Ketchup

Ketchup on Ashton Lane was one of the go to venues as an undergrad at Glasgow a few years back. Nowadays that’s sadly not the case anymore. With a lot of burger restaurants opening up in the past, 2 years, Ketchup really struggles to stand out. The location and student offers are big draws still, but it’s lagging behind its competitors.
The layout of Ketchup is small, though there are several big booth style tables, ideal for large groups, and smaller tables too.
The main item of choice is of course burgers, though there are some alternatives (caesar salad) and the side menu has expanded a bit from the older times. The option of a lettuce bun is a nice touch, not really an option you see in most places. The quality of the burgers I feel has dipped somewhat from a few years back, with the burgers not as tasty, and the menu options looking the same as years back. I’ve been told it’s improved in quality lately, so will have to go back to see if this is the case.
The drinks on offer are typical options, though the milkshakes are a big draw, served in glass pint bottles and very good! Highly reccomend.
Overall, Ketchup isn’t a bad restaurant as such, but with so many options appearing in the past few years doing the same thing, it’s quite a bit behind other burger places in town, and has quite a bit to find compared to others.

Absolutely loved their food.
I got the southern fried chicken burger (totally forgot the name of it) and it was fabulous! The size of the chicken was massive and was not remotely dry.
I also ordered the side of fries and Mac n cheese. The Mac was really nice, clearly finished off in the oven for the crisp cheese top.
The fries were slightly over done for my liking, they crossed the point of crispy fries to no loner even being a potato… just oil.
To drink I ordered a vanilla and nuttella milk shake, which I’m not going to lie was to die for.
Staff were nice, décor very classic.
All in all a good 4 stars!
It would have been 5 if it wasn’t for the fries and the fact that you don’t get fries with your meal. For a student a bit pricey.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good burger? Well, vegetarians obviously but they are catered for here as well although with much less choice available!
Our daughter took us here for a Saturday evening — she is studying in Glasgow and heartily recommended it.
In über cool Ashton Lane its a relaxed and informal burger joint with all the right background music playing. Their burgers are very good, some of the best I’ve eaten but if I was being super picky I would say they are a touch under seasoned.
Service is very good with friendly happy staff.

I remember when Ketchup first opened and it was THE burger place in Glasgow. Sure, other bars, pubs and restaurants might have a burger or two on the menu but Ketchup specialised in them. The American diner style, the milkshakes on the menu, their own ketchup recipe and the customisable toppings made this a place you had to stop at in the West End to satisfy your burger cravings.
Fast forward a few years. The milkshakes and customisable toppings are still there but they don’t seem to push the special ketchup quite as hard. The student offer has been adjusted too — it used to be two for ones with a matric card, now all burgers are £5 through the week if you’re a student. As has always been the case, the staff don’t spend too much time double checking that everyone at the table has valid student ID.
If you’d asked me 6 months ago how good the burgers are I’d probably have told you they’d gone downhill. During my most recent visit, though, I’ve seen an improvement. My lunch time companions agreed. I ordered the Bang Bang chicken burger which came with crisp noodles and a spicy peanut sauce. It was delicious. Their range of sides has expanded a bit too and I’m excited to see cheesy chips with gravy on the menu (a Yorkshire delicacy, if not an American one).
So, if you’re after burgers and you’re in the West End and especially if you’re a student you could do a lot worse than Ketchup. The problem is that Glasgow now has so many burger restaurants that Ketchup now sturggles to stand out. I’ll end up back there for lunch as long as the newly improved standards stay high, but I’m less likely to make a special trip there these days.

Went there asked if it was halal they said yes sat down ordered a burger then it came after 45 minutes and I asked if it was halal again and they said none of the food is WTF

Excellent burgers, I’ve tried the bollywood and the bacon burger and they are well cooked and really tasty but what I definitely love, are the disco fries. It’s a little expensive for a student, but still affordable. Personnel is really attentive and friendly.

Great burger, I had The Flying Scotsman and it was great. The restaurant is clean and spacious and a really relaxed environment to enjoy food and drinks with friends. It’s definitely not a place for a romantic dinner– much more a ‘functional’ diner!
Decent food, good beer (although the majority of beers on the menu weren’t available) and reasonable prices.

Ok, I can’t put 2.5 stars but I totally would if I could. What can I say? Well, for starters the service is good, no real complaints there. Attentive and upbeat, so ticking all the boxes there. Really, where it all falls down is the food. Price to flavour ratio doesn’t really pair up. I got the Jumpin’ Jack Flash burger and the missus got a Bang Bang burger. My was relatively tasty (in fact I am still tasting it 3 hours later…) but the better half’s wasn’t the best. The peanut sauce lacked a peanutty-​ness and was a bit wet looking. Also it wasn’t very hot. I can say the same for mine. Next up, the sides. We had fries and onion rings. The rings were swimming in oil and too chunky (for my preference) — I like ‘em thin and crispy! The fries were bland, cold and floury. Would not recommend. Think cold, day old (we’ve all been there) Macdonald’s fries.
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend them. There are much better burger bars for a fairer price in Glasgow.

