Worthy restaurants in Scotland

[spanky]

Hello all--

We're heading over to Glasgow for a spot of shopping next month and since it's so far away from Edinburgh we're staying the night at Saint Jude's Restaurant and Hotel on Bath St. I've since heard that St Jude's was taken over last year (you always hear these things after you book them). Does anyone know if it's still worth eating there or should we ditch it and check out Gamba, Arta or other places?

Cheers (it's been a while!)

Spanky

[Brithack]

Glasgow - Rogano's. It's a Rennie Mackintosh 1920s Art Deco dream of a place, and with good seafood.

Skye- The Three Chimneys, I agree - but it's much more expensive than your budget allows. Great, though. The only place I've ever been that can make swede soup taste good.

Edinburgh - Martin Wishart, though again will break your budget.

[Cheryl Ewan]

Spanky

I've eaten in Gamba a couple of times recently and my opinion, for what it is worth, is that the fish is fresh and beautifully cooked, but they do tend to "fanny about" with their dishes to much. Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned gal, but I prefer my seafood simply cooked, whereas last time I went, about 4 out of 7 dishes were cooked with an Oriental theme, e.g. with a black bean sauce, with a sweet soy dressing etc. As I say, that's just my opinion and it probably wouldn't stop me going back.

Sort of opposite Gamba is a restaurant called Rococo (not to be confused with Rogano) which seems to be getting a lot of good reviews from friends in Glasgow, but I couldn't get a table so can't comment personally.

I've also eaten in Stravaigin (Think Global, Eat Local) and Stravaigin 2, the latter being more casual, and had good meals there.

Cheryl

[Jenny McClure]

I've eaten in the Ubiquitous Chip a couple of times and really enjoyed the food. It is good it you want to get a feel for the best of Scottish produce, with a modern twist.

[Forest]

I'll be going there in a couple of months and think I'll try Ubiquitous Chip so a few questions on that:

Any changes of opinion since the older posts?

any big difference between the experience/quality of upstairs versus downstairs?

I assume it's a place where we should make reservations to get a table on a weekend night?

What are the prime dining hours in Glasgow?

And any good recommendations for a bar for a before or after dinner drink that's closeby?

Thanks.

[Forest]

I'll be going there in a couple of months and think I'll try Ubiquitous Chip so a few questions on that: 

In follow up to my questions on the Ubiquitous Chip, in case anyone’s wondering about current opinions:

Any changes of opinion since the older posts?

any big difference between the experience/quality of upstairs versus downstairs?

I ate there this past Saturday, upstairs, not in the restaurant. I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, but I think the food might be slightly overated. (at least what I had – maybe downstairs or a different dish might be better – one of the people I was eating with had the stuffed quail which looked a bit more adventurous than my dish.)

I started with the vegetarian haggis. (Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but they only offered a vegetarian version.) I have not had haggis before, so I can’t really say how this stacks up, but it was good. Primarly grains and lentils and very peppery. Then I had braised roast and potatoes. This, again, was good, but nothing really unique & I could have easily made the same thing at home. I wouldn’t have thought twice about this other than the fact that I’d heard from various sources (Glaswegians, reviews online, reviews in the paper) what a GREAT place this is. For the price, I thought the food, service and atmosphere were very good – but maybe not deserving of what appeared to me an overblown reputation. I think the food actually, was just right for the range of dining (midrange price-wise) so this is not really a negative review – I guess I just expected something more after hearing people talk about it. (again, I stress, I was upstairs – maybe downstairs is much different??) Incidentally, the bill was 106 GBP for 3 people (starters, mains, two bottles of wine and coffees) So, I would go back again, but wouldn’t expect anything more than a solid, but unexceptional dining experience.

What are the prime dining hours in Glasgow? 

Having only stayed and eaten two nights, I’m not sure I have a solid idea of dining hours, but was surprised at the U.C. We arrived at 8pm to a full house upstairs and left at 11pm and we were the last in the restaurant (even though they take orders up until 11)

And any good recommendations for a bar for a before or after dinner drink that's closeby?

