Grouse and more at the Peat Inn

(August 2012)

Our second grouse of the season (yes yes, we are fanatics) had a tough act to follow after Koffmann's...

...but it came out with flying colours in being so good and also so different:

Grouse with  peaches & broad beans

The peach and broad beans combination is a dress of Summer and grace for the protagonist, roasted and (as you can see) finished admirably.

Before this there was something of a rather different nature: a Lobster Thermidore, that here at the Peat Inn is (like many other classic dishes) an endless and always new variation on the theme. Have it after a while and you'll find that a little, or not so little, something has changed, maybe the type of cheese (currently Anster we think), maybe the way it's cut. Woman declares herself officially addicted.

Addictive Lobster Thermidor

 

And to finish there is only one way to avoid the temptation of the almost irresistible dessert list: lose your head in the perfume/smell of this large trolley stocked entirely with Scottish cheese (some from not farther than a couple of miles away). Where else in a starred restaurant?

Scottish Cheese Trolley

The Peat Inn is a bit of 'our local'. Not exactly your cheap corner Inn, but the nearest to home of the great UK restaurants we like best. And for its category and quality, it will make your wallet happy as well as yourselves, when you enter the warm ante-room with the fireplace, greeted by one of the most charming service teams in the world.

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63 Tay Street (Perth): well worth the while

En route to a walk in the Perthshire Highlands, we needed some calorie intake - an excellent opportunity to stop at one of our favourite addresses, overlooking the Tay river in Perth.


Chef Palliser's cuisine is not always the most prettily presented, nor the service the most refined, and a three course menu (plus amuse bouche and an intermediate palate cleanser) at £35 is bound to face some constraints, but this is a case of substance over style, it's goodness with the hair let down. He definitely has that touch and ability in extracting flavours from the raw materials that marks out the talented from the run of the mill. 


This starter of smoked roast wood pigeon with remoulade and cherry jus

was intensely satisfying and balanced, the crisp and unsoggy salad for once serving a purpose in the dish rather than being a mere add-on, and the pigeon of good quality.


And this sea-land combination packed a real punch:

 It's an Ayrshire pork belly with Scottish (where else?) langoustine in a ceps sauce. The produce is excellent and skillfully cooked. The addition of the egg creates yet another protein dimension in a dish where a lot is going on already, but everything holds together beautifully. And we had similar thoughts regarding this:

An admittedly rather confused mass consisting of an Angus beef shin with pearl barley risotto, Summer truffles, girolles and Parmesan. Once again, much, much flavour (literally) compressed and bursting on your palate, even though for us the Parmesan was  one step too far in an already rich, creamy, moist dish.


We also had a refined starter of line-caught Scottish mackerel, a fresh, intriguing dish with fennel and smoky aubergine.


We said we needed calories. At some point we implored the waitress to bring us more bread, on the grounds of our carbohydrate need derived from our Italian genetic makeup. The waitress patiently said: 'I know, I know...', and kindly contented us. On this and other occasions the service was most kind, and smiling, although those looking for formal precision will find some points to pick...


The dessert section did not disappoint either on the calorie front nor, more fundamentally, on that of taste. 

 

The above is a rhubarb crumble with vanilla custard and cinnamon salty icecream: simple, well-made, rich, and interesting. 

But the next one was a different level of creativity: layered chocolate cappuccino, hazelnut fudge doughnuts.



Layer upon layer of pure pleasure in the "cappuccino", and well, you coffee and chocoholics know what we are talking about.

63 Tay Street is not the place where you will be indulged or pampered - but it serves good and interesting dishes, delivering powerful flavours, at prices that approach rock bottom for this quality.

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The Peat Inn (Fife)

We've been more than a few times at the Peat Inn, first reviewed here.


To understand why this is one the most appealing restaurants we know, look, for example, from our last Summer visit, at the  neatness of presentation of this Lobster Thermidore (a starter): the plate is clean, the precious juices and moisture all contained within the shell. The cooking is the most precise we've encountered in our Thermidore eating career: the sauce not overpowering but merely supporting the soft, delicate, succulent meat. The dark chips layered on the right provide a touch of textural variety. This is what we would call restrained class (it isn't nice to make comparisons, but we have to say that this offering is on a different level of cuisine even compared to our very good recent Scottish experiences at Ondine and The Honours), which in the end defines this restaurant.