I’ve been in to ketchup a few times, I really like the set up and idea but the burgers just aren’t that good :(
You head down Ashton Lane and into ketchup. the décor is very American dinner. I love the little touches like milkshakes coming in little milk bottles and your food coming on a tray. I don’t eat bread so I like the fact the offer a lettuce bun, this helps with not getting the ‘your not wanting a bun, you freak’ look.
On my last visit I ordered the burger that has goats cheese and onion relish on. It was big and looked great, but the burger was fatty and tasteless. I also forgot to order chips, now I know this was my mistake but I would have thought the waitress would have checked with me that I hadn’t forgotten. So when our burgers arrived without chips so we had to wait a short time for them to arrive. I also ordered onion rings which where really greasy.
On the plus points the staff where friendly and attentive. I just think with so many good burger places in Glasgow, this maybe falls a little flat.

I really want to like this place, I really do. The food is good for the most part, even though they changed up the menu to a lot of people dislike, but it’s the service that sends me running for the hills.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten such horrible service (more than once) in any particular place. I guess I’m to blame for giving Ketchup the benefit of the doubt, but the service is really poor.
My friend and I have been in here twice in between classes and both times, we the service was slow and the servers would rude as anything. This time was no different.
We were sat among the masses– this place is always packed, and ordered. My friend noticed that a table who sat down upwards of 10 minutes after we did, got their order long before we did. That sent her in to hysterics (she was very hungry). Once she got the waitresses attention, she asked where our food was and mentioned the other table who were served first. The waitress went away and literally never came back. HA!
I ordered a burger and onion rings, my friend, the southern fried chicken burger. The onion rings were a greasy tasteless mess and their namesake, the ketchup, really needs to be rethought. It’s overly sweet and tastes nothing like that tang you get from real ketchup. I suggest you skip it all together.
I’m through giving this place the benefit of the doubt, I don’t know if I’ll be back, unless forced.

I want to love Ketchup, and I would have a lot of reasons to make this a local haunt of mine. Nestled up pretty Ashton Lane, it’s in a great location, the staff are chirpy wee spring chickens, it’s got burgers stacked up to your eyeballs, and I love old school diners. The thing is, as much as I like it, I can’t bring myself to put it on the favorite list.
Sticking to the facts, the burgers are yummy. However, you end up paying for your side orders separately, and if you’re going for a stack of meat, extras like more cheese/​bacon will price you up. I admire its childlike spirit — there are personalized touches everywhere, such as pictures of the staff/​burger competition winners/​kids events/​colored in strips of paper — but, I dunno… it makes me feel quite old! I hate to admit it, but it’s true — I’ve perhaps grown out of the «eat and drink till you faceplant the floor» era of my life. God, I miss those days. I was a wee fresher 10 years ago and would have loved Ketchup to be open when I was a bairn… sadly, it wasn’t. We had the Scream pubs — cheap pints and all night on the jukebox — but I’m more interested in a chilled out dinner experience now. By that I don’t mean boring (maybe I’m justifying this to myself) — I love the burrito challenges in Glasgow, and the burger community that’s sprung up. I just feel like Ketchup is too gimmicky for me now. I was there with my boyfriend in amongst swarms of young-​uns, and our night out was the catalyst for a midlife crisis. We realized that it’s not our bag anymore.
If you’re under 25, fresh into the uni scene and still have enough money to burger and booze yourself into a blissful existence, you’ll love it. It’s great, the staff are nice, the burgers are awesome. It’s just a bit too wild for my old soul these days.

Hmmm, so not the tastiest of anything really.
It’s a nice place when you go in and the staff are dead friendly. The seating is a bit haphazard though. There were only two of us and we were put on the high tables on the right hand side of the restaurant, however there were a lot of couples there and it really feels as though there was 1 too many tables on that run for comfort.
Also, the coffee machine was next to our table, meaning whenever anyone ordered a hot drink we had what sounded like Willy Wonka’s truck beside our heads. The only other option we had for seating (despite the restaurant being mostly dead) was next to the gents toilet, so I’d say give it a miss if you’re a twosome.
The food was okay. We had a hotdog, a double cheese burger and some thick cut chips to share.
It’s worth knowing, no your food doesn’t come with chips etc, just an anaemic portion of coleslaw.
The hotdog came with so much onion I ended up having half of it with my burger and there was still 2 times the normal amount you’d expect.
The burger was quite literally the greasiest I’ve ever had. I don’t know what the cause was, whether they didn’t finish it off in a grill or what, but it was sodden to the bun with grease. And that was before the cheese melted and added it’s juices to the mix.
The fries on the side were really poor though, tasteless, unseasoned, and with a texture and consistency that was simply unpleasant. They has the same taste as frozen roast potatoes, the kind that come reconstituted from mash.
On the plus side, the eponymous ketchup was very tasty on the side.
Overall I’d definitely say avoid, there are better feeds to he had in the west end.

