The Howlin’ Wolf

Cards on the table — I have a slight soft spot for Howlin’ Wolf. We came here after our wedding and had a wonderful night. I have been several times since and each time I have loved it.
A bar of varnished wood, exposed brickwork, and cold concrete make up the gorgeous interior of this Blues based bar.
The selection of drinks, especially beers, is unbelievably massive, perhaps one of the best in Glasgow. A fine selection from around the world.
The selection of food is also impressive, and it is also delicious. I ordered a chicken burger and what I got was the size of a full chicken in a bun, and was fantastic — the only downside to it was it wasn’t served on a plate. Food and drink prices are average with any city centre bar.
Atmosphere wise it is quite laid back, friendly, and never seems overly busy despite it actually having a lot of people in it. There is always music on but not loud enough to be intrusive and not quiet enough to cause that horrible buzz you get at Wetherspoons. There is also usually a live Blues band playing several nights a week.
The bar is split into two — a main bar area at the front and a back area with seated booths and a long table great for groups. Booths or tables can be reserved in advance, which is advisable at the weekend if you’re wanting a seat but there is always plenty of room to stand round all the long tables.

I do like The Howlin’ Wolf. It’s a vibrant, funky blues bar with good food, good beer and great cocktails. What’s not to like?
Well, when I first visited I wasn’t all that impressed. In the evenings the music gets turned way up, whether there live musicians are playing (they usually are) or not. Being a grumpy old woman, I prefer bars where I don’t have to shout over the music in order to have a conversation with my friends.
Fortunately I came back. During the day things are much more subdued. Good blues music is played over the speakers, but not at shouting volume. So you can more easily relax, chat, and enjoy a bar bite or a cocktail.
Now I would definitely return for the live music. The bands and musicians I’ve heard playing have been good and if I specifically wanted to listen to blues somewhere I’d come here first. I’d just go elsewhere if I wanted a chat instead.

I’ve been here twice for drinks and I like the place, the cocktails, and the huge selection of beers and wines.
The only thing I didn’t like at all is that the music (not the live one) is so so loud so it’s impossible having any kind of conversation even with your closet pal.
They have also anothe part more focused on meals, so I want to try and see if I can have a conversation there ;)
Apart from that is a cosy place!

OK! Now this is a pub I can get on board with!
I’ve been wanting to check this place out for some time now, and finally have! It was my turn to pick the pub so I suggested this place. I love me some blues music and the pictures on line looked so nice, I figured why not!
Since I know some places who pride themselves on their beer collection might not have too many ciders available, I took it upon myself to facebook message The Howlin’ Wolf to see what they might have. In no time, management responded to my question with a bit of a surprise! SIX different ciders on offer, including one of my boyfriends favourites Aspall. Unheard of, but super excited, we made our way down!
This place was packed out, but we managed to get to the bar and find a wee space in the middle of the place to park it while we drank and chatted. The music was an absolute gem, and although we were only in for drinks, the food being ordered looked mighty tasty! The atmosphere was mixed with work groups and random patrons like us, just in to try something new. The tables are family style tables, so you’re left to sit next to complete strangers which can be nice! Loads of comfy seating in the front and a few whisky barrel tables as well.
It’s a pub that’s quite loud, so conversation without screaming was a bit tough, so we only stayed for one but will be back for sure! I love it here!

Love this place, especially when there’s a good band playing!

Me and my boyfriend ended up in here on Valentine’s Day accidentally for lunch before our dinner we were supposed to go on that never happened due to being stuffed by the great food we had here!
I recommend the veggie all day breakfast as for the first time after becoming a vegetarian I got to experience vegetarian haggis!
All the ingredients were of a great quality and you had a choice of how you wanted your eggs which is a bonus. Everything was cooked to a great standard and we really appreciated the staff member who took our order went and double checked what exactly was in the meal as due to it being a special is wasn’t very clear.
Afterwards we had a lovely dark and white chocolate cheesecake that just melted in the mouth. Would recommend if you have a love of all things that are cheese and chocolate. Perfect portion size may I add!
My last point I would like to make is the service was perfect. Every time we were done with a drink they were very attentive almost knowing we needed a drink before we knew. It was the perfect level of attention (I hate when you have just taken a mouthful of food and your asked if everything is OK). Staff were bright and cheerful and actually seemed interested in their customers.
The place itself has a great atmosphere, I love blues music and will have to return for a gig. The booths are very intimate and the place itself is very rustic in décor.
P.s I can imagine the sympathy the waiter for the other restaurant we booked had for my boyfriend when he cancelled a reservation on Valentine’s Day! We were far to stuffed and satisfied to make it!