The other starter was a stunner, too, but very different, going for a wider palette of flavours and colours. Here we have a pea and ham pannacotta with a ham hock bon bon and a quail egg.

There are so many layers of flavour and textures and details and ingredients in this simple looking dish that it's hard to tell. So we won't tell but merely assure you the result is amazing - to save time just be amazed, enjoy the colours, and try to imagine!


We also had our first Grouse of the season, here in the rich and powerful sauce that this meat wants. On a 'gameiness scale' we would say this was in the middle, quite gentle and hence, we think, acceptable also to more delicate palates - it's a matter of personal preferences but we could cope with more extreme versions and uses of the innards...(so far in the season the gold medal belongs to this guy). In terms of cooking, look at the brown outside, memory of flavour-giving high heat, and at the pink inside, and you get an idea of the satisfaction for the game-lover.

A dish of veal cooked in two ways (roasted rump and braised shin) is not only very accomplished,

 

but it also hides a lovely, lovely tomato sauce in the middle, redolent of Italian flavours, that we of course very much appreciated...Look also at all the small details in the dish - as ever, the more you look the more you discover - rarely here a dish of X is a mere dish of X, it's more like a minute construction around a core.


We would have wanted to choose the entire dessert list, so enticing it read, but we limited ourselves to these two:


A beautiful Eton Mess, with its crunchy, bright white meringue in which once again neatness of presentation (Chef Smeddle, who definitely has a bent for neatness, clearly cannot tolerate a mess even in an Eaton Mess...) and balance reigned supreme,

 

and a creamed vanilla rice pudding with peach compote, frosted hazelnuts and a peach sorbet (which can be served either cold or warm - the rice pudding, that is :) ). Imagine comfort food at its most refined, richly velvety yet elegant and light; this is it!

While Scotland is graced with several truly excellent restaurants, where highly talented chefs ably handle the marvellous Scottish produce, for us none of them quite matches the unique combination of charm, comfort, great cuisine and class-without-stiffness in service that one can enjoy at the Peat Inn. It is just our kind of high-end restaurant with a human face, not to mention the best value for money (no doubt a base but not unimportant dimension...) all round. That's why we'll be back here again, and again, and again, and we hope that even higher recognitions will be added to an already impressive record.


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The Honours (Edinburgh)

It looks like Martin Wishart didn't spare any expenses in his new 'bistro' in central Edinburgh, the atmosphere one of very spacious luxury rather than intimately rustic

They clearly need to make it back with the bread, good but only served in three thin slices each, and not replaced if you finish it...

Scottish Nationalists will have an apoplectic attack at the only type of oyster being served in this Scottish restaurant being 'Cornish assured'

We heard that there was no competition in the blind tasting. Very good they certainly were: the plumpest, sea-infused oysters of our (admittedly limited, but not non-existent) experience. But we are told by reliable sources that you can find equally good ones in Scotland, so....

Woman: Let's have the lobster Thermidore. Man: Nah, we are having it every week here in Scotland! Woman: Come on! Man: Ok....

It was a good choice: served without the shell, notable for the excellent cooking, the herbs recruited in quantity to add freshness, and the balance and kick of the sauce. In one word: delicious (though we've recently had an even better one...stay tuned).


Man: let's have the tuna tartare. Woman: Nah, this is the tame yellowfin, you know I'm used to the wonderful bluefin Sicilian tuna. Man: you mean, like feckless environmental yobs that don't give a toss about sustainability? Woman, contrite: Ok, let's see what chef Paul Tamburrini manages to do with the yellowfin.

It was a good choice: a simple 'assembly' dish with very well-defined, fresh, harmonious flavours (avocado cream, ginger and soya butter sauce).


Woman: let's have the veal sweetbreads. Man: Nah, we can have them in Italy or the lovely ones with Pecorino cheese they do at Latium. Woman: Come on, don't be chauvinistic! Man: Ok.





It was a good choice. In fact, it was a great choice. Simply resting on a bed of moist spinach and accompanied by a portentous reduction, it was the cooking that made this the dish of the day, having achieved that perfectly light crispiness on the outside and that supreme softness inside.

Man: Let's have the Presa steak of acorn fed Iberico pork. Woman: Nah, we can have this sort of thing in Spain. Man: Yes we could, however we never do, come on! Woman: Ok.

