The Vittles Guide to Chinese Restaurants in Glasgow
Sean Wai Keung’s guide to Glasgow’s best Chinese restaurants (and one bakery)
Welcome to the Vittles Chinatowns Project. In this guide, Sean Wai Keung shares his picks of Glasgow’s best Chinese fare, including long-standing traditional restaurants in Cowcaddens, the historical centre of the city’s Chinese community, as well as more recent, regional openings in the West End.
You can read the rest of the project here:
Who is Chinatown for?, by Xiao Ma
The New Chinatowns, by Barclay Bram
Crying in Wing Yip, by various
The Vittles Guide to London’s Chinatowns, by various
The Vittles Guide to the UK’s Chinatowns (including individual guides to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cambridge), by various
The first recorded Chinese restaurant in Glasgow, Wah Yen, opened on the Govan Road in 1948. As the more traditional shipbuilding industries, which had previously attracted Chinese migrants to the city, declined through the 1950s and 1960s, the number of food-focused places only grew. While Wah Yen didn’t survive, the Glasgow Chinatown complex opened its doors in 1992. It featured fifteen indoor units, a large restaurant and a traditional gate. It was in the Cowcaddens area to the north of the city, and was both a means of promoting Chinese businesses to those outside the community and a home for organisation and solidarity, working with other organisations such as Wing Hong Elderly Group to provide information on issues like housing and visas.
Unfortunately the complex itself has been in steady decline over the last decade, with a range of factors, including the pandemic, to blame. Despite this, Cowcaddens itself is still a major hub for Chinese businesses in the city, while over in the West End a new kind of ‘Chinatown’ is blossoming, with its restaurants catering more towards the growing Chinese student population at Glasgow University. This combination of newer restaurants alongside more long-established ones, as well as a few surprises in unexpected places, has ensured Glasgow’s continued position as one of Scotland’s best cities for Chinese food.
Loon Fung Cantonese/dim sum
Loon Fung opened in 1971 and has been specialising in dim sum ever since. While other places, including Chinatown Restaurant, have at times threatened its crown as the go-to place for yum cha in the city, Loon Fung’s longevity has ensured that it remains number one to many. Indeed, Chinese families from all over Scotland will have shared a meal together there at some point in their history and many multi-generational families will have memories of the restaurant stretching back decades. My favourites include the chicken feet in black bean sauce as well as the turnip cake and satay whelks.
411–413 Sauchiehall St, G2 3LG
Wah Kee Bakery Cantonese
While Chinatown has seen its fortunes rise and fall, one of the few businesses still alive there is Wah Kee, the type of old-school bakery guaranteed to bring nostalgia to anyone looking to enjoy a cha siu bao or a dan taat. Grab a tray and orange tongs and choose from a selection of classics, including meat floss buns and bolo bao as well as seasonal delicacies like mooncakes. Sitting in Wah Kee with a bun and a milk tea, it’s easy to be transported through time and, just for a moment, experience a taste of Glasgow’s Chinatown of old.
Unit 1–2, 42–46 New City Rd, G4 9JT
After the paywall: claypots, home-cooked-style Hong Kong food worth travelling for, and Southwest cuisine on the Southside worthy of the hype.