We went for a pre-dinner cocktail at the Bobar (which apparently is part of the Hilton), not far from the Ubiquitous Chip. The interiour was a bit swishy, trendy, but the guys behind the bar were incredibly nice and made excellent cocktails!

[confiseur]

Mary Runciman cooks brilliantly at La Potiniere in Gullane. Very small restaurant indeed. Michelin standard food IMO.

[Harters]

CRANNOG, FORT WILLIAM

Worthy restaurants? Well, yes and no. But as good a thread as any to report back on some of the places we visited last this last week (although I've posted separately about Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond)

As for Crannog.....It could have been so much better. It SHOULD have been so much better. A seafood restaurant. On the pier. One that appears in guidebooks. Even food guidebooks. Yes, it should have been so much better.

What was very good was the Cullen Skink. It was everything I’d want from it – fishy, creamy, a robust smokiness from the haddock, big chunks of fish and potato.

Opposite, a smoked haddock soufflé was good in itself. Good texture, the same excellent fish as the other starter. It sat on a bed of salad which should have provided a nice crisp texture contrast. However, everything had been drenched in a boring, thin cream sauce – serving absolutely no purpose except to make the salad soggy.

The sauce cropped up again in my main course. Except, by this time, it had split. Other than that, this was a fine fillet of fried salmon with just some wilted leeks and still crisp asparagus. But, oh, it could have been so much better. Certainly, it was deserving of a far better sauce.

My partner’s main was off the specials board. A whole roasted sea bass. In itself, nicely cooked but let us hope that a new trend is not starting here – fish is much better served with the fins cut off – especially when you’re paying nineteen quid for it. The description chalked on the specials board advertised and accompanying fine bean and chorizo salad which, by the time it hit the table, had morphed into a spinach and chorizo salad. It worked OK – but not as a well as the beans would have done.

I passed on dessert but my partner went with another special – strawberry and vanilla custard tart. Excellent thin crisp pastry, rich filling and, alongside, some vanilla icecream.

Oh, and the coffee? Yes, it should have been so much better. Served luke-warm and with all the flavour of dishwater.

But, all that said, Fort William is a small town not well endowed with good eating opportunities. It’s either here or Inverlochy Castle. And, with Inverlochy ludicrously continuing with its archaic practice of requiring jacket and tie, it means I’d always be choosing Crannog.

[Harters]

CONTRAST BRASSERIE, INVERNESS

There are two restaurants at the Glenmoriston Town House Hotel. Abstract is the more formal – it’s also the one where the Hotel misrepresents the restaurant’s status on the website claiming it holds Michelin “rising star” status (something it hasn’t since 2007, as far as I can see). On the other side of the bar and entrance area is Contrast Brasserie where we decided to eat.

As a starter, scallops, black pudding and pea puree is simplicity itself and all the more for it. Scallops, tasting of themselves, salty black pudding, sweet puree. Good flavours. Really good flavours.

A “trio of salmon” was pleasant enough, if not a “Wow”. Many of the dishes on the menu have an east asian spin to them. Not full-on fusion, as such – just an element. And here, it was in a very Japenese-y pickled cucumber which accompanied smoked salmon. Also on the plate, salmon ceviche with a citrus “marmalade”, that would have done very nicely on breakfast toast (and possibly does, I suppose) and a confit with thinly sliced fennel.

For one main, duck breast, served pink, with roasted sweet potato and green beans ; the latter dressed with sesame and soy. Alongside, a very fruity sweet & sour apricot and plum sauce, providing another nod towards asia. However, like your local Chinese takeaway, this was all sweet with none of the interesting sour that you hope for.

I think the only item amongst the mains without an asian spin was lamb rump, served nicely pink. Garlic and thyme roasted new potatoes were OK, although there was no discernable thyme. Some creamed aubergine and a bed of spinach provided the contributions to the “five a day”. A little jus made piquant by capers set it all off.

