Cowboy Roy Rogers once rode Trigger down the main staircase of the Grand Central Hotel, and the first-ever TV signal was beamed from London to one of its bedrooms – no wonder this city-centre megalith is a Glasgow icon. Designed in extravagant Victorian gothic style and built into the fabric of the railway station, it has played host to royalty, political grandees and movie stars – and is currently reaping the benefits of a £20m refurb. Formal meals are served in Tempus – a classically appointed dining room and bar offering a menu of pasta, grills and ideas from around the globe. Starters of butternut squash velouté with chorizo or crisp haggis bonbons might precede rib-eye steak with béarnaise sauce, Provençal-style pot-roast beef or spiced monkfish with wild rice and Singaporean laksa sauce, while desserts could promise sticky toffee pudding or ‘chocolate indulgence’ with hazelnut espuma.