The Islay Inn

Friendly laid back traditional highlands-​and-​islands vibe pub with dark wood décor and a few large cosy booths. Drink prices are reasonable and the pub grub menu will suit the budget concsious hearty eater. Options include balmoral chicken and chips, macaroni cheese, steak and chips. Most main courses come in at well below a tenner. If youre looking for a spot for chilling out with a few drinks and the option of a plate of no-​frills pub grub the Islay Inn is worth a try! Live music sessions weekly.

The Islay is one of those real pubs. It’s not a bar, it’s not certainly not a wine or cocktail bar, it has no hipster vibes in spite of selling a few nice ales — it’s just a good pub that does proper normal good pub things.
The bar is well stocked and reasonably priced, although if you’re in search of whisky you’d be better heading to the Ben Nevis, nearby. I usually get a nice pint of Lia Fail but you’ll have to be quick — they run out of it regularly.
They serve classic pub meals, things like macaroni cheese and fish and chips and they’ve usually got a couple of specials on. The food is pretty good for the price, not very refined but good portion sizes and good flavours and they don’t try to serve it to you on a plank, so that’s nice.
They have live bands playing on Friday and Saturday nights and a quiz night on Wednesday. I think theere used to be open mic nights on Sundays but I haven’t seen one advertised for ages so maybe that’s stalled for the time being.
If you’re looking for a real, welcoming, warm and comfortable, unpretentious, pub in Finnieston, I’d say this was probably your best bet.

Woops! I’m the Unilocal Duchess here at present and I haven’t left a review? Slacker…
I’ve been in here a few times now with various members of my family for drinks and for food and I’ve always been very impressed. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re looking for Michelin Star-​worthy food, this is probably not the Finnieston haunt for you, but the Islay Inn serves its purpose well; lots of hearty pub food with some great specials, a wide range of malts and some superbly friendly staff.
Some of the menu highlights include their burgers, their smoked haddock and black pudding main, their goats cheese and black pudding starter (I love black pudding alright? :P) and they always have some lovely specials on the board; last time I visited my dad tried their gammon steak special and he was in paroxysms of joy at the quality of the meat and how well it was served.
This is fast becoming yet another May family favourite!
Oh and definitely try their chips; chunky and awesome!

This place is well located at the bottom of the Kelvin way. It is a decent bar with a good atmosphere, I must admit to having a bit of a soft spot for bars like this, used to have a reputation as one of the meeting spots for the Highland and Islands when they were in town, less so today by the sound of the accents around us.
Apart from that the beer is decent and the food is top notch pub fair

Well.
A few dead bars on Argyle Street later on a Sunday night and we end up here.
It’s open mic night, and we have never been in here before. We didn’t know what to expect. Including, a thoroughly lively bunch of folk singing and dancing and having an awesome time. Despite the location, I felt as if I was somewhere else entirely. There was a ‘cleekiness’ that suggested proper locals who all knew each other which is rare for a pub in this location.
I was into it.
Well stocked bar with a dedicated dining area at the back with a warm interior. what else do you want? Roaring fire place aside, this place made me feel like I was somewhere more rural and family oriented.
Live music seems to be their big thing, judging from their list of events planned over the coming weeks.
A damn fine place to be on a Sunday night.

You get the feeling that this is a chain pub straight away from the vibe, not a lot of character here. There are a lot of bands and live entertainment towards the weekend and they do have a loyal following.

Horrible barn of a place! I could never enjoy a drink in there in a million years! I wouldn’t go if the drink was free all night as it depresses me.

Another of the Highland pubs in this area, the Isley Inn is a nice enough place with a decent selection of beers and spirits. Serving up the usual pub grub at reasonable rates. A place that can be heaving on certain nights, espeaciall is there is any football on. Actually, this aint a bad place to catch a game, they have a large projection screen which is visable form a number of areas within the pub.
As far as the crowd, its a mix of locals and folk from the north who now live in Glasgow. For me its not the kind of place i would go out of my way to visit and to be honest if i was in the area i would probably set my sights on the Park Bar just a wee bit down the road.

Some students talk of a rather chilly atmosphere they claim to observe amongst some of Glasgow’s more refined drinking institutions, by this I mean the drinks aren’t on special offer, there is no such thing as student discount and a high percentage of customers have been drinking in the same seats for numerous years. I haven’t really experienced it too much myself but I am not denying its existence. I thought The Isley was going to be one of these pubs; it looks real old school traditional and it accommodates traditional drinkers of such a pub, the Jack and Victors if you know what I’m getting at. By this account I was a bit hesitant about going in given that the Goat is just across the road.
After trying not to attract too much attention as we were by far the youngest people by about 15 years at least what we found was a very welcoming pub. A rather merry local man at the bar was overly enthusiastic about the beer available and gave me a brief history about Indian Pale Ale (I.P.A) and his whiskey taste which was quite funny.
I don’t think The Isley is for everybody but it is a very good traditional pub, they do Scottish food as well but I have yet to try any, Sunday roasts on Sundays too.
Some good points I have neglected, they have a very good selection of beer and whiskey and the interior is also tasteful, rich wood and comfortable seats.

this place is for the hardy drinkers and ceilidh dancers band play on top of the bar staff almost and gets busy on saturday nite as its a stopping ground before sauchie hall street. ENJOY.