Cafe Wander

Stopped in here for a quick bite for lunch and wasn’t disappointed. It is down some steps at basement level so I was glad I didn’t bring my baby out in her pram. As soon as we entered the friendly staff seated us and brought over a high chair. We had soup and panini combos, baby had some hummous and pitta. Coffees were good and the food was tasty.
It seemed be a lunch hotspot with sit in and take away available with a constant stream of people coming in and out.
We would visit again for lunch.

I went to Café Wander this morning.
When I approached the friendly woman at the counter she told me my order came to £3.20.
Being terribly British, I thought it would be frightfully rude to point out that I hadn’t actually requested any takeaway food yet I’d just wait and see what I got.
Whilst I’m waiting, I’ll just say this place is a little gem. You know those times when you can’t think of anywhere in town to go? Try and remember to go here.
Promptly, out came two little brown bags which obviously contained a roll in each. I thanked her and was on my way. Still thought it wasn’t the done thing to be rummaging through each roll to see what was on it, so I took them up to work.
In work I was happy to find that each bag contained a roll and bacon with ketchup. Wee bit too much ketchup, but we’ll let them off. Good rolls and a generous amount of bacon — very important.
And that is the story of Café Wander’s five stars. It gets five stars for taking orders through the wonderful medium of psychic mind reading. If Derren Brown ran a coffee shop, this is probably how it would go down. I’m thinking no other establishment on Unilocal!has done this. This is a Unilocal!first.
Not exactly what I was looking for, but pretty damn close. For someone who has never read my mind before this was a great first try.

Meeting Clare S before work, I managed to sneak in some scrambled eggs on toast with a couple of coffees to help warm my bones against the cold wind and driving rain outside.
What a lovely wee place this, quite homely feeling, backed up by the friendly staff who knew a lot of the regulars well but didn’t let that interfere with us newbies in dire need of caffeine!
This place reminds of somewhere but nowhere specific, it’s like the best bits from all the wee granny cafes I’ve ever visited, it’s not pretentious and just serves good fare for a reasonable price.
The coffee (s, I had two) were ok, although my flat white wasn’t massively different from my latte, and the scrambled eggs and toast was good, the toast was four thick slices from a sourdough style loaf which was delish, but the scrambled eggs were (somehow) a bit watery. I’ve no idea how you get water on the plate with scrambled eggs (not how I make them anyway) so it wasn’t great to have soggy crusts on some of the toast.
Ohhh and it’s great to get butter with your toast but not straight from the fridge!
Minor gripes though, I enjoyed my breakfast, the coffees hit the mark, and the service was good, hard to grumble at the price too — £11 for 3 coffees, and scrambled eggs on toast.
It’s entirely possible that’ll wander past again!

This is a pretty good little place. It’s a little hard to find, but it’s worth the search. We got the full breakfast and the porridge. It was very inexpensive and good. Great value.

Café Wander prides it self on making home made food and indeed it does — nice and fresh and simple; but surely the food could be a made little more «special» for the price we pay?
I mean, even I, with my stingy lifestyle make my lunches a little fancier.
But maybe that’s the magic of the place– giving me food I would be making myself before a day out if I lived in the city centre? I would probably have lunch at home, something familiar, rather than go out to fancy trendy places and for the same money try a kale pesto panini I might not like?

Tucked away below eyesight this little spot seamed to be the perfect place for me to wait whilst Austen M was at this appointment. Basic and reasonably priced for food I wasn’t expecting anything overly to fancy.
The menu was big with breakfast and lunch options and also had some specials behind the counter, As we were meeting the rest of the Unilocal crew for some Pre-​Subcrawl hotdogs i decided to have a light breakfast.
Tea and Toast, the toast came with small butter and some jam. Lose leaf tea came in a massive tea pot — far to big for one person. It was a really quiet Saturday morning so i was quiet happy to sit and drink my way through the full pot.
The staff were friendly, the service was quick. Good for killing some time with a massive pot of tea.