I really like this place. I’d been in for drinks before but decided to drop in for a spot of lunch today.
Good selection of beers available so I knew I’d be happy on that front! Decent selection of food on the menu and after much deliberating I decided to go with a fish supper sandwich and some spicy chips, both of which were good.
Decent blues music in the background, with my only gripe being it was a bit on the loud side, but that might just be my old age affecting me!
Will definitely be back in again in the near future.

I love me some blues, so I was pretty chuffed when I heard about The Howling Wolf. Who knew a big blues bar in the centre of Glasgow would turn out to be so popular.
They have live music most nights, and a 2am licence, so it’s a great place to go for some late night music and beer.
Always has a great atmosphere too — on the weekends it’s so busy you can barely move, and during the week I’ve never seen it less than half full.
We’ve grabbed food here a couple of times — the burgers are pretty tasty, but the spicy fries are just awesome!
The layout of the bar is conducive to coping with large groups — with smaller booths for couples.
All in, it’s a great place to hang out.

A blues themed pub in the city centre which sells interesting beer. Why had I not been before?!? I do not know much about blues music, other than that I generally enjoy listening to it (unlike certain pop tunes which I could name by their short intro) so it was good to go somewhere which felt unique and had quite a different vibe from other places you could visit of an evening. The décor is really nice, and the whole place had a laid back welcoming feeling with comfy seats and TV’s showing blues gigs.
It is good for groups or couples, with a range of table sizes and lovely little booths made for two. A food and drinks menu is on each table so you can easily ponder which mocktail, cocktail or beer you might wish to sample next.
I will definitely be back, great for a venue where you can stay out late and have interesting drinks but not feel like you have to shout over the music. Food til late is a great idea too.

It took me quite a while to get back for a second visit but generally, I still think this place is pretty good: big bar area, relaxing dining area, nice beers, decent prices and pretty ok food.
There was a few of us in and they’d saved a space for us in the dining area. It’s not the best space for groups as we were spread over a couple of tables. They do have table service though which made getting drinks easy — sometimes they were a little slow but nothing to complain about.
We got some food to share, and I got a main of fish n chips, just because I’ve not had it for ages. The sharing plates are a good idea — 9 small plates for £24.95 which is a good amount for a group. My fish was masssssssive and sadly, I forgot to take a photo but I was pretty happy with it. I mean, it wasn’t groundbreaking but it was decent enough to do me for dinner.
I’d say this is more of a place to come for a drink rather than food, but at least if you’re starving the food on offer isn’t bad. By the time we were leaving the front bar was pretty busy so it’s good to see this place is doing well.

It’s ok… The definition of a 3 star venue. It has some real good points and some real bad ones to!
The good points —
— Cool name.
— Nice décor inside.
— plenty of room.
— Interesting beer selection if you are are new to Craft beers.
The bad points —
— Onion rings and garlic bread from the sharing platter were really really really tasteless.
— beer menu is out of date and they no longer stock all the options on it.
— beer menu is a bit boring if you have been drinking craft beer for a few years.
— Service is patchy. They offered me a beer not on the menu and then ended up bringing me a completely different one from the same brewery. (I gave up at this point and drank it)
Overall an even three is probably fair enough. Decent bar. I would not choose to rush back, but I would not mind if somebody else wanted to go. (Not for food though!)