It was a good choice. They can really cook well here at the Honours, clearly a taut and well-run kitchen. This one felt like it was grilled, let's see, at about 650 degrees, you know, it had that unmistakable texture...(OK,we read it on the menu, where they feel compelled to give you this information as if many people might change their mind about the order if it was cooked at 600 or 670 instead). We asked for medium rare and we were rewarded with the succulence that comes with it. Iberico pork is in general wonderful, but Man found this one good but not the best Iberico pork, and in terms of flavour he preferred the one at Hedone the previous week. Just for the sake of giving you a full spectrum of opinions, Woman disagreed. They agreed however that the the thick wine sauce was 'deluscious', and the tomatoes welcome (though to our taste they could have been cooked quite a little more and acquire that melting deliciousness).


Just one dessert, to increase our Summer exploration of the classics, another peach Melba, like at Koffmann's the previous week (yes, we eat out a lot).

The ice-cream (made with a Carpigiani machine, as the very detailed menu says) was as good as one finds even in Italy, and the peach (Italian, so says the once again very detailed menu...) intense - this was yellow, while the Koffmann's one was white. It is definitely not your classic Peach Melba, but still a very good ending to a very good meal. The presentation is perhaps more bistro that fine dining (compare it with the one at Koffmann's bistro, but that's OK.

The service has some key members from the Michelin starred Leith operation, so you get the benefit of a level of service far superior to what you'd expect in a bistro (the other waiters, very nice but displaying inexperience to various extent, looked in fact like they do greatly benefit from their more experienced colleagues - one lovely young lady was literally trembling when taking the dishes away: sweet but painful to watch). A special mention for the manager Steven Spear, a Wishart faithful, whose bright and easy charm (and voice!) cannot fail to strike the customer.


As you can see, we had six good choices out of six, and indeed we have the feeling that we could have chosen anything from the menu and been equally satisfied. This is a very polished operation. Remember, it's a bistro, so don't go expecting the intricate dishes of Martin Wishart that probably take six days to prepare, and you won't be disappointed. The one negative aspect is a certain sense of lack of generosity (no amuse bouche, very little bread, no petit fours, expensive coffee - which we did not have, very little vegetables in most dishes so you need to order side ones), a rather enthusiastic pricing (we spent £111, of which £38 drinks, before a tip - for £120 or so you can fine-dine elsewhere not too far), right on the borderline of what we would consider excessive, bearing in mind what is in the plate, the lack of extras and the basic mise en place. On the other hand they have set lunches on weekdays that look a steal. If you can, you should perhaps focus on those.


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Craig Millar @ 16 West End (St Monans, Fife): beauty, but flavours?

Sometimes good conversation at a restaurant distracts from the pure enjoyment of sublime food. Other times, food needs just that bit of distraction, as, while pleasant enough, it would not be able to stand too severe a critical analysis.


The latter is how we felt while eating with friends at the reincarnation of the old Seafood restaurant in St Monans (the sister restaurant in St Andrews still stands). Reincarnation mainly in name, as the chef, Craig Millar, is the same, and so is the style of cuisine.


The short seafood based menu is appealing. The dishes look good and are well presented, some exceptionally so.


At the taste test, however, the experience was mixed. The gazpacho amouse bouche that kicked off proceedings was delicious (and softer on the palate, as often in the UK, than a 'real' Spanish one); however an intense Thai mussel broth



featured less than ideally plump mussels, and verged on the over-seasoned.


And a very fresh, perfectly cooked and picture perfect stone bass



failed to reach great heights in terms of flavour - the culprit being perhaps the raw material, which we believe was farmed (we didn't ask), or otherwise had lost intensity along the way in some mysterious fashion.


The cooking, too, slightly wobbled at times; as in a risotto with scallops, well below the threshold of underseasoning (something of which we hardly if ever complain, poor sensitive palates that we are),



where the risotto did not really qualify as a risotto, and the scallops, cut and dispersed over the dish in a valiant effort to look as a larger quantity, were on the overcooked side. The truffle slices were close to inedible. Summer truffles, while never sublime like white Alba, can be seriously good - yet these ones had the characteristic cardboard consistency that makes you wonder what the point is of them in a dish, except for having the word 'truffle' on the menu.


