Darcys

Although busy when we arrived we were quickly seated with a table for 2 adults and 3 kids. Service was quick and friendly at all times, staff were always willing to help with any request we had. Our boys loved their macaroni and had to admit its one of the best restaurant macaroni ive tried (most dont use a lot of cheese), the steak i had was reliativly cheap considering the size of the monster, never stopped me munching it down though. My wifes penne carbonara was tasty and she devoured it. The desserts were great and the chocolate mousse was delicious with the breadcrumbs. Only slight fault i had was the amount of ice in the drink, i felt there was too much ice and my juice ran out quite quickly but you could always ask for no ice in your drinks. Excellent toilets aswell very clean.

Have eaten here for lunch twice in the past couple of months, both times have found it to be acceptable but nothing special. First visit, the steak sandwich was good, second time, a friend had it and it was a bit fatty and chewy. Second visit I had a burger, which was pretty tasty, but on both occasions, food has been luke-​warm, which seems odd for freshly cooked food. I wondered if perhaps they are understaffed for busy lunch periods which keeps the food waiting too long to be brought out. Just my experience, perhaps I’ve just been unlucky.
The mocktails are pretty good, very refreshing. Prices are pretty much what you’d expect for Princes Square — the pricy side of all right. Staff vary — first visit, our waiter was not great — in a rush, unfriendly. Second time, the first girl we had was friendly and attentive, but was replaced by someone who was not so hot on service. Overall, it’s acceptable, but not special enough for me to hurry back.

I was dining in here tonight as part of a set menu and initially didnt look like there was anything that resembled gluten free however i took a chance and decided to ask if they had gluten free pasta. I was over the moon to find they could make the carbonara gluten free!
The waiters were attentive and kept asking if we wanted drinks however several times we asked for the water jugs to be refilled they never were.
Thats the only reason this is not a 5 stat review.
Darcys is a beautiful venue and were were dining in the private dining room at the back which was lovely. Its a lovely room to host any small function.

Is it bad that when Unilocal told me to review here next I didn’t actually know where they were on about?! Anyways, Darcys a restaurant in the bottom of Princess Square.
Visited here on Monday night, as it was the closest drinking establishment post dinner in Yo-​Sushi, it was bucketing it with rain, so minimum travel distance was crucial. When we arrived, we waited for a good 5 minutes at the wait here sign for a server to appear. Eventually we got seated and given the drinks menus. Not a bad selection of cocktails, I did like the sound of some of the to-​share drinks. I ordered a French Martini, my friends Mojitos and Rasberry Mojitos. The drinks did not arrive particularly quickly, in part due to the waitress making all 3 drinks herself.
When it came to next orders, I ordered a coffee, my friends got 2 more cocktails. Later on, after receiving our drinks, we got told it was last orders. This was at 9.30pm, at this point we were the only ones left in the restaurant. We said yes to a jug of water, which seemed to result in glares from the waitress.
The wait staff then started visibly clearing up around us, emptying the bins, turning lights out in other areas etc. Having seen one of the waitresses change out of her work uniform, it became pretty clear we weren’t welcome. We asked for the bill, which ironically seemed to take forever! When asked to put a tenner each on three cards, we were told we couldn’t, as this was over the billed amount of 26. Sighs.
The drinks were good, but service let it down.

Woop Woop Mr sunshine made an appearance so we had to sit outside as soon as this happened in case it was our summer! So on Easter Sunday we stopped off at darcys outside area on Buchanan st where they had a nice wee collection of tables set up. We were just looking for some coffees initially but my aunt then decided to have a sandwich too.
They were not quite ready for us when we sat down so we perused the menu and enjoyed the sun. The very nice waitress came over a wee while later and gave us another menu which was this years drinks as opposed to the one we had which was last years — so that’s a disappointment as they haven’t changed the food menu since last year and all of the drinks were up in price! I ordered an Americano and was told it had to come in a takeaway cup for h&s reasons which was fine but at £3 I think this is overpriced.
After a 10 – 15 minute wait my aunts sandwich arrived — crayfish on ciabatta and chips which looked nice and was declared as very very good. It was £9 which again I am not sure this was great value. We sat for a while longer to finish our drinks and it really busied up, the annoying thing is that when sat outside potentially eating people are smoking around you — not the restaurants fault?! But annoying to me.
The waitress was the highlight, she was efficient and friendly and knew what she was doing.