If you’re ever looking for a proper café in Glasgow, Café Wander is where you should head. Minutes from Buchanan Street, it can get quite busy inside but there’s always usually a space.
The menu is big and there’s everything from soup to paninis, they also make their own fresh juice. And of course cake!
They have a good breakfast menu too and on Saturdays they serve this all day.
The staff are lovely and always seem like they actually care about your time in their café.
This visit, I chose a breakfast item and had bacon on french toast — mmm!

What a great little café this is. It’s a bit of a no frills place, nothing to fancy or overly hip, but doing great tasting food and coffee.
I popped in here for breakfast on Saturday (yes a breakfast before the pre subcrawl hot dog breakfast — stomach lining was needed). They did an amazing roll and sausage. You could tell the lorne sausage was great quality and the roll was really crispy and fresh.
The also do lovely coffee and seem serious about it as well. Offering top good options of a very high quality. The staff were friendly, the service was quick and the prices were reasonable. This is a bit of a hidden gem. I will return for another roll and sausage very soon!

Way back in the mists of time when I used to have a proper job and had to do the commuting, wearing ironed clothes and sitting in an office thing I was a big fan and user of Café Wander. I worked a couple of blocks up West George Street and Café Wander was one of those rare and precious places I could get to and from in my high heels and have great coffee while I rested my poor toes for the hike back to the office — West George Street is steep!
It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten it, I’d just not been in donkeys. Then smudge started clutching her tummy and acting like death from starvation was imminent in Paperchase. So off to Café Wander we went. It was busy but we got a seat on the high chairs by the window. «We can pretend we’re drinking gin in the pub, Mummy» a verbal sign that I have this parenting malarkey sorted!
It’s reasonably priced, cozy and the staff really are lovely. The food was freshly prepared, came promptly and more than satisfied. Which was a bit unfortunate really as it meant we didn’t have any room for cake. But now that I’ve remembered just what a gem Café Wander is I’ll be back to update my knowledge on their cake counter. Just don’t expect me to revisit the ironed clothes and toe crushing shoes phase.

I’m in here regularly as it’s just down from the office. The staff are friendly, the food is good, it’s reasonably priced — what more do you want?
Oh, you want breakfast rolls? They do those too. I highly recommend the square sausage with red onion and ketchup.
They only take cards for orders over £5, so bring cash.

Le Smile! Je laugh!
Its a quiet yet cheerful little lower ground floor café which I just happened upon with a friend while roaming the centre of town, coffee-​deprived. A latter, a Cappuccino, a nutty cake and a few pages of the Lonely planet books from their shelves later we left with bright smiles on our faces.
After walking for 10 km over the course of a winter day (yes I nerd-​ily calculated the distance when I got back home) it was a little oasis of comfort. Way to go.

I’ve been meaning to pop into this place for ages now. So, when the belly began grumbling and I was in the area, all the signs appeared to point in this direction.
First off, this place has me on the location. I’m a fan of basement businesses. There’s something of the ‘cozy cave’ feel to most of them, that my brain just mentally relaxes whenever I stumble down those stairs.
Initial impressions are always a handy thing to work off. The welcome I (and everyone else who stoated in after me) received was warm, genuine and not at all pushy. The options, plentiful for any lunch/​breakfast appetite, are available for sitting in, or indeed takeaway purposes, with the former coming with table service (me likes).
I opted for the linguini with meatballs and tomato sauce, which was a special that day. It appears that they also have different soups each day (two of?) which sounded rather tasty.
The grub, when it arrived, was plentiful, tasty (if not mind blowing), homemade and piping hot. No grumbles.
It’s a good wee place. It’s friendly, comfortable, clean and strikes me as the kind of place you could bring your mum or granny. Other than that, it’s nothing that I’d go out of my way to visit, but on the other hand if I was in the area and looking for a solid meal at a reasonable price… I’d hit it.

I work right around the corner from Café Wander and it is my go-​to place when I’ve forgotten to take my pack lunch box to work!
I always tell myself that I’ll just have a wee panini and maybe some soup but I always end up getting a delicious homemade burger with cheese on top. It comes in a ciabatta roll with wonderfully crisp and tasty potato wedges and a tomato and rocket salad on the side. I honestly think they are the best burgers I have ever tasted! Ever! They are freshly made so you do have to wait a little longer than if you ordered something else off the menu but they are definitely worth the wait!
There’s always a nice little selection of homemade cakes and if I’m stuffing myself with a burger anyway I usually go the whole hog and pick up a slice of caramel shortcake. I take it back to the office for the 4pm snack-​attack!
Between about 1pm and 3pm this little gem of a place is usually hoatching but if you can’t grab a seat you can always get your food to go. The staff are super friendly and efficient which helps during the hectic lunch hour rush!