A final pannacotta was acceptable to Man as it was at least as wobbly as the cooking and was accompanied by pleasantly acidic and fruity notes, but Woman is much, much harder to satisfy on that front...



The smiling service offered hints of confusion, pressure (YOU ARE NOT HAVING ANY INTERMEDIATE COURSE?), indifference (no questions on how we liked the food), a bill delivered to us unrequested (while a perfunctory 'take your time' was proffered, the hint that at 10.30pm we had overstayed our welcome was obvious), and a second copy of the bill delivered a second time by a different person! We really had to go...


Despite the faults, we cannot say we ate poorly overall. Craig Millar has talent in our view; just look at how beautiful his dishes are and you can perceive the very serious professional as well as the artistic bent of mind behind them. But at £40 for three courses and £45 for four we felt the meal wasn't really good value given the ordinary quality of the produce (the real downfall of the evening), and the lack of generosity in the portions and in the absence of petit fours (with tea and coffee taken by half of the table).


Go for the great view and for acceptably good and pretty food if you fancy it. But in the next village along the coast, Sangster's offers in our opinion far better value, not to mention the best of them all, The Peat Inn, on which a new report is long overdue.




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Gordon's (Inverkeilor): Always pleasant

Very enjoyable lunch at Gordon' s, on the Scottish coast between Dundee and Aberdeen.


In spite of our driving them crazy with our changes of mind (it's four of us, no it's six, there is a vegetarian, no sorry she has turned carnivorous - and by the way do you mind a baby with a pram...), they accommodated us perfectly in their warm dining room.


We were the only guests for the Sunday lunch (simpler menu at lunch but priced fantastically at £28 for three courses and coffee with petit fours) on a frighteningly rainy Summer day (it can get busier in the evenings so book ahead).


Excellent, excellent raw materials like this hake



cooked very sympathetically (hake can get massacred because of its high moisture and needs some skill), resting on deliciously crispy samphire and joyously presented.


And this salmon,


a miniature of deliciousness.


At the end we had some cheeses whose Scottish names we'll never be able to remember (though we do remember they were in perfect conditions and served at proper temperature). But the star was this Valrohna Chocolate parfait:


with vanilla white chocolate ice cream in which the intensity of the flavours was magnified by the wonderful Morello cherries. The chocolate parfait had actually the velvety consistency of the perfect tiramisu' (just to give you the idea) - a great end to the meal.


Once again, lunch at this charming Husband-Wife-Son operation (Son is the Chef) is one of the best ideas you might have if you are at driving distance (for dinner, the higher prices invite comparison with some tough competition, especially if you look in the Fife direction, and while the quality is high, the foodie in you will become just that much more critical - still warmly recommended, though).


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Ondine, Edinburgh's Seafood Heaven

 (Added October 2012: Some more recent comments are here)

Standing in front of the restaurant, you have the unappealing Missoni hotel restaurant menu just to the right, and a Pizza Express just to the left: it shouldn't be too hard to resist either temptation and instead climb the stairs that lead to the airy, bright, modern room of Ondine, with a display of oysters and its appealing U-shaped bar area in a dominating position, and minimalist but comfortable table setup, the high chair backs a delight for the long Man's back.
Many classics, no longer often seen any more around except in old fashioned venues, are on the menu. A mussle mouclade
that belies the conviction of many Italians that mussles (how plump, tasty, fresh!) don't go with creamy or curried sauces.

And how much more classic can you get than with a Lobster Thermidor^*:
just a shade, but really a shade, overcooked for us, and otherwise extracting murmurs of delight, the fresh herbs not skimped upon providing a pleasant background .

And the same did our Dublin Bay prawns, that came in generous amount and once again top quality, this time with faultless cooking:

It's very simple: if in Edinburgh you are in the mood for seafood, unfussily but competently prepared, served generously, and of top quality, go to Ondine. The service is smooth and the prices are reasonable: £34 for the lobster, same cost as for a mixed crustacean large plate, around £20 for mains such as the Dublin Bay prawns, around £10-12 for starters such as a lovely, ungreasy squid tempura like this

or the mussle dish, or a squid risotto that we want to try next time. Because there will be a next time!