Okay I’m obsessed with Ketchup because they give two for one student discounts if you show your Uni ID! A huge burger for ~£5?! Stealllll.
It’s right in the middle of Ashton Lane just a little way from Hillhead. That means it’s always pretty packed, especially with students.
The eponymous ketchup they serve is delicious, both spicy and sweet! You can even buy bottles if you’re as obsessed as I am.
They have Scottish food fusion burgers which incorporates haggis or one with black pudding and egg, more traditional burgers, and interesting burgers (fish, tikka masala). In addition, you can get your burger without a bun! My favorite was the Arriba Arriba burger but only by a little since all of them are so good!
I think I came here once a week when I lived on Hillhead, I’m drooling thinking about it now!

Ahhh Ketchup. This was my first ‘burger’ experience in Glasgow many moons ago and can’t actually believe I’ve not reviewed it yet, I’ve been avoiding it a little as I thought I already had!
I heard that they’d reworked their menu so on the lookout for a quick bite to eat at the weekend — we’d just finished the open top bus tour of Glasgow and had hopped on and off a couple of times so our need for nommage was high! — we decided to keep it simple and headed to the tried and tested Ketchup.
The new menu is a lot simpler than the old one, fewer options at first sight but you can customise your burger any way you like so it’s possible to recreate any favourites you had from the old menu.
I decided to go for a cheeseburger and added chorizo because… look, we’ve had this conversation before, CHORIZO MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER! Kirsty ordered the lamb burger with tzatziki and added a slab of brie, with an accompanying chocolate shake.
I’ve started a new paragraph for my drink as I think it warrants it. I ordered the peanut butter and bacon milkshake. Yup, that’s right, and you know what, it was flippin’ delicious! It was a little odd, I won’t pretend it wasn’t, but that little extra savoury kick from the bacon was a perfect match for the slight saltiness of the peanut butter, and every now and then you get a little fleck of bacon too which is always good because, like chorizo BACON MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER!
The burgers came out pretty sharpish — not quite sharpish enough for us as we were famished but on another day we wouldn’t have noticed — and looked pretty damn good. You’ll have to take my word on that though as we didn’t take any photos … did I mention we were famished, we barely paused for breath let alone to take photos!
I was a little puzzled though, my cheeseburger was definitely displaying signs of chorizo-​ness, gorgeous little trickles of that wonderful orangey red oil, but no actual pieces of chorizo could be seen. then I realised that they’d combined the chorizo into the burger itself! Smart and OH MY WORD was it tasty! A lovely little spice kick to it too.
The lamb burger went down a treat too, and the brie was a great addition, definitely worth a try! We had a side of skinny chips (aka fries) between us and they were… well, they were fries and perfectly acceptable ones at that.
I would’ve liked more cheese on my cheeseburger, it seemed a little lost but I’m now wondering if it too had been combined into the burger, and whilst I love some crunchy little gem lettuce, it’s not the best for a burger as inevitably the stalk starts to slip and slide and escapes from the bun.
Minor points though, and whilst this isn’t the best burger place in Glasgow it’s always been pretty good, reliable and they stick to what they know. The staff are always friendly and leave you alone to eat. I’d take points of for the idiot at the table next to us who spent most of the meal banging and tapping on the table but that’s not really Ketchup’s fault!
All in all, tasty food, reasonable prices, friendly staff, a good reliable place to have on standby.

Great burgers, great onion rings, great milkshake!
But when it’s full, it’s REALLY full. And very loud. I like a bit of atmosphere, but there’s a huge difference between Ketchup busy and ketchup less busy, and I know which I prefer.
Can’t fault the food, the produce used at Ketchup is high quality, locally sourced and fresh, and the range of burgers is fantastic. The milkshakes come in a small glass bottle, which is a nice touch.
The restaurant is quite pricey, but competitive considering that Ashton Lane is pricey generally.
Basically great food, but a victim of its own success.

I’m a HUGE burger fan and this place just didn’t live up. Although the name is really cute. (Also I’m American so I apologize beforehand if anyone takes offense to my views on burger joints)
There were many choices in burgers so you can basically find something you have been craving for in burger form.
My burger came to me stone cold in the middle. I always finish my burger, but I couldn’t even make it halfway with this burger. I was very disappointed.
The fries were good, but it’s also a weird thing to charge extra for fries on the side and not include it with the burger. I’ve just found that most burger joints that charge for fries, end up going out of business, but Ketchup seems to always be busy. I was just shocked because this place isn’t the cheapest place to get a burger.
I love ketchup itself, but I wasn’t big on the ketchup that they served here because, since I’m from America, I’m used to Heinz but this ketchup was more like eating marinara sauce with fries. This just sounds incredibly out of place.
I can say that the service was pretty good. This is always a plus.

