Glasgow City Centre
Cafe Gandolfi, Albion St, Glasgow. Phone: 0141 552 6813
A Glasgow institution amongst the arty set. Furnished with the extraordinary tables and chairs of Tim Steadman and magical stained glass of my friend John Clark. This cool and airy Cafe has brilliant coffee, home baked scones and tea-breads, a terrific range of snacks and sandwiches and, in the evenings, a selection of interesting and exciting dishes – an eclectic mix: pacific-rim meets Paris bistro meets traditional Scotland. The short but very well chosen wine list always has something to delight. One of my favourite casual places for a coffee, a drink, or an early/late meal. £80 for lunch for two, £120 for dinner. Open 7 days ’till late.
Red Onion, 27 West Campbell St, G2 4SQ. Tel: 0141 221 6000
John Quigley is the chef/patron behind this casual, trendy restaurant in the city centre. Quigley is a bit of a ‘celebrity chef’, as after a career in the kitchen’s of London’s west end, he travelled the world as a private chef to rock stars including Bryan Adams, Tina Turner and The Bee Gees. Having settled back in his native Glasgow, Red Onion is open every day for lunch and dinner. Food is contemporary and pretty much globe-trotting as you might expect. A baked goat’s cheese crotin was nicely soft on the inside, served doused in a dressing of toasted almond and balsamic vinaigrette. The French-influenced braised shin of beef was very nicely cooked, falling apart under the threat of a fork, and served with champ potatoes and a rich red wine jus. Pudding was a good effort too, a lemon tart that had been glazed and brulléed on top, served with poached apricots and Greek yoghurt laced with honey. Red Onion is not pitched at fans of refined Michelin-starred cuisine, but a more casual, laid back crowd. Modest prices extend to the well-chosen wine list. Dinner around £60 for three courses. Open every day for lunch and dinner.
Glasgow West End
Cail Bruich, 725 Great Western Rd, G12 8QX. Phone: 0141 334 6265
I have eating at this restaurant close to my home for many years, and watched as the Charalambous family invested huge time, money and talent to create the city’s finest restaurant. Having handed over the role of head chef to Lorna McNee (ex-Andrew Fairlie) in 2020, a Michelin star soon followed. Since then the premises has had a complete and stylish refurbishment and prices have soared. During Covid we had no chance to visit, but returning in late 2023 and it was easy to see why the price rise was justified; the only option at dinner a set menu at £140 per person, the full cost of which must be paid at time of booking. Since then, a £70 lunch menu has been added at weekends which I do think makes sense: £140 a head is (very) special occasion pricing for most people, but the new lunch offer does give an option. Food was immaculately presented, flavoured and cooked. Fabulous Isle of Skye langoustine came with a side dish of a crab and mussel stew topped with Osteira caviar, black pork with apple, new season asparagus and morels, and one of two simple but exqusite desserts was an almond ice cream served with lavender and honey tuilles. Closed Sundays and Mondays, lunch served only on Fridays and Saturdays.
Unalome by Graeme Cheevers, 36 Kelvingrove St, G3 7RZ. Phone: 0141 501 0553
Glaswegian-born chef Graeme Cheevers has an exemplary track record having worked in many top kitchens, including Tom Keller’s 3* Per Se in New York. Unalome is a contemporary space within a traditional sandstone building on the edge of the city’s West End. The open kitchen dominates one side of the room. The welcome here is warm, friendly and unpretentious, and as we sipped on Champagne (Charles Heidsieck Brut NV at £80 per bottle) a procession of fabulous little amuses arrived including fascinating savoury canalé and light-as-a-feather meringues filled with a salmon mousse. We opted for the tasting menu at £110 per person for six courses. A bowl of white crab meat from Loch Fyne came with a seaweed custard – just as it sounds, a soulful and comforting creamy custard but savoury and salty, sparked with little finger limes and truffle. One of the other highlights for me were Orkney scallops, seared to a caramel on the outside but slicing like butter, with peas, a lavender butter sauce and the very clever addition of a transluscent slice of lardo – cured pork fat – which added an extra layer of unexpected texture and richness. Halibut from Gigha was also exceptional and beautifully cooked, an umami-rich Vin Jaune sauce working so well with it. Vying for the best dish of a memorable meal was Kobe wagyu beef, seared, possibly finished in the oven, and served with slices of black truffle on a wonderfully earthy risotto. This told the whole Wagyu story, one melting mouthful after another. Dessert was thankfully light, lemon verbana-glazed seasonal strawberries with a strawberry cream and vanilla ice cream. Coffee came with fudge, paté de fruits and chocolates. What a fabulous addition to Glasgow’s dining scene, and a good wine list too. Four of us drank Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy from Domaine de L’Enclos at £74, the fine Peter Max Pinot from Crystallum at £64, as well as glasses of Château Filhot Sauternes. Closed Mondays & Tuesdays.