^*Here is how the great man did it (the Sauce creme being a bechamelle with added cream):

Split the lobster in half lengthways, season and gently grill, then remove the flesh from the shell and cut into fairly thick slices on the slant. Place some Sauce Creme finished with a little English mustard in the bottom of the two half shells, replace the slices of lobster neatly on top and coat with the sauce. Glaze lightly in a hot oven or under the salamander. (from Auguste Escoffier "The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery")

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Sangster's, Elie (Fife)

Charming, small, one-man band, are the words that spring to mind: in the kitchen there's only him, Mr Bruce Sangster. We really mean only him - chopping away, prepping away, sizzling away ... a lonely hero at the stove! He finds it more effort to look after the supposed help ('these youngsters are frightened by the long hours') than help himself. The amazing thing is not so much that he manages to run a kitchen alone, but that he does so at Michelin star level! (Coming from a private corporate cooking background no doubt helps with organisational skills).


Bruce is not only well-organised, but also clearly talented: while relatively simple his dishes always have some intriguing component, with sometimes quite daring and original combinations of flavours.

Among the highlights, the above scallops come with a pungent Thai sauce and (like all other produce we had on the evening ) are top quality.

And this Halibut was cooked just right, so different from out recent experience at Gauthier:
The shellfish jus was for licking!

But most of all we were ravished by this salmon, first marinated and then cooked at low temperature,

where the balance of layered flavours and textures was perfect: acidity from the crispy cauliflower, sweetness from the beetroot and the miso (a recurrent oriental theme).

This is a very logical, solid cuisine; everything in the plate has a function. None of those annoying embellishments in minuscule amounts that contribute zero to taste and that are so often encountered in fine dining places nowadays.

More often than not, it's a one-woman band also in the front of house...very charming service, but be prepared for some waits while other tables are being entertained. Your turn will come...

A three course meal, inclusive of two amuse bouches and a pre-dessert sets you back just £40. As the short wine list is also very well priced, you are in for a treat at Sangster's.

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The Peat Inn

The day: Wednesday 27th January, Dinner.

The place: Peat Inn, Fife (Scotland)

The venue: The Peat inn

The food: Modern Scottish French

The drinks: Impressive, well constructed list

When the worst thing you can find to say about a restaurant is that they should have a larger parking lot, it means either that your critical faculties have sclerotised together with your arteries after too much foie gras, or that the place is really good…

In the middle of Fife, among pastures and fields of Brussel sprouts and potatotes, there’s this newly starred Inn led by Chef Geoffrey Smeddle - where you can also stay the night should you have indulged in a whiskey too many and lack the will to deal with the straight-angled turns of the narrow unlit countryside lanes and crossing deers.

You mull the menu sitting comfortably by the fireplace in the ante-room, and nibbling the first greeting from the chef:

Besides olives and nuts, it’s a smoked mackerel mousse on new potato. Amusing and intense.

After that, you are accompanied to one of the three warm, countryside elegant rooms

OK, after the parking lot, let us also say that the bread they serve at the Peat Inn (from a tray) has good intentions and looks, but doesn’t achieve the pinnacles of the art in terms of consistency. Forgiven, as we know we are too fussy about bread.

The amuse bouche proper,

A simple, almost spartan, parsnip and almond veloute’, is a delightful interlude that wants you to forget the canapes and prepares your mouth for what is to come: it serves its purpose exactly and does not aim at exhibiting any cheffy muscle. The scarce seasoning sets the tone, a lack of saltiness which we very much appreciate, and that we find is a feature of chefs with very sensitive palates.

And here we go. Several stunners await us, the best of which, a bisque, we showcase later. This pigeon salad

Warm salad of wood pigeon, apple and fennel, with prune and Armagnac puree

features a pigeon which is still partly alive, as you can see, and deliciously moist and tender, accompanied by a perfectly judged and punchy Armagnac and plum sauce, making a clean, fresh tasting, colourfully presented, cold dish.

We didn’t know that a hare could be cooked so well:

Roast loin and braised shoulder of hare, chestnuts, pancetta, roasted Jerusalem artichoke and sauce salmis.

There’s a double story in this complex dish, the noble, moist, tender, delicate loin, just falling apart, and the humbler, but powerfully flavoured shoulder. There are in fact many stories here, stories for example of multiple textures, not only in the meat but also in the crispy vegetables, and the chestnuts, and the sweet garlic, and more, in a criss cross of flavours. All magnificently carried by the salmis sauce (and by a great technique!), this was a very close contest for our ‘the high’ section below.

