1. The Banana Leaf

It doesn't look much from the outside - or the inside come to that - but this tiny, friendly takeaway-cafe is a real find. Authentic southern Indian cuisine is the Banana Leaf's culinary remit and regulars swear by its dosas and fiery "special" soup. A main of Chettinad-spiced lamb curry (Chettinad is a small corner of Tamil Nadu) is sensational. The flavoursome chunks of slow-cooked lamb fall apart against a fork. The gravy is fragrant, deeply savoury and flush with fresh curry leaves. And the price? £5.50. You can only raise your glass - well, polystyrene cup - to the chefs.
• Starters from £1; mains from £2.99. 76 Old Dumbarton Road, +44 (0)141 334 4445; thebananaleaf.co.uk.

2. Fifi & Ally

Located in the upmarket Princes Square shopping arcade, this one-time lifestyle store - now just a daytime cafe - offers refuge to Glasgow's shopped-out middle class parents and their designer-clad kids. It's all very stylish in a rather sterile and predictable way, but the kitchen shines. There are good quality sharing boards, soups and salads with an emphasis on fine Scottish produce. A self-assembly bagel arrives with a mound of robustly flavoured hot smoked Salar salmon and a generous pot of zingy fresh cream cheese.
• Breakfast from £2.50; sandwiches from £6.75. 51-52 Princes Square, 48 Buchanan Street, +44 (0)141 229 0386; fifiandally.com.

3. Where The Monkey Sleeps

A tip for you: when trying to find somewhere good and cheap to eat, follow the cycle couriers. Not only do they need to refuel regularly, but these independent knights of the road, generally, disdain the highstreet chains. You will find a reassuring cluster of bikes and bags outside Where The Monkey Sleeps. This coffee and sandwich shop vibrates to a soundtrack of vintage heavy metal, rather than Norah Jones or Katie Melua - and its lovingly assembled menu is equally different. The "kurgan" (a regularly changing special) might be a Newcastle Brown ale moistened burger with mature cheddar, or a bagel of fish fingers, chorizo, homemade pea puree and tartare sauce. Our Steak II sandwich was excellent: tender medium-rare steak, with a punchy farmhouse cheddar and spicy red onion chutney. "It's worth the wait," claims the sandwich board outside. And it is.
• Soup/sandwiches from £2. 182 West Regent Street, +44 (0)141 226 3406; monkeysleeps.com.

4. The 78

If the relative hustle 'n' bustle of nearby Byres Road is bringing you down, then head to 78, a boho bar - all simple wooden furniture, roaring fire, scattered sofas, vintage blues plick-plucking away in the background - that maintains a permanent air of unruffled, easy going calm. The main draw is 78's unusually zippy vegan menu, complimented by a range of, largely organic, beers (from £2.90-a-pint). Staples like the falafel are memorable, the spiced chickpea burger or the roasted garlic hummus vibrant, while the salads, for instance the Thai aubergine, roasted pepper and smoked tofu with candied nuts and a sesame and lime dressing, are indicative of the kitchen's creative vigour. For a quick snack, grab a bottle of Caledonian Brewery's Golden Promise and a plate of beer-battered onion rings with BBQ sauce (£2.20).
• Starters from £3.50; mains from £5.50. 10–14 Kelvinhaugh Street, +44 (0)141 576 5018; the78cafebar.com.

5. Cherry & Heather

A stone's throw from Ibrox, in a part of real Glasgow that probably doesn't feature in too many tourists' itineraries, you will find this lovely, dirt cheap deli-cafe. Note: it's actually just a few minutes walk away from several hotels - the City Inn, Crowne Plaza, Campanile etc., on the other side of the Clyde. You will find the usual suspects on the shelves, Tyrell's crisps 'n' Chegworth Valley drinks, and a solid selection of upmarket deli sandwiches on the chalkboards. There is, however, a quiet Asian influence at work on the menu, too. Cherry & Heather's best selling sandwich, for instance, is meatballs in Indonesian bumbu kecap sauce, and they also do vegetarian sushi. A smoked mackarel and beetroot sandwich is interesting, the contents whizzed-up into a posh fish paste, with sundried tomatoes and a kick of horseradish.
• Soup £2.10; sandwiches £2.60. 7 North Gower Street, +44 (0)141 427 0272; cherryandheather.co.uk.

