Charcoals

Reviews

• Alison M.

  star star star star star_border 11 June 2026

  The reason we visited Charcoals was because on their door is a menu which contains lots of little "GF's".  We love Indian food, but our eating out has often reverted to Italian since my husband has had to go gluten free.. so to see a gluten free Indian is really oooooh-worthy to us!
  
  It was really busy with two large parties when we arrived, but fortunately there was a little space in the back of the restaurant. We were greeted by friendly staff, who were happy to say "everything is gluten free apart from the bread". Woohoo!
  
  For drinks we had a Goa beer. We eyed it suspiciously as we'd not seen it before, and it doesn't say gluten free on the bottle, but the company website says it is, so that meant we could have a beer each instead of me having both!! Curry and beer just goes, don't you think? We had tap water too, generously garnished with lemon.
  
  Food wise we ordered starters of veg pakora and chilli paneer, then mains of South Indian garlic chilli channa, channa mushroom jaipuri, mushroom rice & channa rice. These were a little off menu as we like our chickpeas, so if you're a vegetarian don't be afraid to order from the main menu and personalise what you like rather than settling for "vegetable".
  
  The starters were delicious, and hot hot hot. That paneer was chilli-tastic! The batter of the pakora had delicious spices in too, nice delicate batter with tasty size pakora.
  
  The mains were good, but not quite as we had ordered, as not enough chilli in the South Indian garlic chilli.. there was much more chilli in that starter. The channa rice was utterly delicious, nice layers of flavour.
  
  Overall we left feeling happily full but not waddling.. the staff were lovely but the restaurant loses points for automatically adding 10% service to the bill (we like to choose how much to tip, and will often give more than 10% but being told to automatically add that without a choice when dining in a party of two is not good, in our opinion).  The lighting in the back of the restaurant is bad, no good for Yelp pics, and it makes the food look very full of good colouring. It's also really cold in the corner table, crazy air conditioning, we moved along slightly and this was better.
  
  Will we be back though? Definitely.. but won't be sitting in that cold corner... and might ask for candles! Go for the tasty food & unusual beer, just be aware of the 10% tip beforehand, they don't print this on the menu that we could see. Happy gluten free dining!!

• Harry A.

  star star star star star_border 10 June 2026

  I don't eat Indian food very often but in the city center in Glasgow there are so many options, we gave it a try and glad I did. I had the two course lunch for 7 pounds that included pakoola, butter chicken, and awesome naan. The butter chicken was very good with a smooth and yes, buttery tomato taste. It may be too much butter if you're watching your weight and fat intake but for everyone else, YOLO! Give it a try. The service was outstanding. We sat by the window so the people watching was fun as well!

• Gordon W.

  star star star star star_border 8 June 2026

  We are staying near Central Station and our hotel recommended Charcoals.
  We are vegetarian and there were lots of options including some of our favorite dishes on the menu.  In the "Vegetable" section, you can choose either main course or side dish sizes of any of the dishes, which allowed us to try more things.
  We had Dal Makani, Saag Paneer, Chana Masala and Mushroom Baji.
  They were all about medium spicy which I thought was perfect.  But this was a bit much for my wife so we got a second Saag Paneer done mild, which was perfect for her and still very flavorful.
  We thought the food was very flavorful and fresh tasting.  It was not oily.
  The service was very good and they are very accommodating.  We spoke with a neighboring diner who said they had prepared vegan dishes for his daughter.
  I can highly recommend.

• Abhinav T.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 29 May 2026

  I read the front page reviews and decided to give it a try.
  I went with my family (four people in all) for a relaxing night out and thought this would be a good place to have to get some nice food.
  I am not sure if the people who rated this highly have ever had good Indian food, but this restaurant is not the place to go to if you are interested in good food.
  Let me recap what happened.
  When we sat down, we didn't get water until after we had received our appetizers. And even then we had to remind them twice to get us some water.
  We started out with ordering 2 lassis, both of which were watered down milk and tiny portions of yogurt. When we left it standing for even thirty seconds, we could see the water collecting at the bottom. It barely qualified as sweet....
  Next we wanted to order some appetizers, so we decided on chilli paneer and a sheekh kabaab. The kabaab was passable; even though the kabba itself didnt have any taste the chutney together with the kabaab was ok.
  But the paneer had almost zero masala while the chili was non existent. We could barely get any taste from this dish.
  But the kicker was the main course. We had previously also decided on ordering an aloo tikki and a samosa. But even after ordering all this, the waiter/manager said that we had to order at least 4 main course dishes, stating that it was a "company policy" and he couldn't do anything about it.
  This is ridiculous and absolutely atrocious. How can such a horrible rule be enforced for this business model? This removes the whole need for appetizers/starters/deserts.
  How greedy is the restaurant owner that he feels the need to enforce everyone to order and not share food?? What's the use of having all these awards if your whole customer service is pathetic.
  
  Overall:
  Customer service - 0/5
  Food taste - 1/5
  Food authenticity - 1/5
  Food freshness - 2/5
  Ambiance - 1/5
  
  Would not recommend ever.

• Lisa B.

  star star star star star 22 May 2026

  Delicious and fresh!
  
  I read that if you're in the UK, the best two cities for Indian food are Glasgow and London. So I had high expectations and Charcoals didn't disappoint.
  
  Not only was the food outstanding, but the staff was super friendly.
  
  Definitely recommend!