The desserts were no less memorable:

Delice of Amedei chocolate with rum’n’raisin icecream.

Really clever: you tuck in, and a perfectly liquid fondant comes out of this cold and perfectly formed chocolate cake: how is that possible? This is also quite a technical accomplishment. It turns out the 'cake' is a very dense mousse, not cooked but put in the mould to set, into which a rhum, cocoa and syrup 'cream' is inserted after opening and then closing a section. How the 'fondant' is not absorbed into the mousse is a mistery. And apart from the admiration for the total precision in this delicate operation, what ultimately counts is that it’s really a ‘delice’: what great chocolate! And what inebriating ice-cream (remember, we are as stern as with the bread on this front…).

Vanilla and almond rice pudding, caramelised pear sorbet and winter fruit compote

The compote is poured at your table from a pot (not the top performance by a waiter on this occasion :)). Nice textures, concentrated flavours supporting each other beautifully, in a kind of refined/rustic combination.

The low (naah, not really)

It was a very relative low, amid such peaks – but having to pick one, we would name one of our mains, the

John Dory, potato galette, pearl onions, savoy cabbage, champagne beurre blanc

It feels strange talking about low with such a magnificently fresh and perfectly cooked fish, with such accomplished condiments and garnishes, and amid multilayered flavours that delighted our palates. The problem for us was that the dish felt a little unbalanced, really too rich, not quite matching either in finesse or in presentation or in light-handedness all the others (your fault for setting such heavenly standards, chef!).

The high

Langoustine bisque, ricotta gnocchi, poached langoustines, and scallop tartare

What to say, when there’s a perfect dish it’s just a perfect dish. Lots of work behind it, many fine judgements, and a final product of total balance and apparent simplicity: the chunky tartared scallops, offering pleasurable chewability, the absolute intensity of the soup, with a hint of lemony and alcoholic sort of sharpness and an airy yet bodily consistency, the milky lusciousness of the ricotta, the freshness of it all, this is a dish of true finesse (for those of you who are curious, the ricotta comes from... Scotland!).

The Service

Truly excellent. Friendly and professional from everybody, with (we believe) wife Katherine's in control. The charming and unassuming head waiter advised us really well on wine, demonstrating a deep knowledge of the extensive and carefully constructed wine list.

The price

With a Loire Cabernet Franc at £30 or so, a coffee and free Scottish water carafe, this three course meal for two (+amuses) cost less than £120 (starters all around £12, mains £20+, desserts £9). A fair price even just considering the quality and quantity of the materials. And there is a set dinner menu at a very enticing £32, plus the 6 course tasting menu at £55. A pity we don't have time to go for lunch, as it is a total bargain at £16 for 3 courses!

Conclusion

That night, the meal conclusion summed up the cuisine style: champagne truffles and orange and honey Madeleines to scream about: few unassuming looking pieces, but the airiness of those madeleins, the flavours!

You know, those places where you eat well but where you don’t quite feel at home? Where you feel the staff is just going through the motions needed to get or maintain their Michelin star(s), but where there is a general sense of coldness, in the dishes and in the room? Well, the Peat Inn is the exact opposite. It’s a restaurant where, as soon as you enter, you feel treated like at home, generously, where calmness reigns and you forget any pressure in the world.

And, even more importantly, where you eat bloody well! At the Peat Inn we’ve always enjoyed refined, technical, studied and meticulous but substantial dishes, founded on great raw materials, a cuisine that it is hard not to like from whichever angle you judge it. The Chef says: ‘the perfect dish for me is one with a lot of work behind it, but which looks simple to the customer’. He succeeds. We love his elegant touches and his restraint. Try it.

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Gordon's

The day: Sunday 24^th January 2010, Lunch.

The place: Inverkeilor by Arbroath, Main Street

The venue: Gordon’s

The food: Modern Scottish French

The drinks: Wallet-friendly list

Lunan Bay is a well-known tourist spot on the Scottish East coast, between Dundee and Aberdeen. As you can see the Main Street of the nearby village of Inverkeilor is buzzing with activity this Sunday afternoon:

Off the deserted street, inside we cannot fail to notice we are the only two customers. But the atmosphere feels immediately warm thanks to Ms. Watson, who takes care of front room in this totally charming husband-wife-son 25 cover operation. Husband and son are jointly at the stove. The previous night was busier, we are told.