Hotel du Vin, One Devonshire Gardens. Phone: 0141 339 2001
The Hotel du Vin in Glasgow’s leafy West End is composed of an entire terrace of beautiful Victorian town houses that have been modernised and refurbished to offer five-star accommodation. The hotel’s restaurant has a chequered history, but almost always bound-up with haute-cuisine. This is the site where Andrew Fairlie of Gleneagles cut his teeth as head chef, and where Gordon Ramsay based his 1* Amaryllis restaurant. Post-Ramsay, there followed an unsettled period before Hotel du Vin moved in in 2006 and launched their bistro. Initial experiences were extremely good, but over the course of several visits I felt the kitchen slightly lost its way. My most recent meal was very good however, with a tasty confit of rabbit given mouthwatering tang with cubes of Sauternes jelly, golden raisin purée and a creamy quenelle of celeriac remoulade. A little in-between course provided another stand-out dish: hot and cold smoked Dunkeld salmon with a lovely, sour apple-sharp cider, which worked terrifically well against the fat of the salmon and the cucumber, apple and crème fraîche accompaniements. A light, but flavour-packed interlude before Châteaubriand, cooked as we’d requested, a heroic portion (which was responsible for us passing-up pudding) but easy to polish off with a thick and unctuous sauce Béarnaise. Around £180 for dinner for two drinking modestly
Number 16, 16 Byres Rd, Glasgow. Phone 0141 339 2544
A tiny place at the bottom of Glasgow’s buzzing Byres Rd, this space has had a chequered but largely very positive history as a restaurant, not least in its current incarnation. No 16 has been a favourite neighbourhood choice for years, but when it changed hands a couple of years ago I felt standards slipped, and I downgraded it from a two thumbs up, to one or maybe one and a half. However, it has now become one of my favourite casual places in the city and always excellent – the food as inventive as it is well cooked. A tasty starter of seared chicken livers came in thick stew of Puy lentils, and was beautifully textured and cooked. My main course was a risotto, liberally folded with roasted sweet pepper, wild garlic and finished with creme fraiche, and parmesan. It was heartwarming stuff, and delicously creamy. A classic pudding to finish – of the sticky toffee variety – was the real thing, rich with dates and fruits, and served with home made ice-cream. The wine list has around 20 reds and whites from £20 to 80 pounds, and all in all, this is one of the nicest casual places in the city at the moment in my opinion. £140 for dinner for two, with a modest bottle. Open daily, but Sunday for lunch only.
Stravaigin, 28 Gibson St, Glasgow G12 8NX. Phone: 0141 334 2665
A little like an Aboriginal ‘Walkabout’, Stravaigin is old Scottish parlance meaning to wander, and a philosophy of travelling and crossing boundaries has always been at the heart of this operation. Stravaigin takes it food seriously, down to establishing its own small holding where many of the restaurant’s herbs and vegetables are grown. My starter was pretty resolutely European, a fricassee of duck livers and rabbit served with a truffled brioche. This was a great dish, the livers soft and buttery in creamy sauce, two perfect morsels of moist rabbit served to the side and the warm brioche perfect for mopping it all up. There was more of an Oriental influence in my main course of duck breast roasted with a Tamari glaze (a turbo-charge soy sauce) and served with a little tower of roasted yam and kimchi. This is bold, confident and original food and far too many places manage none of those. There are some very interesting things in the wine selection of around 80 bins. It is all well-chosen, with names like Domaine A and Jean Marc Brocard in the mix and a good sprinkling of natural wine and more esoteric stuff. Stravaigin is a real survivor in Glasgow’s often quite transient restaurant scene. There’s a reason for that. Open daily for dinner (£110 for two with house wine). Lunch Thursday – Sunday. The upstairs bar serves food daily.
