Eighty Eight — Restaurant in Scotland

Upon entering the restaurant my girlfriend and I were delighted to be greeted by the chef, whose workspace is ideally located by the front window, providing fantastic views into the prep area. We were seated promptly, and quickly allowed to peruse the menu. We chose the 2020 Melon Blanc white, which was lovely. Our first two dishes were the freedom sourdough bread and goats cheese custard (which I must say was one of our favourites!) and the boquerones. They both were light but delicious. Then came the aubergine. While this was probably our least favourite of all 5 dishes we ordered, it was nonetheless beautifully presented and was a refreshing pallet cleanser in-between our more expensive dishes. After enjoying these, we were presented with the wild mushroom Parisian gnocchi, which we both absolutely loved. The gnocchi was crispy on the outside, but light and fluffy on the inside. The mushrooms were perfectly cooked and tender, and the basil infused sauce/oil dressing added a perfect herby touch. Finally, we set our eyes on the tenderstem broccoli tagliatelle. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the sauce was beautifully rich, with a slight kick. We could not help ourselves but to order dessert, which was the caramelised white chocolate and miso mousse with banana bread. In the words of my girlfriend 'that was one of the most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth.' The mousse was light and fluffy, and every so rich. Overall, we had a lovely experience, our waitress was helpful and tentative to our needs, and we just loved being able to see and hear the kitchen as our food was being prepared.

We will definitely be coming back again for our anniversary...

My wife and I went here a couple weeks ago and had a very mixed experience. The food, it must be said, was great. At least, until the dessert.

We ordered something that was described as a "parfait" only to receive a solid, frozen brick of something like ice cream in return. I waved our waitress over. "Could this be right?" I said. We didn't have knives, only spoons, which was laughable because even a knife wouldn't have cut this thing. It was like it'd been sculpted out of ice. "Yes, just give it a minute and it'll soften up," she said. Ok then. 10 minutes later, we were still plying at it with our spoons like Michelangelo going at David. When the waitress came back with the bill, I said, unprompted, that while the main dishes had been very good, the dessert had not been. "Sorry to hear that," she said, "I'll pass that along." Pass that along? I'm not sure what I'd been expecting to hear, but that the information would simply be "passed along" was not it.

Additionally, it very much bothers me at restaurants like this one when a tip is automatically included. What am I tipping for, exactly? In the US, servers make $2 an hour. I'm sure it's not the same here. Given the service I'd just received, I was particularly flummoxed. All in all, a real shame given that the main dishes we'd had were...

Service was good. The food itself was dire and of low quality. There was a truffle croquette that was well presented and tasted good. The goats cheese & jam was rancid, mushroom risotto was disgusting and dressed with mushrooms still drench in vinegar. Tagliatelle was awful with a cheap tasting cheese sauce straight from a jar. The venison was good. There neeps & harrisa dish was undercooked and the chillis raw and bitter. The broccoli dish was, just broccoli. Not a good experience, the chefs were young lads experienced in presentation and that was that! The major issue with this place is that they use one base sauce for everything and added tinned mushroom soup for example in to the risotto rice. No finesse, no insight whatsoever. Get a grip, learn from french cuisine, stop your fusions as you don’t have a clue what you’re doing. The goats cheese would’ve been better served with fine garlic slices, chopped chives & browned in salted butter. The dish would’ve been delicious then. Learn to cook, what an...