Nick's at Port of Menteith — Restaurant in Scotland

Absolutely beautiful setting, lovely staff and fantastic food! My hubby and I cannot rate this gem of a place highly enough! We visited last night for a wee date night and enjoyed the 5 course tasting menu. We got a little bit lost in the dark trying to find the place but when we called the restaurant for directions, the lady who answered the phone was great and stayed on the phone until we knew where we were going and ended the call with 'you have some delicious food awaiting you when you arrive' - she wasn't wrong! A firm favourite for us both was the veloute (which we both could have eaten again if we didn't have another 3 courses to go!). My hubby and I both love cooking and I can see this as being something we will attempt to recreate at home - quite possibly unsuccessfully! Another favourite was the deer.... cooked to perfection as you would expect. The fish course (monkfish) was also very much enjoyed (despite neither of us being huge fish fans!).Every course was beautifully presented. This was further complemented by the warm, romantic and non-pretentious setting - nice low warm lighting, a fire and candle lit tables.... lots of pretty fairy lights decorating the outside area too (we must try that area in the summer!). I only ordered a glass of wine at a time as I wasn't planning on drinking much.... but how wrong was I.... the house white was delicious and upon ordering my 4th glass (don't judge!)... the girl taking my order advised she would just charge us for a bottle as it would work out cheaper.... Nice touch and very unexpected! During dessert, I was surprised to see Nick (the man himself!) come out of the kitchen and work his way round every table in the room to say hello and check everyone enjoyed their meal! I was actually very surprised... I can think of a few celebrity chefs who have restaurants.... but upon visiting them, you wouldn't expect them to actually be there cooking your meal for you then come out to meet everyone! It was a lovely surprise! Both my hubby and I agree it was a night to remember. We will definitely be back and will recommend to others! Keep up the great work Nick...

We almost liked it, sorry Nick.

To clarify, I thought the food was good. Maybe expectations were too high, but something just didn't quite click for me and while I enjoyed the meal, I felt it could have been better.

I had been excited to try the food here for a while, and while flipping through some cookbooks in the foyer I even bumped into the real Nick! The menu in those books looked great, but once inside the menu on the day ended up being a lot of burger and chips, pizza and the like. Overall it was a nice meal, if a little uninspiring.

Negroni, 5/10, normally a punchy aperitif, this was a bit muted.

Prawn cocktail, 8/10, this was actually the best part of the meal for me, nice variety of flavours and textures, the smoked salmon especially was a treat amongst the prawn and salad.

Seafood pasta, 7/10, wife ordered this, she felt the dish showed some skill in bringing the flavours together, but overall it was a bit too oily and salty.

Venison steak and chips, 6/10, I will say the meat was nice and tender, but the peppercorn sauce was a bit salty and the peppercorns themselves felt a bit lacking in punchy flavour. The rocket side salad with parmesan was also too heavy and salty, I think would have worked better with something fruity/citrusy to cut through the grease. The chips were decent chips, but I'll be honest, just weren't quite the vibe I was expecting.

The venue was beautiful, romantic low lighting, nice decor, good stuff. The tables did feel a bit cramped though.

The wait staff were nice, but a little inattentive. Often failing to look around for anyone that might want something (i.e. me, several times). In the end I had to go up to the counter and poke my head in the staff back area to get someone to take our payment. Not exactly the end of the world, but there you go.

Overall, I'm not going to say I was disappointed, but I did...

We went for dinner.

We had starters of Venison meatballs with flatbread and hot smoked trout fishcake with cream sauce. Both were very nice and good hearty portions. The fishcake was as described a cake of fish, where sometimes fishcakes are padded out with a lot of potato, not in this case. Both sauces were very flavoursome.

For mains we had Peppered Medallions of Scotch Venison, whisky, Chanterelle mushroom and peppercorn sauce, Nick’s 10 yard salad and Pierre Koffmann Gold French Fries. The Venison medallions were ecsquisite, melt in your mouth meat and so well cooked, the sauce was very flavoursome, and again plentyof it which i liked, i suggest havingsome extra bread to soak up any reming sauce. Whilst not a lover of salad, it was very good, fresh with a great dressing. Slightly disappointed with the so called "Pierre koffmann gold fries", basically they are just French fries, similar to a well know burger chain, but they were OK.

The mushroom Rigatoni was very flavoursome, with plentiful of mushrooms and cream sauce.

We were offered desserts but the mains and starters were so hearty we couldn't have done them justice. So sadly had to decline, although I saw many others taking part, which made me quite envious. Next time I should have a main and dessert.

The main dining area was nice a cosy with a wood fired pizza oven at its heart, although not used for cooking tonight, providing a lovely warmth to the room, which was needed as there was a bit of a draft especially when the door kept being opened, perhaps a new closure might be required to keep the heat in.

It is easy to recommend to others. Give it a go. I certainly learned a few ideas to take back home to my...