an dárna — Restaurant in Scotland

Absolutely delightful tasting menu that we expected to be good, but still managed to exceed our expectations!

We went here as a group of 4 to try out this highly recommended place and I can honestly say it lives up to the hype. As I understand it normally there's a set tasting menu on a 5 week rotation, but we came at just the right time where they're doing a 'best of 2023' menu so we had 5 courses, each being a choice of 3 dishes; 2 meat and one veg.

I won't go into minute detail, since by the time anyone reading this actually goes they won't even be on the menu anymore - but just know that every dish was excellently prepared, thoughtful, delicious, fancy without being pretentious and served at a decent tempo.

My favourite: Oyster (1 of 5). Served fresh with a sort of 'side salad' which was these little cucumber balls in a tasty sauce, some flavourful ice shavings on top and then a little tangle of fragrant leaf/stems (I forget what they were exactly) and then a squid ink twirl (crunchy, like a biscuit) on top. Overall it was wonderfully fresh and light, and the perfect start to the meal.

Wife's favourite: Duck (4 of 5). The meat was tender, the taste was fresh and light. Well balanced, the lavender vinegar complimented the rich duck meat harmoniously.

There were the odd mis-steps, but nothing that threw off an entire dish. For example the polenta was a little heavy-handed, the outside too tough/chewy; the pork was tasty, but I felt it would have been tastier if it was served hotter; the banana flavour was completely lost in the mix of caramel and cream dessert. However all of these things were extremely minor, this is more notes for the chef and honest feedback.

The service was great, knowledgeable and friendly staff explained every dish, answered questions (and there were many, because my parents are a bit extra...) supremely patiently and I felt most importantly the service didn't feel rushed. It gave the meal a feeling of culinary exploration that we were given the time to properly absorb.

And finally, the thing that seals the 5 star rating from me, and the thing that all my ratings are relative to: the price. For a meal of that quality, with that many courses, to only come in at £40 per head is incredible value. Yes, they could probably bump that up and get away with it, but would my review be quite as glowing or would I be planning a second visit if they...

We went to dine in on Thursday 23/2/23. The restaurant is conveniently placed in a busy and lively street full of light and colours and there is a parking lot in walking distance from the place.

An Dàrna immediately catches your eye from outside, and once you go in, you can see it is a comfortable, full-of-atmosphere small restaurant. It features an open kitchen where you can see the talented chef at work on his dishes. The owner welcomed us and showed us what he did with the place.

The dining area is small but very comfortable. There are lovely booths on one side, table and couches on the other side. The dining area is lovely and we'll decorated and you can see lovely details in everything, even the salt and pepper dispensers.

In An Dàrna you have a fixed menu (but changing every 5 weeks!!!) with 5 courses. Each course presents 3 options: vegan, fish and meat. The last course is a dessert.

Me and my fiancé chose our combinations based on our taste and ended up having not one dish in common! The amount of customisation makes it so you may have variety between your friends. The owner, Iain, is a gracious host and gives great suggestions on the wines, and chats you up while you wait (and the wait is minimal) between one course and the next.

We were served this delicious home-baked bread with flavoured butter. Both were so good! The dishes themselves are a work of art. We are Italians and very skittish with food. The quality of the ingredients is top. The presentation is amazing. I still remember my beef cheek: it melts in your mouth! Or my chicken thigh with that retro-taste of peanut butter. Divine!

Between each course, the owner or the chef himself would come to describe the dishes and all the ingredients in it. Every guest that went home before us, complimented the chef and the owner, and with good reason!

I cannot recommend An Dàrna enough! I am definitely coming back in a couple of weeks to check out...

Nice concept, poorly executed. Think chain resturant trying to pull off a tasting menu. Untrained and unknowledgeable staff. Poor greeting, poor explanation of concept by server. Food was mediocre but service was worse. Upon seating my wife and I were to be dining with another couple. We advised the waitress that we wanted separate checks as we had different drinking and eating habits and did not want the bill split in half. She said totally no problem. Went through the dinner having to flag down a waitress whenever I needed a drink, they never checked on us. As the food was delivered we asked for a copy of the menu so we knew what was arriving. They said no we don't have enough but we could take a picture. Fine. After an underwhelming display of what looked like microwave tapas we were ready for the check. We flagged the waitress who finally comes by and informs us that UNFORTUNATELY we cannot do two checks because of the way they do their till. We said it was unacceptable, then the manager comes by and tells us the same thing, to which we advise him that it is unacceptable. He then says he can do it but we need to come down to the counter and go line item by line item and he will generate the bills, with attitude and great reluctance. Finally we gave up, just paid the split bill and left. We are people who spend money on good food. To push us away because you can't create two separate checks is amateurish and unprofessional. Low manks to the manager and staff and I will make sure to advise everyone I know internationally that this resturant is not...