Sunnyside Up: The coolest brunches in Scotland

Partick, Glasgow

The coolest place to have brunch these days isn’t Finnieston, but Partick, where there is a restaurant that makes all other brunches look unimaginative. You may have your ideas about what brunch fodder is, but the Partick Duck Club takes it to a new dimension with its Duck Leg and Nduja hash or their Orkney Crab & Poached Duck Egg on Toast with Avocado and Crème Fraiche. Plus, if you’re in the mood, and starting off the day with a party, or the hair of a dog, it delivers an excellent Bloody Mary or a Gin Mary. It’s relaxed, informal, cosy – but as Joanna Blythman, who gave the food 9.5/10, has put it, “the cooking is seriously polished”. They even open at 8am for breakfast – though breakfast, of course, is too small a concept to apply to anything served at Partick Duck Club.

2. Café Gandolfi

Merchant City, Glasgow

It was a trendsetter back in the day – now it’s an irresistible classic, with its rustic wooden chairs and encyclopedic menu. Forget shakshuka and brunch in timeless style from a menu that goes on and on, but which includes eggs cocotte, Aberdeen Smoked Haddie and dishes with Stornoway black pudding. It’s said that Café Gandolfi, which opened in 1979, imported the city’s first cappuccino machine.

3. Toast

Leith, Edinburgh

Toast describes itself as a wine café, so if really good natural or biodynamic wine is what you want with your lateish brunch, then here’s the place to head. “A cool and comfortable hub for all things wine and coffee related,” is how Zak Hanif its founder describes it. Take up a spot by the window looking out over the Shore and try their shakshuka or huevos rancheros, before finishing off with one of their cakes which look untouchably beautiful, yet taste divine. And if the tables are all booked, remember the Shore, like all trendy spots, is spoiled for choice – you only need to walk a few steps to find another top brunch provider.

4. Singl-end

Garnethill and Merchant City, Glasgow

No longer is there just a single Singl-end. There are now two – and if your idea of a heavenly brunch involves some seriously good bread, then look no further than one of these joints. They even have bread “menus”, which include the likes of sourdough, Altamura, sweet potato and almond, bread of the day and others. But it’s not all about the bakes – here, they also make their own pork and fennel bangers, serving them with cannellini beans and chilli, and a heavenly vegan breakfast that includes sweet potato rounds and avocado and chilli smash. Plus, their boho vibe and leather armchairs make them the perfect place to relax. One Glasgow food blogger described it as “a little slice of chilled out heaven on a Sunday morning". Open at 9am on Sundays.

5. Bird And Bear

City Centre, Dundee

The home of the hip-hop brunch. Yes, that is an official thing. On both Saturdays and Sundays from 11am-4pm, Bird And Bear gives brunch the music vibe it deserves. This is the place for for those who like a chilled, no-rush Sunday of listening to some old-school sounds, while chowing down on dishes from a menu that includes such highlights as coconut and quinoa pancakes, baked pimento eggs and the steak breakfast. You can even revive with an alcoholic milkshake. Plus the décor, with its hammered copper, birdcages and palm wallpaper, is a paradise of cool.

6. The Tatha Bar And Kitchen

Dundee Waterfront

Yes, brunch is about the food, but it’s also the location, the view, being transported – and Tatha Bar And Kitchen, the V&A’s brunch venue, with its huge glass windows and balcony over the Tay certainly works those factors. Here, you can combine a tour of the iconic museum with a stop-off for an open breakfast burrito or a smoked Perthshire salmon royal. Chef Brian Canale runs a scratch kitchen which means everything is made fresh each morning. Be warned, though, the V&A is still mobbed at the weekends, and you’re best advised to book.

7. Mountain Café

Aviemore, Cairngorms

There are times when, alluring as an early start on the mountain is, what you crave is a good, big lazy brunch. For those days there is always the Mountain Café, which opens for breakfast at 8.30am and keeps on serving it throughout the day. Owner-chef Kirsten Gilmour, who describes herself as “a Kiwi in the Cairngorms”, brings her antipodean style to the dishes. It’s hard to look further than the All Day Brekki or the Veg Brekkie, delivering everything you could want on a plate. As might be expected, this is about hearty food – the kind of breakfast that might keep you going as you tackle the great outdoors.

8. Sanddollar Café

Beach front, Aberdeen

What better way to spend a Sunday morning than a bracing walk along the sands followed by a pile of pancakes? Beach and brunch are a match made in heaven, and this café on the esplanade, with a wide breakfast menu, is a huge draw for families who want to chill and eat. When the sun is shining you can sit out on wooden tables. Or, when the wind gets up, cosy up inside and enjoy its bright, airy atmosphere. Opens at 7.30am.

9. Cafe Sia

Broadford, Skye

In a cosy white bungalow at the foot of the Red Cuillin hills is a café that does it all – brunch, pizza, seafood, but most of all the best coffee, so they claim, on the island. Sia means six, and that’s the number of menu options it offers for brunch, including the all-day breakfast, eggs florentine or benedict, pancakes and the Siabatta, a ciabatta with breakfast filling. Its barista, Craig, sources coffee beans and small batch roasts them in the “wee red” Samiac drum. Open from 9.30am.