6. Stravaigin

The Stravaigin cafe (as opposed to the downstairs restaurant) is one of Glasgow's most convivial bolt-holes. Think of it as a warm, glowing womb, only full of alcohol rather than amniotic fluid. Its "staples" menu (mains around £8.95) - which includes Stravaigin's award-winning Jamaican pimento-spiced haggis, neeps and tatties (a Glasgow classic) - is excellent value. The cafe is also a good place to hunker down with the papers on a Sunday, and recover, slowly, over brunch (11am-5pm). The short, diverse brunch menu ranges from nasi goreng to a handsome full Scottish breakfast that includes Ramsay's of Carluke black pudding. Stravaigin's sister venue, the Liquid Ship (171 Great Western Road, +44 (0)141 331 1901), is similarly impressive, it's menu tacking more to bar food: sandwiches, wraps, well-sourced platters and tapas.
• Sunday brunch, breakfast from £2.95; mains from £8.95. 28 Gibson Street, Kelvinbridge, +44 (0)141 334 2665; stravaigin.com.

7. Tea Rooms @ The Butterfly & The Pig

Curious. In almost every way the Tea Rooms is an authentically chintzy proposition. There are flowery embroidered tablecloths and delicate china cups. An antique cake cabinet is loaded with home baking. The room is dominated by an ornate wooden carved bar that looks like it could have been rescued from the ruins of a French brothel in 1918. Why, then, is there also a huge, muted flatscreen TV on one wall pumping out Sky Sports News? People come here for kippers and poached eggs; soup; generous fresh sandwiches (a fully-loaded, well-seasoned tuna salad number is served, winningly, with pickled cucumber on the side); or the full afternoon tea experience (£10pp). They are not here for updates on the ATP Masters tennis.
• Breakfast from £3; sandwiches from £4.25. 153 Bath Street, +44 (0)141 221 7711; thebutterflyandthepig.com.

8. Delizique

Straight out of a glossy Sunday supplement, this kitchen-delicatessen is the kind of place where a greedy gourmet could spend a lot of money, very quickly. It is, however, still somewhere where the budget traveller can - indeed, should - treat themselves. Delizique's in-house bakery turns out stunning cookies, tarts and cakes, from pistachio meringues to dense bricks of chocolate brownie. Its pastel de nata, a Portuguese custard tart, are as good as anything you will eat in Lisbon - the delicate multi-layered pastry light but crisp, the filling rich, sweet and clean, rather than cloying. Your nata will be gone in two or three bites, but it may well be the best £1.25 you have ever spent.
• Biscuits and cakes from £1. 70 Hyndland Street, +44 (0)141 339 2000.

9. Piece

It is strangely reassuring to be told that, no, sorry, you can't have roasted garlic mayo with your chicken sandwich, because the kitchen is just roasting off some more garlic. Even better when the enthusiastic bloke at the counter readily offers sensible alternatives - we settled on basil mayo. That is Piece, then, a slick soup 'n' sandwich spot thriving due to a simple, timeless emphasis on cooking from scratch, decent ingredients and good quality breads. Even their roasted peppers - in general a tired, bitter, slimy abomination against nature, that has no place in a decent sandwich - are sweet and sparky. And the name? "Piece" is historic Glasgae slang for a sandwich.
• Soup from £1.75; sandwiches from £3. 1056 Argyle Street, +44 (0)141 221 7975; laucknerandmoore.com

10. Two Figs

This upscale if slightly blandly designed bar-diner is located at the 'unfashionable' end of Byres Road, but somewhere offering food this good and cheap would thrive anywhere. The work of Catherine Hardy and Jacqueline Fennessy, who also own Glasgow's much loved Left Bank (33-35 Gibson Street, +44 (0)141 339 5969), Two Figs offers a wide-range of crowd-pleasing but quietly adventurous dishes. The likes of warm lentil salad, fish 'n' chips, sticky ribs, an Indian thali breakfast, seabass fillet on a watercress and pea salad, burgers and pad Thai all rub along together on the menu. The cumin, coriander seed and pomegranate molasses marinade for the Lebanese grilled chicken could have been punchier, but it arrives in a huge portion atop an exemplary nutty, seedy salad. At £4.95, it's a bargain.
• Lunch meals around £4.75; all-day mains from £5.95. 5 & 9 Byres Road, +44 (0)141 334 7277; thetwofigs.co.uk.

Getting there

First TransPennine Express operate national train services to Glasgow.