You would take a stroll past Café Wander and very nearly miss it — it’s located on the basement level of one of the city centre’s older buildings.
But if you were to walk on by you’d be missing out on tasty food, good service and lovely surroundings.
It’s deceptively big inside, with loads of nice wooden tables and chairs. None of your uncomfortable plastic seats in here — it looks quite high end inside. Towards the back of the café, a huge counter serving up juice and eats is to be found.
They have a good menu, with everything from panini’s to soup and salad on offer. They do various lunchtime specials and have a variety of fancy, tasty fillers for sandwiches.
The staff are very efficient and surroundings are spacious and pleasant. It seems that little bit different from some of the other café options in town, and far less stressed than visiting a bustling city centre Starbucks! Saying that, this place seems popular, and although it doesn’t feel packed there are usually a fair few people inside having lunch. Suitable for business meets as much as taking yer maw out for a brew, I like.

I actually found out about this place from reviews, that shows how good it can be to look up a few reviews before spending your hard earned money because this little farm house kitchen is awful good. Its food that my gran used to say would ‘stick o your ribs’. Even though I’m not sure what this means I do know that I the vegetable soup with good sized big bits of vegetables in it with a roll made me remember visiting my gran when I was little. It will bring the memories flooding back of home made cooking and coseyness and a life without responsibility. I pick my soup here most lunchtime for all these reasons.
Its is pretty hard to find and very easy to miss so don’t give up, once you know where it is you will find it every time.

Café Wander is one of those places you can unfortunately walk past and not know it exists! Hidden below street level on West George St a quaint little café awaits you.
Make your way down the steps and you will be greeted by friendly staff and a countryside kitchen surrounding. I visited midweek at lunchtime and although busy, it never felt overcrowded or too noisy. Onto the menu …
This is the place to go if you feel like a little country bumpkin lost in the big city or if you’re under the weather and just need some homely food. Their home baking, chunky vegetable soups and range of fresh paninis with delicious ingredients are sure to make anyone feel like they’ve just received a great big hug. It’s also quiet enough to sit in
for a quick beverage with their range of fresh juices, hot drinks and smoothies.
The good news is you can take away or sit in ! Bad news is there is a leap from sit-​in to take-​away prices. However, the friendly staff, good food and atmosphere make this price leap quite justified.
I’d thoroughly recommend Café Wander as an alternative lunchtime venue to the usual Subways and Gregg’s. Or if you happen to be an early riser or just a student running late for a lecture there is a full breakfast that I think deserves a try.

Café Wander is located in the basement of a building on West George Street just before Nelson Mandela Place. It’s a lovely place to stop for lunch and caters mainly for those on an hours break from work — last time I checked it wasn’t open at weekends. It’s a nice place to meet for lunch without feeling like you have to have a big meal — the menu if full of soup, sandwiches, baked potatoes as well as the daily specials which usually include bigger dishes like pasta or a burger. Prices are great.
There is a lovely friendly atmosphere in Café Wander and the staff are lovely! There is a big collection of travel postcards inside and I think the owners have done a lot of travelling, hence the name Café Wander. I really like this place and can highly recommend it.
There is also a great take away area (which also does breakfast) if you don’t feel like sitting in and they also do corporate catering.

Just below eye level on West George St, you could easily walk past this café. But to do so would deprive you of some tasty delights. With the emphasis firmly on ‘healthy’ and ‘homemade’, the menu boasts an array of mouthwatering delights, from delicious home made soup to freshly squeezed juices. The walls are decorated with photos and postcards from various wanderings around the world, allowing likeminded souls to reminisce together about the places they’ve been and the things they’ve seen. Now open late on a Thursday, the perfect place to relax with a glass of wine after some late night shopping or a hard day at the office.