The Granary

Shawlands is in a bit of a state of flux at the moment, current refurbs and the odd closure mean that the number of Sunday lunch choices has become a bit more limited of late. We walked all the way down to Bella Napoli, didn’t fancy anywhere and so walked all the way back up Kilmarnock Road and settled for lunch at the Granary. The Granary has been there for decades, long enough in fact that Carol Smillie used to be a barmaid there. An old tram waiting room, it has enormous windows in the front bar, great for watching life go by and for me the best part of the pub. Annoyingly it’s sometimes not open though. We went into the more traditional back bar this time where there’s a dining area.
The Granary is now a Nicolson’s pub, so it has a Nicolson’s menu, it’s not particularly exciting but it has a few British classics on it. Our mumsie server looked after us great it has to be said, we ordered, I went for a Mac n Cheese starter and a Wild Boar and Chorizo Burger. The starters appeared, it was a bit anti-​climactic, they were not as large as I had hoped. To be honest though there was nothing wrong with my mac n cheese, it could have been a bit cheesier and more baked on top, I would have liked that. My burger came fast on it’s heels too, the burger itself was nice, spicy and firm, I do like a sauce on my burger but had to make do with standard ketchup instead. The chips were not bad either, nicely cooked, but the accompanying coleslaw was a bit lacklustre.
I like the Granary, at times it has been a regular haunt for me and it’s a place I often go back to if I’m in the area. I think that’s because its consistent, and consistently not bad at all.

I like this pub a lot. The staff are friendly and there’s a nice atmosphere amongst the regulars.
They have an excellent range of beers and good food, although they stopped doing the cullen skink :(.
Only reason I didn’t give it ⁵⁄₅? It’s a little pricey for a pint.

The Granary is a Shawlands institution. And I understand why.
Where most other pubs in this area change every couple of years, the Granary has been a constant and stable presence for almost 30 years. Designed to look like it’s been there for a gazillion years, it is pretty much an old man’s pub during the week. Come the weekend however, it’s full of a much broader clientele.
The pub is kinda split in two — the main bar is in the part which looks onto Shawlands Cross; the much larger part on the left, is used as a restaurant — but when it’s quiet, the staff are cool with you sitting there.
For me, this is never going to be somewhere for a night out, but I’m quite happy to stop in for a pint every now and again.

«Warm and friendly south side bar, but smells of toilet just now:/
I’ll be quick! Warm and friendly Pub serving a good standard of pub grub at decent prices. As a bonus the selection of beverage ain’t bad either. However, it smelt of toilets when I was there. Done!
Visited November 2013

If you’re after a more upmarket place to enjoy good beer in Shawlands (read Real Ale /​Craft Beer) then this place is really your only shout. There are usually two real ales on at any one time, along with a real cider and a good variety of bottled Belgian beers in the fridge.
The food here is fine, and if you sign up to their online mailing list (select the real ale club and the food club) you regularly get sent vouchers to get you bargainous beer and bites to eat.
It can get pretty busy on weekends, but during weekdays you’ll always be able to get a table to hang out and enjoy some nice beers. Still in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2013.

Workmanlike in almost every respect, the Granary isn’t a place you should go out of your way to visit. Can smell a bit weird and can get overly packed at weekends with a strange blend of young professionals living in their first properties and older characters who would have bene the regulars when the place first opened.

The Granary sits like a monumental pub in the Shawlands area, similar to Tennents on Byres or the Horseshoe in Central. the only problem is that this place is completely cooked, Only 25 years old but made up like a traditional pub, it seems to lack character and its youth may be the reason for that
The problem is when you get enter, it looks gutted. It has none of the lovely accoutrement that is common in these historic pubs. It reminded me of those DIY TV programs where someone turned a historic house into a minimalist interior.
Originally a tram hub, it was converted in 1985. to be a «traditional pub» and it just seems to fall short.
Right now, it seems to serve locals and the after work crowd quite reasonably.
But is it worth a trip out to the Southside? I don’t think so.

It was a colleagues leaving do and they decided to go to The Granary as half of the staff live in the south side.
I had been there many years ago and I remember it being quite a small pub with model railway line going around the ceiling. No trains on it though. Weird! I arrived with another colleague and hadn’t realised there was another part so we headed on through. Unfortunately many of the seats are taken up by being a restuarant. It’s annoying when you see lots of empty seats when the rest of the bar is heaving.
We eventually found a seat next to the ladies. Handy! The drinks were a little steep for me but they made good long vodkas so I was a happy bunny.
I found out that the bar had been recently done up, I thought the décor was pretty much traditional with a wooden old style bar. I think I prefered through where we were sitting compared to the first part of the pub we entered, I felt that was a bit grim.
A bar I don’t really feel excited by or put off by but it was a nice change as I don’t really head out Shawlands way.

Positioned at the fork of the two roads into Shawlands, The Granary is as much a landmark as a working pub: and, like the splitting road, seems to have two distinctive identities. During the day, it is quiet, offering cheap, wholesome if bland food and a quiet drinking spot: at night, especially during the weekends, it is a spot for an early evening drink before racing on to somewhere more exciting.
There isn’t much to recommend a whole night out: it has a restful atmosphere during the week, and the usual range of drinks, with an emphasis on real ales. The two rooms are very contrasting: one feels like a slightly seedy local pub, the other is all glass fronts and hipper, if more impersonal. It still has the traditional fittings, though, including the rosettes that recall its former life as a hub for the tram services.
It still sells itself as a traditional pub, and has never lost its common touch: during the week, it is a good, quiet place.