Places to eat in Livingston

For starters, we want to introduce you to a training restaurant. While the idea of having students cook for you might not sound very appealing, we’re not talking about your run-of-the-mill, beans-on-toast-burning bairns. The Terrace Restaurant is run by West Lothian College for its professional cookery students. They serve up the finest food in the area in an award-winning restaurant of the highest standard. As it’s a training restaurant, the menu changes regularly, and the days it’s open can vary, so be sure to check if it’s open in advance. However, the prices are always cheap, and the European menu of food is great.

Should you find yourself craving a curry, the Bay Leaf Restaurant on Uphall Station Road is the best Indian restaurant in Livingston. It may not look like much from the outside, and inside the decor is a little eclectic, but the most important thing is the food, and the Bay Leaf’s is fantastic. The Scottish Curry Awards named it Restaurant of the Year in 2018.

Alternatively, if you’re staying at our Bathgate hotel, Indie Roots is another great Indian restaurant on Glasgow Road. It’s earned an army of fans thanks to its tasty menu of low-fat, colour-free Indian cuisine. If you’re looking for the best value and the easiest way to sample as much of the menu as possible, visit Indie Roots on Sunday for the buffet.

La Campana on Calder Road is a popular Italian restaurant with a plethora of authentic dishes that’ll appease the appetite of any guest. It’s a trattoria-style restaurant in that the food isn’t anything fancy. But when it’s this flavoursome, who cares? Prices are reasonable, the service is excellent and the wine list is good too. Plus it’s less than a 15-minute drive from either of our Livingston hotels.

Last but by no means least, La Piuma serves up some of the most creative and delicious eating in West Lothian. It’s a modern restaurant with a menu that mixes the best of Italian cuisine with Scottish classics. That’s probably pretty hard to imagine, but take our word for it; it’s absolutely delicious. The haggis starter is sublime, so too the scallops, and in terms of ways to wash it down, the cocktail menu is temptation incarnate.

Café Alba is a fantastic catering service with a permanent home at the Alba Business Centre in Livingston. The setting is beautiful on a sunny day, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and views across the pond it sits on. The coffee is a delight, the sandwiches are all freshly made and the cakes are quite simply out of this world.

Another popular option is The Cupcake Café in Bathgate. It’s a nice café, with large windows and a lovely outside seating area. Breakfasts and lunches are freshly made, delicious and great value, especially considering the size of the portions. Of course, you have to leave enough room to try the cupcakes. They come in all kinds of flavours and are always absolutely fabulous.

A few doors down from The Regal Community Theatre, one of our top Livingston entertainment venues, you’ll find the Bridge Café, home to the best breakfasts under our blue sky. At least, that’s the consensus in these parts. Expect a warm welcome, huge portions, good ingredients and great value for money.

Alternatively, follow South Bridge Street to The Bus Stop Café. It’s a great wee café in the heart of Bathgate where you can expect delicious homemade eating and a great cuppa. It’s one of those places that you might not look twice at if you walked past it. But, take it from us, The Bus Stop has achieved legendary status with the locals.