10. Mhor 84

Balquhidder, The Trossachs

Sometimes a brunch is just what you need to interrupt a journey north or south through the mountains, or as a reviving feast the day after some serious hill-walking. Mhor 84, one of the sister venues to fine-dining star Monachyle Mhor is there for those moments. It’s a motel, restaurant, bar and café and its breakfasts, served from 8am until 11.30am, are beyond moreish – though it’s hard to imagine anyone would be wanting any more after they’ve eaten a “big breakfast” that includes all the regulars plus Stornoway black pudding, haggis and potato scone.

11. Fairmont Hotel

St Andrews, Fife

You could call this a brunch, but really it's more of a branquet, including everything from a carvery to an extraordinary patisserie selection. The word branquet isn't in common use just yet, but really it should be, so we all know the difference between a regular brunch and the feast that's being provided here. The hotel ran its International Brunches over the summer, but they were so popular they were extended all the way to Christmas. All of this in the glamour of the hotel’s Atrium under the glow of their George Singer lighting installation. Priced at £32.50 per adult and £16 per child, from 1pm-4pm.

12. Fruin Farm

Loch Lomond National Park

What could be a better way of brunching with kids than to do it on a farm? Followed by a wander round the farmyard, some pond dipping or a llama trek, and a gaze at the views down the glen? If you want to know precisely where every bit of your brunch has come from – and maybe see something like it wandering around outside – then this is the place to eat. Everything, they say, has been raised and slaughtered in the UK, none of it intensively farmed ¬ Puddledub bacon, Katy Rodgers natural yogurt, Stornoway black pudding. Breakfast here finishes at 11.30am, so you’re looking at an early start – but chances are the kids have had you up since dawn anyway.

13, Birnam brasserie

Gleneagles, Auchterarder

Brunch at the Birnam Brasserie at Gleneagles is so special it only happens on the first Sunday of the month – which tells you a little about just how swanky it is. This is destination brunching at its most decadent, with live jazz playing the background, a Bellini station and an ice-cream cart, and décor that evokes a Grand Parisian cafe. All the brunch classics are there, but also the croques monsieur, the steak and eggs with frites and a self-serve cold bar brimming with shellfish, seafood, charcuterie, cheese and salads. 12.30-3.30pm, prices from £45 per adult and £20 per child. Yes, it's another branquet – beyond indulgence.

14. The Glad Café, Southside, Glasgow

Where southside creative types go not only to brunch, but hang out, listen to music, talk about art, watch film, write a few poems or log on to their wifi. Glad Café also happens to offer one of the best vegan and vegetarian brunches in Glasgow, courtesy of Hen Of The Woods – also the team behind The Hug And Pint – on both Saturdays and Sundays, 9am until 4pm. Middle Eastern flavours, Asian influences, sourdough bread from social enterprise, the Freedom Bakery. Think dishes like poached eggs with salted yoghurt and chilli brown butter tofu chettinad, washed down with a cup of Dear Green Coffee and a good dollop of social conscience.

15. The Pantry

Stockbridge, Edinburgh

When the Pantry launched in 2012 it became the definition of brunch in Edinburgh, leading the way on what you can do with an egg, a pancake or a waffle. The Sunday Times said their egg’s benedict was “reason alone to come to Edinburgh”. It still remains hard to beat and repeatedly pops up on lists of best brunches and breakfasts in the UK. Run by husband-and-wife team, Chris and Charlotte Thompson, and described as an urban farm shop – it serves locally-sourced produce. It’s also nestled in an elegant spot in the New Town, right on Royal Circus. Open daily for brunch from 9am to 5pm.

16. Vesta

West End, Edinburgh

The indulgent brunch with a conscience. Social Bite’s Home has been relaunched, refurbished and rethought as something new and fresh, and on Sundays it's offering its Bubbles and Brunch. The restaurant still works on the same principle – homeless people train and work there and customers are encouraged to “pay forward” meals for the homeless. It’s a quality brunch too – offering buttermilk pancakes, avocado on toast with salsa and watercress or baked eggs with cheddar, spinach, tomatoes and black beans, as well as some fizz on the side.

17. Gnom

Southside, Glasgow

Breakfast bao, or steamed Asian buns, are one of the chief foodie draws of this Southside brunch venue, and they are good – filled with crispy pork belly or mushrooms, gochujang ketchup and eggs. And who could not be tempted by their French toast ice cream sandwiches? Head there for a blether over brunch by its big, bright windows. It’s hipster central, but irresistible.

18. The Gardener’s Cottage

Calton Hill, Edinburgh

For a brunch that’s about the locally-sourced greens, herbs and heritage carrots as well as the eggs, sausages and kippers, this intimate restaurant in a converted cottage in the gardens at the foot of Calton Hill is the go-to destination. It’s not, as Joanna Blythman, once commented without its middle-class “affectation” – but its brunch really does feel fresh from the garden. If, however, the big foodie love affair in your life is bread – and you also like your brunch a bit more casual and Scandi – then there’s sister café Quay Commons in Leith. Brioche heaven.