14 Kelvinhaugh Street, Glasgow, 0141 576 5018
Style: Ultra-relaxed. It's always Sunday afternoon on the squashy granny sofa in front of the fire.
Food: Vegetarian and vegan, but don't be scared. This is delicious fare.
Price: £6-£10
Wheelchair access: Yes
I have a Secret Ideal Pub Checklist that includes real fires, quirky beers, lack of lagery crowds and - the hardest to find - brilliant vegetarian food. The people behind The 78 have clearly stolen my list and designed this pub just for me. Which was nice of them.
Firstly, the food. Most pubs do the minimum for vegetarians - chances are you'll get a veggie burger that glows like a spill at a nuclear plant and tastes rubbish. The 78 is the opposite. Superb vegetarian and vegan food is clearly at the top of their priorities.
I took some grumbly friends of the what-would-be-the-point-of-cows-if-we-didn't-eat-meat school and they didn't complain because they were too busy munching. The food is glorious: onion rings as big as tractor tyres; lusciously good spinach curry; and humous and bread that are in love with each other. OK, the menu is small but that's because it's made properly; not heated up with a ping!
The decor's good too. The whole place looks like it's been knocked together by some blokes - in a good way - and the big squashy granny sofa in front of the fire longs to be hogged. The only bits I don't like are the toilets, which are a bit sixth-form.
But the beer! The chiller is humungous and is filled with brands that don't get a look-in elsewhere. Beers I've never heard of. Beers I want to try. Beers I do try. Repeatedly. Someone's had a lot of fun compiling the stocklist here and really knows what they're doing.
Now the problem. It's the location. Sorry. It's just that The 78 is in such a, well, weird place. It's near Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, which is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Britain, yet you would never pass The 78 if you lived in Glasgow for 100 years. Pathological veggies like me will seek it out, of course, but will that be enough? I hope so, because The 78 is original and warm and comfortable and fun. And those onion rings. Brilliant.
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