We’d had to chase up the delivery of drinks earlier on and service took another dip at this point. Minutes passed and no dessert menus were offered. Eventually, we buttonholed someone to bring them. More minutes passed and no-one came to take an order. At this point, we lost interest but managed to again buttonhole someone to bring coffee. As she was serving it, our original waiter came to the table and said “So, no desserts?”. “Would have been if you’d been doing your job”, I wanted to reply but, instead, simply reflected it in the tip.

[David Naylor]

CONTRAST BRASSERIE, INVERNESS

We’d had to chase up the delivery of drinks earlier on and service took another dip at this point. Minutes passed and no dessert menus were offered. Eventually, we buttonholed someone to bring them. More minutes passed and no-one came to take an order. At this point, we lost interest but managed to again buttonhole someone to bring coffee. As she was serving it, our original waiter came to the table and said “So, no desserts?”. “Would have been if you’d been doing your job”, I wanted to reply but, instead, simply reflected it in the tip.

John

why didn't you say that to him if that is what you "wanted" to do? I hope that the adjustment you made to the tip meant that there wasn't one.

David

[Harters]

KILLIEKRANKIE HOUSE, nr Pitlochry

Killiekrankie House is proof that country house hotel cooking is still alive and well. It’s also proof that you can get four very decent courses, with good service for very reasonable sums of money – in this case, £38.

OK, the starters were something of assembly jobs. For example, a sweet pickled herring and crayfish salad, a few micro leaves and a sharp caper dressing. The other, effectively a big vol-au-vent, brought together some unlikely companions – avocado, stilton, bacon, cream sauce – but it worked.

Mains were of the sort that a competent home cook would probably manage on a good day, but were none the less enjoyable for that. And it was good to see a “proper” plate of food – certainly the sort of portion this home cook likes to serve himself.

There were a couple of fillets of bream – cooking was spot-on. Some cous cous mixed with pine nuts sat alongside roasted mixed veg. Advertised as an orange butter sauce, it tasted of neither but did provide some welcome, if indeterminate, moistness.

On my plate, a chicken breast stuffed with Boursin or similar garlicky, herby moussey stuff. Yes, a bit 1980s but thoroughly enjoyable. It sat on a superbly crisp rosti, surrounded by asparagus spears. A little cream sauce, spiked with grain mustard, set it off.

They usually serve cheese after dessert here, in the British style, but that’s not for us. Whilst we might not agree with their running order, we’d absolutely no problem with the generosity of their style. It’s “help yourself” from the platter set out on the sideboard. Half a dozen or so mainly British cheeses (and, perhaps, even the Brie might have been Brit Brie) – all in top condition. So easy to be greedy –so we were.

As with the other courses, there’s a limited choice for dessert – just four on the menu. Home made toffee icecream came with shortbread and was very much as you’d expect. A honey & walnut tart was lovely – crisp pastry, rich sweet filling with a good texture from the crushed nuts.

And coffee is also included in your meal price.

Service had been good throughout – although the waiters must despair at the joke trousers that forms their “uniform” – four different tartans (two on each leg, different back and front). It might just work in a Scottish theme park restaurant but here, in a serious restaurant and hotel, they just look very silly.

But what a nice evening!

[Harters]

BRUAR FALLS

Ten miles north of Pitlochry, on the A9, is a lovely wooded walk up the hillside. Of course, few of the folk who parked their vehicles have come for the walk. Most have come to shop at the upmarket House of Bruar - full of expensive home decoration, cashmere sweaters, golfing attire and other "Scottish stuff".

We'd come because of the restaurant, although it is much more cafe than restaurant. It'd been recommended as one of the best lunch spots in the area. In particular, a plate of mixed seafood for £16.95 - prawns, crab, smoked salmon, smoked eeel, two sorts of marinated herring, squid, langoustine and smoked trout. And it includes a bowl from the salad buffet. This was really excellent quality and superb value for money. Well worth a stop if you're in the area.

There's also extensive food buying opportunities in the very large deli - all the usual UK suspects for jams, chutnies and the like. plus many more local items - and a great range of perishable items, including an excellent butchers counter with beef from the adjacent Atholl estate.

And, yes, the walk up the falls was just the thing to work off some of the lunch.