The Good: Great selection of Burgers. Amazing milkshakes. 2−4−1 burgers with a Student Card.
The Bad: Crammed tables. No reservations.
Overall: Easily THE best burger joint in the West End (IMHO) although there are better burger joints in the City Centre.

Confession time, people.
I’d never heard of Ketchup. At all. When it was suggested to me that’s where dinner was going to be, my lack of knowledge of this place seemed to be horrifying.
Now I know, and I would go back for more!
I had just a plain old bacon cheeseburger, and it was nice. Bacony AND cheeseburgery, which is always a bonus. It was served on a nice piece of wood, a change from the usual white plate, and came with some coleslaw, which I didn’t touch, because as all the good people know, coleslaw is EVIL and the FOOD OF THE DEVIL.
A side of fries between two people was more than enough, very nice and crispy, the right side of crunchy without being overdone and not too salty. Lovely.
I probably should have tried the ketchup, on hindsight. Next time.
Service was fast, friendly and all jolly excellent. Good times were had, as were two ice cold Coronas. Recommended.
If you don’t know about it, duh, what’s wrong with you? Pay it a visit sometime.

We were lucky to get in just before all the tables filled up on a busy sunday afternoon — thankfully. We were seated by a really lovely waitress who promptly told us the milkshake of the week… White Chocolate and Raspberry (don’t mind if I do — make mine a double) and the burger of the week which consisted of mushrooms so I was never going to order that.
While waiting for my milkshake of the week to arrive we perused the menu… now if you’re not into burgers this is absolutely not the food spot for you. There are beef burgers… chicken burgers… lamb burgers… fish finger burgers… burger… burgers. bur… you get the idea! Now what really really peaked my interest was that you can upgrade any beef burger to a Kobe beef burger for an additional £9.95, I love Kobe steak so this was a must for me.
I decided I would go for the Egg on Your Face burger which consists of Fried Egg, Black Pudding, Potato Scone & Bacon with a dollop of HP. It’s worth noting that you have to order your chips separately — annoying but the waitress did prompt us to order them which was very helpful.
Only one word can describe the feast that arrived in front of me — WOW! it was a burger and a half! Let’s get my tiny tiny niggle out the way first before I start waxing lyrical about this burger. I had to eat the burger with a fork and knife because it was impossible to pick up, like I said a tiny niggle. Now lets talk burger, it was gorgeous, the beef which is sourced from celebrity Scottish butcher Simon Howie was tasty, juicy and so well seasoned. The toppings were perfect for my ‘something has curler up and died in my stomach’ feeling, they weren’t greasy in anyway just soft and tender with egg yolk flowing down them all like lava… yum yum YUM!
The milkshake was so nice and such a huge portion, served in an old fashioned milk bottle it really ticked all the boxes for me, flavoursome and not too thick. I would absolutely order this special again.
Can’t wait to much my way through all the burger option on this menu.

Ketchup and I have a bit of a tumultuous relationship. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I am entirely indifferent, and sometimes I’m horrified by how empty my wallet is after buying a burger and chips…
Generally the burgers are great, I’m a particular fan of the ‘Flying Scotsman’ (a chicken breast with bacon and haggis served with a peppercorn sauce) and I like that you can add any of the toppings from the menu to make your own twist on what’s offered (haggis on everything!) The fries are reasonable but I’ve always found the onion rings to be overly greasy and the onion undercooked.
Then there’s their special KSauce, I’ve tried to love it, it’s an interesting change, but in the end I’d still rather have some Heinz ketchup on my fries.
Service has always been decent, although not outstanding. Generally attentive during the meal, but sometimes it’s hard to get your bill when it’s time to leave.
Even with all the wee niggles I expect my relationship with Ketchup will continue, sometimes you just need the salty goodness of three meats on the same bun…

Envie d’un bon burger de restaurant, dans une des rues les plus chics de Glasgow? Bien sûr! Et le cadre amusant de ce restaurant rétro lui ajoute encore une petite touché de charme.
Tout ça a un prix, mais les burgers sont copieux, alors on né prend pas de side dish et on s’en sort pour moins de £10. Un peu plus avec une bière mais autant attendre de sortir pour rejoindre les nombreux pubs d’Ashton Lane. Et on aura toujours le temps de revenir, ça ferme à 2 heures du mat’ le vendredi et le samedi.
Bonus: la sauce unique (salsa/​ketchup)