The Ubiquitous Chip, 12 Ashton Lane, Glasgow. Phone: 0141 334 5007
“The Chip” is a venerable linchpin of the Glasgow fine dining scene. At the helm for 40 years, the Clydesdale family sold up to the Greene King pub chain in 2022, but thankfully not a lot has changed as far as I can see. The verdant conservatory courtyard is still my favourite of its many dining spaces, and a great place to enjoy their terrific value Sunday lunch. An appetising little cup of cullen skink (a creamy soup, laden with chunks of smoked fish) sets the tone for a Scottish-flavoured but eclectic menu. My starter – new season carrots braised with cardamom and wrapped in spinach, served on a creamy juniper sauce – was inventive and superbly executed. The loin of herbed free-range pork was served with crunchy wok-fried pak choi, and dessert was a comforting and calorific pavlova crammed with fresh Scottish raspberries. The Chip suffers from a bit of inconsistency, and not all of the eclectic partnerships work, but with its unique atmosphere, comprehensive wine list extensive collection of single malts, it deserves its following. £100 for lunch, £150 for dinner with a modest bottle of wine. Open 7 days.
Ayrshire
Lochgreen Hotel, Monktonhill Road, Troon. Phone: 01292 313 343
The Lochgreen hotel’s restaurant is something of a hidden gem, being part of a country house hotel near to the Ayrshire coast at Troon, that is an extremely popular wedding and function venue. Such a description would normally raise a big warning flag in my mind, as catering for large functions is often the death knell for seriously good food. But Lochgreen’s bright and comfortable fine dining restaurant is tucked away from the wedding action, and is serving excellent 3 AA rosette food, with a very good wine list, overlooking the hotel’s beautifully maintained gardens. The lunch is an absolute bargain at £24.95 at time of writing for three courses plus coffee and petit fours. Little nibbles of crisply-breadcrumbed haggis balls and parmesan biscuits with a goat’s cheese dip were served, and a couple of glasses of house Champagne slipped down a treat at only £7.50 per glass. A little amuse of a cube of cauliflower panacotta on a rich red onion marmalade was delicious too. For my first course I had roast quail, wrapped in bacon and served with braised cabbage. It was juicy and delicious, the delicate flavour of the de-boned quail melding with the salty and smoky bite of the ham. For my main course, a pithivier of lamb was lovely: an elegantly thin case of buttery puff pastry encasing a rich, dense, mound of shredded and lightly spicy lamb shoulder, served with a delicious hot salad of thin slices of new season asparagus, curly kale and broad beans. For dessert, an Early Grey sorbet packed a lot of flavour, served with a little scoop of a lemony verbena ice-cream. We drank glasses of Rioja and a bottle of sparkling water, and as we sat on one of the plump sofas in the lounge for coffee, macaroons and blackcurrant fruit jellies we considered the bill for £85 all in to be a stand-out bargain.
Argyle
Airds Hotel, Port Appin, Argyle. Phone: 01631 730236
** Updated 2024. Having been a regular visitor to Airds over decades, when the hotel was sold in 2021 omens for fine dining looked ominous under the new regime. I returned in spring 2024 having booked several months before, to find that the former fine-dining tasting menu had been dispensed with, and the hotel’s restaurant had been re-branded. The menu now featured burgers, fishcakes and fish and chips, when once it was seared breast of squab pigeon in a wild mushroom sauce, topped with a lobe of foie-gras. Once holder of a Michelin star and three AA rosettes, things have certainly changed. It’s important to say that the cooking is still of very good quality, but in this remote and beautiful location which takes three or four hours to reach from Edinburgh or Glasgow, a menu with very limited ‘fine dining’ options is not worth the journey in my personal opinion. So much so, that over two nights we both chose exactly the same main course – a very good venison wellington – as every other choice was so pedestrian. The only other potential highlight – locally caught langoustine – was unavailable. The wine list is safe, decent, but not exciting. It’s the end of an era for sure.