A solid 4 stars for the Wolf yet again! I would absolutely love to be able to give them that fifth star, they’re very close to earning it but there have been a few things that prevent them from getting it. I love Howlin’ Wolf as I love its sister venues Slouch and Maggie May’s — the vibe’s always really good in any of them, the cocktails are tasty, they usually sell Blue Moon and the music’s usually brilliant as well.
Howlin’ Wolf itself used to be somewhere I would consider as a proper dinner option, but much less so in recent times. Their pizzas are pretty tasty and the bf is in love with their chicken wings, there are a lot of other options I’ve yet to try but I’m not sure if I will. They had a dreaded menu change a while back and sadly things just haven’t been the same.
Firstly, and this is a big one, they removed the deep fried Mars bar from the menu completely. (Don’t screw your face up, it’s honestly delicious! I was scared at first too but it’s a revelation!)
Secondly, their current desserts seem to all be totally awful. I got the cinnamon apple crumble once and sure, the caramel custard was nice, the crumble part was nice but the apple hadn’t been cooked properly and the whole thing was a bit watery. I didn’t complain because I did eat most of it (I am nothing if not determined) but I probably should’ve just left it.
A few weeks ago, myself and the aforementioned Paul S popped in specifically for dessert as I’d decided to give the new options another go — we both ordered the toffee cheesecake and it was rank. Now, I have eaten many cakes/​desserts in my time and this cheesecake was off. It tasted like it was days old, the base was stale and the topping was sour. Obviously neither of us touched it after the initial spoonful (see what I did there?) so we told our server that it was disgusting. She informed us it had been made that morning (I doubt it) but took them away and returned to say they’d be taken off our bill. (She also made a comment about how the kitchen staff tasted it and they thought it was fine, which I wasn’t exactly pleased about cause she didn’t need to say that.) So that was all good. The manager then came over to apologise profusely, tell us that he’d tried the cheesecake and it was horrible, and he’d also be taking our drinks off our bill — yay! I really appreciated that as I was already cool with just not paying for the cheesecake. The bf then threw in a jokey comment about how much we miss the deep fried Mars bar — but lo and behold, about 10 minutes later we were presented with one each! That’s customer service for you!
I have high hopes for the food menu at Howlin’ Wolf but regardless of what happens food-​wise, it’s definitely somewhere I’ll be back to for drinks because it’s just a really nice place to sit and have a beer or two in.

Came here for a friend’s birthday. It was a gorgeous night so it was warm and thus, quite quiet which was good, because I’m not keen on busy pubs.
It was quite dark inside which was kind of annoying because I couldn’t read the menu without my phone light. We had a spicy meatball pizza and some chips to share. The pizza was great– it was really tasty and not too stodgy and greasy like pizza can be sometimes. The chips weren’t great to be honest. I’ve had better frozen chips.
The music was good. I’m a big fan of blues-​y music. There was a good atmosphere and the service was really good. Will go back.

Honestly love this place, the cocktails are so elaborate and delicately dressed.
Live music is nearly always an option, music played throughout and usually a busy atmospheric bar.
I have not tried the food yet, however I was so pleased with the service I received when I was there.
The bar staff were more than happy to bring your drink to you if it was going to take a while, which freed up bar space and for me enhanced the experience.
I will be going back on multiple occasions.

This was my second visit to the howlin wolf and I wasn’t disappointed. Both visits have always been for food which is awesome. Pre dairy intolerance I had a pizza which was fab and in my second visit was an awesome burger.
I was with a group of friends the second time I visited and we spent most of the afternoon working our way through the beer menu. The table service was great and I can’t wait to get back to sample some of the live music.

First impressions count for a lot, and Howlin’ Wolf… I do like you!
It was brief pre-​gig visit and Howlin’ Wolf was a-​calling. We headed down those stairs to a packed-​out bar; energetic and lively, with bluesy tunes to match. We had fun on our one-​drink stop, perched just by the kitchen. Man, did the food look mighty fine. — That’s definitely something I’ll be back for!
Ow, ow, owwww. — I’m a fan already.
Howlin’ Wolf, I’ll be seeing you soon!