Food was lovely, 3 stars because of the service. It was a Saturday afternoon, it was busy and they didn’t have enough staff on. Its a nice wee place tucked in the corner of prince’s square and they do a lovely range of food and cocktails.
I had mussels and my friends both had burgers, one falafel and one a cheeseburger. The portions were all decent and the food really was delicious. The wait for food wasn’t too long but the food did arrive before our drinks did…
Because they were short staffed the service wasn’t amazing and we were waiting ages before we could catch somebody’s eye to get the bill. The bill came to 55 for all the food, 2 cocktails a large wine and 2 soft drinks which is quite reasonable for the city centre

Much to my surprise I’d actually never been in here before until Tuesday. I’ve been in the shopping centre hundreds of times, and I’ve eaten at Il Pavone on more than a few occasions, but had always just looked over Darcy’s and thought I’d try it another time. Well this was to be the other time!
Colin and I were seated right away at a table against one of the walls, which I liked cause I can see the whole place. I got wonderful vibes off the restaurant instantly; our waitress was absolutely fab, the quirky décor with mismatched chairs and, my favourite thing about the whole restaurant, an entire wall of postcards written in a variety of languages, from and to a variety of places and dating back to the 50s. Loved that!
The menus were laid in front of us and we chose pretty quickly; the fancy bangers and mash for myself, and Colin was feeling minestrone soup and a wee caprese salad. After a short wait, the food came out and was absolutely delicious. With a massive choice of things on the menu I quite fancied, I was spoilt for choice. But the bangers and mash were obviously a good option!
Shall be back here. Fantastic staff, great food and a lovely atmosphere.

This week my friends and I relived our youth by going to the Big Reunion concert to have a sing-​a-​long to some old favourites — 5ive (Scott has matured like a good cheddar), B*Witched, Liberty X, Honeyz, Atomic Kitten, 911 and Blue. We had a night of screaming, singing and bodyshakin’ ahead of us and we needed to fuel-​up. We ventured into the beautiful Princes Square in Glasgow and decided to go into Darcy’s Bar, Café & Brasserie.
I took one look at Darcy’s and knew it was for me. It bore a charming resemblance to Made In Belfast — mismatched chairs, newspaper wall paper, flowers, odd bits and props around the restaurant. Shabby chic and totally darling.
They have pre-​theatre meal deals as well as an a la carte menu — they present you with your pegged bundle and leave you to agonise. We decided to hit up the cocktails — an easy decision — while we decided on food. We ordered a Classic Mojito, Mango Mojito and a Passion Fruit & Watermelon Caipirissima. Lovely.
We settled on a couple of main courses as we weren’t really wanting to be too full. The food is really nice here — simple but lovely grub! I liked that they have different dishes across several menu options — there is something for everyone.
Battered Fish & Chips — You know, sometimes there is nothing better than a plate of fish and chips! This was gorgeous — flaky fish in a gorgeous crispy batter. Served with real man’s chips — chunky, skins on and deep fried until crispy outside but fluffy inside. It was served with lemon, a pickle and tartare sauce. I have to say: I’d have killed for some peas!
Coconut, Ginger & Chilli Curry with Chicken — The sauce for this curry looks deceptively milky. Away first I thought it looked like it’d be sweet and a bit sickly, but it doesn’t at all. It is creamy and has a lovely coconut taste but the ginger, garlic and chilli take hold and it has a warm kick to it. Beautiful.
Penne Carbonara — This is such a simple, classic pasta. Darcy’s get it totally right — they’re one of the few places that add mushrooms. I love mushrooms in my carbonara! Their bacon was really smokey added a lovely deep flavour to the sauce. The pasta was properly al dente and had a lovely bite. Delicious.
Darcy’s is my new light dinner & cocktail favourite. I want to go there in advance of all concerts and nights out now! It’s my kinda brasserie.

We were looking for a tasty burger in Glasgow and wanted to try something new. We took a gamble on Darcy’s and took the escalator downstairs and we were immediately face to face with the menu (not always a bad thing) and the reception desk, on a busy Saturday it’s not the best place to be as other shoppers struggle past you to get to other restaurants or the bar.
After a quick look at the menu and a wait ’till a table was cleared we were shown to a table for two. To be honest I liked the quirky mismatched seating and the heavily advertised cocktails made me feel settled.
But that ended as soon as I had to squeeze myself into the seat whilst trying not to hit my head as I reverse limbo’d on the extremely low lighting (I’m just over 6 foot so not particularly tall for a bloke of my age).
There was a long delay in the order being taken order (It’s not good when you have to remind the staff to take the drinks order or when the server asks if I want bacon or cheese on a falafel burger [please check of the patron is a vegetarian or vegan first when the item is listed with a V on the menu]), but to be fair the food and drinks arrived quickly.
The food was adequate and everything was clean and fresh, but waiting for our table to be cleared after our meal and to pay for the meal felt like forever as we watched 6 or more staff crowded round the (what we were informed was new) point of sale terminal rather than clearing tables, taking payments etc, but they strangely still able to take orders.
We won’t be back, but my search for a nice place in the centre of Glasgow with a great vegetarian burger (and something tasty for my better half) continues.