We had gone without any particular expectation, just wanting to tread beyond Dundee (which we’d never done) along the coast, to see the Angus region, to sample the famous Arbroath smokie, and – why not? - to try this venue. And we came out happy we had discovered another little gem in Scotland.

The room reminds us, for its warmth, exposed beams, fireplace, of some places in Trentino-Alto Adige.

There’s no amuse bouche, but there’s a really notable home-made bread, our favourite incipit:

Observe the variety: it’s three totally different types, milk bread, focaccia, and walnut. And it’s a basket! And it is not even an Italian restaurant! Lovely.

The bread soon becomes useful to accompany one of our starters,

Roast red pepper soup, plum tomato, balsamic crème fraiche soup

a cheerful, vibrantly coloured, intensely flavoured but light beginning.

If this is taunting, the other starter is a real knock-out

Parfait of Foie Gras and chicken liver with grape chutney and toasted brioche

Now this begins to be serious cooking indeed. The chicken liver, in that proportion, is inspired and really adds a dimension to the foie gras in this cleanly presented dish. Pleasant sweet acidity from the grape chutney, all suffused by an incredibly intense mushroom smell (unadvertised!).

With this dish we begin to fly. A duck will airlift us to heaven – more on that later, but check out this offering from the North sea

Pan-fried fillet of North sea hake with creamed greens, butternut squash and sauce Grenobloise

Cooked superbly by somebody who clearly knows how to treat fish, aptly garnished with capers, as beautifully tiny as intense, sitting on a bed of (for us) slightly too creamy – given the rest of the fats in the dish - but refinedly cut veggies. We are extreme in searching lightness, but to our taste this would have been perfect had it been slightly lighter.

Our meal is pleasantly interspersed by interesting and charming conversation with Ms Watson on the world of food, restaurants and critics. While we talk comes dessert time:

White chocolate and mango iced parfait with pineapple compote and orange crisp

Mango and white chocolate are a very good idea – but once again it’s all a matter of proportions: here the mango is just in the right amount to pierce into that chocolate richness.

On the other side of the table, in the meanwhile…

Cheeses: Strathdon blue, Blackwax Cheddar, Crowdie, Grimbister, Morangie.

What a wonderful assortment of cow milk flavours, redolent of peasant history and tradition. Man enthusiastically gobbled up even the blackwax (no discernible consequences – the Burgundy had finished him off anyway). And the beautiful oatcakes, in a crisper and a softer version. Great.

With our menu are included also coffee and petit four, which we forgot to take a photo of. Pity, as they looked beautiful.

The coffee is good (these guys really do things properly) and the petit impressive: cassis chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, vanilla tablet.

The high: the duck that flew us to heaven

Roast breast and noisette comfit shoulder of Gressingham duck with purple cabbage , white bean cassoulet and Pinot noir jus

Yes the duck was good and perfectly cooked, tender, tasty. Yes the ‘shoulder’ comfit was in a pot of treasure, enclosing the most concentrated flavours, with the rustic bean cassoulet. Yes that braised cabbage in the winey sauce was powerful…. But we were mesmerised by an unadvertised unusual sweet spice and slightly pungent flavour… it’s a vanilla and parsnip cream – fantastic! It lent magic to this multidimensional ensemble.

The low - not really

Hard to say. This is a Michelin star level experience (in our judgement, not Michelin’s), but one shouldn’t expect the paraphernalia of service and cellar and imposing cheese trolley that are often associated with that. It’s more rustic, it preserves a family cooking atmosphere. If you are fine with that, as we were, there are no lows.

The service

Well, Mrs Watson wasn’t put too much under strain on that day, but we imagine that even with a full 25 cover room she’d continue to be the charming host that she was with us.

The price

The three course lunch (plus coffe and petits) is great value at £27. We drank a good Burgundy for a bit over £30. At dinner you get a fuller treatment (though this one was generous enough for us!) for a significantly steeper £44.

Conclusion

Quite an amazing little restaurant, where everything, including the basic conception of the cuisine, is rustic, but with dishes burning with ambition (we like to think from the son, tempered by fatherly wisdom), and showing off accuracy, confidence, integrity, and inspired touches of creativity.

If you want to try something other than the usual suspects in Scotland, this a place where to go.

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