Finally popped back in to sample the food, hence the uprating to solid full FIVE stars.
Last review I mentioned that a live band in here would be good, and dagnabbit, I was right. Three Card Trick, a Glasgow institution of sorts, play a regular Tuesday night blues set in here, I was lucky enough to catch it one night, and man, it rocks. Perfect venue for a small blues band to really wail, and they did.
In the afternoon on a Saturday, they just play blues music over the sound system, but man, it was still good. Proper old school blues, played loud. Can’t beat it.
And today, I had some food. Just two starters, while I watched the rugby — mac nad cheese and spicy fries. Spicy fries, read cajun fries with the skin on. And they were GLORIOUS. GLORIOUS, I say. I could have had another two bowls, because I am a man who can never eat enough chips if I’m left to my own devices.
The mac was lovely too, a nice grilled top with a cheesy sauce underneath, if there was a main course size, I would have wolfed it down — ha! WOLF! — but a starter size was just perfect as a side dish.
Staff and service were top notch, especially the bloke behind the bar that let me look at the bottles of beer that I couldn’t quite see — long overdue an eye test, folks! — and advised me on strength and taste. I settled for a pint of St. Mungo to start, and then a bottle of Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. Lovely, lovely stuff.
It’s pricy — 4.95 for the pint — but unlike the Beer Café, with the surroundings, the expertise of the staff and the atmosphere, it really feels like value for money. The food was cracking, the rugby was on the TV, the music was bluesy, but my mood sure wasn’t.
One of the best bars in Glasgow for a music fan to frequent. Nice.

With Bloc+ setting up for a band we decided to save our eardrums and headed to The Howlin’ Wolf as we were in the mood for meaty substances.
Alas the music was blaring in here too, from speakers, but we were too hungry to move on so grabbed a seat and were presented with the ‘new that night’ menus. I’m not sure what was new, he never said, but it looked pretty similar to the previous menu, although they seem to have ditched the sandwiches and moved on to just burgers.
Food was it was pretty good, pretty standard fare with some twists that mostly work. Perhaps it’s telling that I’m writing this review a few weeks after the fact and can’t quite recall what I had.
Price wise it’s pretty middle of the road, service was it could be better but the staff were pretty busy and we didn’t have to wait too long.
Probably not a first choice for the future, the loud music makes any level of conversation almost impossible, which is fine for a bar but they are trying to push themselves as more gastropub it seems.
My suggestion to them would be, decide what you are trying to be then focus on that as it feels a bit like they are still trying to too many things all at once.

If I’m totally honest we stumbled on this place by chance. We were actually heading for Universal, which is now closed and decided to give The Howlin Wolf a go rather than look for somewhere else.
The bar itself has quite a chilled atmosphere and the music was right up our street as well.
The menu is extensive and the pizza’s sound pretty good. As my friend decided to go for a burger I opted for that too… I get food envy if I choose something and the person I’m with raves on about what they are eating especially when it’s burgers.
If it hadn’t been a bit impolite my friend and I might have had a When Harry met Sally moment as we both turned to each other after the first bite and said «ooh my god the burger’s aaaammmmmmaaaaaaaazzzzzzzziiiiiinnnnnngggggggg!!!» Yip it was that good. The chips were really tasty as well, very moreish. I had the Boom Boom burger which I’d definitely get again.
The staff members on shift were really welcoming, friendly and attentive. Nothing seemed too much of a bother which was really nice.
It was a short but sweet girly catch up and we both left with a spring in our step.
If you click on the you tube link below you’ll get a sense of how I was feeling when I headed up the road after our mini night out (I promise it’s not rude, it’s a scene out of 500 days of Summer and it’s an essential part of the review)

Having just left my factor’s on bath street, I thought to myself lunch, and what better place to go than this new eatery The Howlin Wolf.
On entering you are instantly hit with the smell of the weekends beer, a smell you don’t even get in many place, must be real busy at the weekends.
A blues bar well l certainly didn’t get that vibe or feel to this place it just looked and felt to new or modern.
Was served instantly by the young girl at the bar who was very attentive, maybe because it was quieter than normal, I ordered what l thought would be a light lunch a southern fried chicken club sandwich with a side of home made chunky chips and a cappuccino.
What came was a colossal sandwich fit for two that l barely struggled to finish and in the end couldn’t finish, the bread tasted home made was cut at least to one inch on each side, with the filling being very tasty, definitely recommend it to share.
I did notice that the taps in the men’s toilets where knackered.
I’m told by the real nice girl behind the bar that there is entertainment seven days per week, all blues music will be sure back to see this.
Definitely recommend Unilocalers as this on your list of places to visit.