It had been a fair old while since I patronized Darcy’s for food and even longer for drinks. Anyone remember the buckets of beer? Five for a fiver or something on a Friday, good times :) It was always a good launchpad for apres work drinks.
Alas I’m more of a staying in and cooking dude on a Friday and don’t venture into town that much (on a Friday!).
So a very cold Friday night pre Scotland match we thought we’d give Darcy’s a bash for some fodder before the inevitable lashings of beer.
I’d booked online but pretty needless at 5pm as the place was deid. Five of us for food to set the scene. Me, two mates and my mate’s Mum and Dad.
The menus are parchment like held together by a peg. Pretty busy menu which is over categorised and clumsy. Burger under sandwiches? Hmmmmm. So prepare yourself for a good read of a menu trying to find something. Sorry four menus, main, fixed price, wine, cocktails. It was like being given some paperwork to process. A conversation stopper trying to figure out what was going on.
So I opted for the steak frites at £17.95. What can I say. It was a steak. It had frites. It had a mushroom. It had a tomato. Was it mind blowing, no. Was it horrendous, no. It was underwhelming. I reckon it was at 6oz at most, hammered out to look larger. It was nicely cooked to the requested medium. Frites were rock hard, mushroom looked lonely sitting by itself and the tomato looked like one of those tastless number your local shopkeeper stocks. Lucky if they burst a fiver putting it together.
Mate couldn’t eat his burger and when the plates were collected he was given a lecture about not saying so at the time when asked by a member of staff. Then what looked like the manager came over to establish if he had been asked if everything was ok and that the girls had done their job. It was an intrusion we didn’t welcome. We weren’t asking for it to be removed from the bill, he just didn’t like it.
Anyway after they made a song and dance about it they took it off the bill. £9.95, big whoop. Strangely they didn’t ask what was wrong with it. Looked like it had been cooked, frozen and zapped. Basic bun too. With the emergence of so many great burger places in Glasgow these venues need to up their game. The food wouldn’t have looked out of place in a canteen.
Two out of three bottles of wine we requested were not available and for such a small wine list in a city centre venue this isn’t good management.
Oh and the onion rings came in a plant pot. A plant pot! Hahaha just your bog standard plant pot, terracotta plastic, mmmmmm appetising :-/​Kinda trying too hard to be hip but failing on the application. Focus more on the quality of the food guys not the vessel.
Our waitress was friendly and nice and sincerely apologetic about the wine so no complaints about her.
The whole experience was mundane, I guess they cater for families or ladies wot lunch. There are far better places than this in the city centre. It’s an average, but I suppose, welcome pit stop if you’re shopping but you are certainly paying a premium for the location and not the quality of dining.
Well my first ever Unilocal,maybe next time I can sing the praises of somewhere.

Whenever I see the words ‘Pulled’, ‘pork’ and ‘sandwich’ combined on a menu, I’m through the door quicker than you can say ‘slevvers’. This was the case on Friday night when me and the other halfage visited Darcys for the first time. It’s the one down the bottom of Princes Square right next to that big circle that kids run around screaming in, threatening to topple over and knock themselves out on the tiles. Always un-​nerves me. Anyway, I digress.
We sat in a rather large booth and decided that we didn’t really need to see the menus, because we’d already decided on the oinky good stuff. We did order a bottle of house white (reasonably priced at just under £15) and were brought some water without having to ask for it. Unfortunately it was warm, but lets not look a gift horse in the mouth here. Our meal arrived in jig-​quick time, laid atop a wooden board with an adorable metal bucket of fries and some lightly dressed greens in the middle. The sandwich itself looked amazo. I did think it would have been better served in a bun of some sort to make sure you didn’t lose any of the filling, but never mind.
The chips were a triumph, as was the peppery salad. The pork, marinated in a dee-​licious BBQ style sauce, was melt in the mouth, with plenty of it spilling out the sides of the peece and doon my front! Never mind, I saved those for later.
We sat for a bit taking in the lovely surroundings. I’m not sure what the diner is trying to be (old school, vintage, American maybe?) but the décor was lovely, and the tables adorned with little tealights to set a nice relaxing atmosphere. The staff were friendly but not pure nuisances who ask you if ‘everything is ok’ every three seconds. My type of place.
Our bill came to just over £30 which I say is pretty cheap given the location. I would definitely recommend it and, now that the pork sandwich is out the way, I’ll try the pre-​theatre menu next time — 2 courses for £12.95.