips were awesome and the bean burger brilliant!
the crowd in this place and thebarstaff are all cool and quite art school-esque.
if your looking for somewhere quite young and trendy with some good music id suggest this place!!