Isle of Eriska Hotel, Benderloch, Argyll. Phone 01631 720 371
It was a real surprise late in 2016 when it was announced that after 40 years the Buchanan-Smith family had sold Eriska to a Hong Kong-based private investor. Since then there has been considerable investment in what was already a luxurious Relais &; Châteaux property, with more promised. Whilst the dinner service in this country house hotel may be formal, there is a relaxed atmosphere in the chic, contemporary dining room, though for non-residents, prior reservations are essential. Clearly there is a chef here who keeps abreast of culinary innovation, and the kitchen garden supplies herbs and vegetables, whilst local sourcing is taken seriously. Over the course of my two dinners this kitchen rarely put a foot – or even a toe – wrong. Dinner is a table d’hote affair, with three choices at each course. Highlights for me included a brilliant and quite simple dish of grilled fillet of Sea Bass on a cassoulet of mussels, roasted peppers and young leeks. The fish was crisp-skinned, juicy and moist, the mussels plump and full of flavour and the little stew of vegetables deeply flavoured and cooked perfectly. Roasted fillet of aged Scotch beef came with a shallot jam, a simple dish of salsify cooked in red wine and rather up-market Yorkshire pudding. Eriska’s cheese trolley is quite rightly famed, and is one of the best selections (and served in the best condition) that I have seen in Scotland. Around 40 British and French cheeses make up the selection, which can be sampled pre- or post-dessert. Puddings themselves were very good indeed, my favourite probably being a silky ginger and lemongrass panacotta, set against the contrasting texture and flavour of a little walnut cake and honey syrup. A word for the wine list too: holder of the AA notable wine list award, there is a very good choice with whites and reds starting at £20, and a Coravin system meaning there’s a good range of ‘fine wine’ by the glass. Dinner £75 per person. Open every day, dinner only.
Loch Fyne Oyster Bar, Argyle. Phone: 01499 600217
This venerable seafood venue is now a national chain, but this is where it all started. Expanded over the years, this is a large, airy and comfortable restaurant and a retail shop. As well as the oysters (which are truly delicious) a whole range of seafood and fish are the specialities, with their own smoke-house producing wonderful smoked salmon, trout, kippers, etc. The restaurant can be very busy at weekends and holiday periods, and only a limited number of reservations are accepted. My personal favourite dish is the “Bradon Rost” – a plump piece of salmon fillet, roasted in a oak-fired kiln making it tender and flaky inside, smoky and blackened outside. Prices are a bit steep, the wine list is uninspiring, and the non-fish dishes are nothing to write home about. But it’s well worth trying for the seafood (and delicious brown bread and butter). £70 lunch or dinner. Open 7 days a week lunch and dinner
Summer Isles Hotel, Achiltibuie, By Ullapool. Phone: 01854 622282
The Summer Isles kitchen had a Michelin star when presided over by chef Chris Firth-Bernard, but he has since departe. Scallops, lobster, langoustines or crab from the cold offshore waters featured nightly, along with venison and lamb from the hillsides and big brown eggs from the owner’s hens. Delicious breads come straight from the oven, and the 400-strong wine list ran the gamut from southern French and Chilean quaffs, to trophy wines like Pétrus, Romanée-Conti and Screaming Eagle. I need to return to see what changes have happened since my last visit several years ago, but the spectacular location will still be a big draw of course. Dinner from around £60 per person, rooms from £200 per night, bed and breakfast
Dumfriesshire
Knockinaam Lodge, Portpatrick. Phone: 01776 810471
Local boy Tony Pierce took over the helm in the kitchen in 1994 and has held his Michelin star ever since. A large kitchen garden produces much of the restaurant’s herbs and vegetables, and local produce features prominently. Knockinaam offer only a set menu (though dietary requirements can be catered for) and above all else this is precise and very refined cooking with portions that are satisfying without ever being heavy – essential if you are going to dine here on three or four consecutive nights. Flavours are distinctive yet subtle. Really, the kitchen barely put a foot wrong over our three nights. Highlights included a perfect little roast fillet of line-caught sea bass with a potato crust and beurre noisette. The delicacy of the fish was matched by the delicacy of the crust, just adding a faint textural crunch and extra element of buttery flavour. Little soups are served between starter and main, my favourite being a frothy “cappuccino” of pea, pear and mint, where the sweet fleshy bite of little cubes of pear added an unexpected dimension. Local ingredients took centre stage for the main course on both nights, and cannon of Galloway lamb with a shallot puree was wonderful, but then I loved the playful accompaniments to the paupiettes of roast free-range chicken and seasonal green asparagus; a garlic mousse and little garlic beignets. We shared the excellent cheese plate on both evenings before pud: hot passionfruit soufflé with its own sorbet was outstanding, but then a warm and gooey chocolate soufflé pudding with sour cherry ice cream would win many fans too.The lovely thing about staying for a couple of nights in such a place is that the entire wine list opens up for you too: even if you don’t feel like a whole bottle of red to finish that cheese or bottle of dessert wine to accompany dessert, the restaurant will happily hold on to what you do not drink for tomorrow. And the list here is good, with 450 bins running from house wines at £22, to many vintages of top growths. Prices are keen for those looking to splash out towards the top of the list, whilst less mainstream choices still show a genuine wine interest. We enjoyed the Pintas Character from the Douro for £70 amongst others. Fantastic. Dinner is £75 per person.