Battlefield Rest

Southside restaurant serving modern Italian dishes with a Scottish slant, in iconic and elegant surroundings.

The 2018 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £7.95 (+p&p).

While all around it bustles, swerves and changes, the Battlefield Rest is a metaphor for its own story. This ornate Glasgow institution and former tram station (now recreated in Lego by Bricking It Glasgow) is on a traffic island, but despite that the neighbourhood restaurant has seen off slumps and crashes and remained buoyant, confident and busy. It has adapted its menu – every six months or so refreshing it with new ideas and, crucially, clearing out those that have run their course. The result is a manageable selection – the kitchen is small – of pizza, pasta, meat and fish dishes that give a nod to both Italian and Scottish ingredients. New this year are some on-trend dishes featuring ‘nduja (a soft spicy pork salami), a tagliolini with king prawns and chorizo, a smoked venison salad and a lamb tagine. The restrictive kitchen produces remarkable results – but it can’t quite stretch to a range of puds so the choices are mostly sundaes with playful names such as Clock Tower or the boozy Marie Stuart. This dependable independent has earned its place in the affections of locals and will probably be around for another 24 years.