Scotland Restaurants / Cafes National
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The Lairhillock Inn (Netherley)
by eilidhcatriona The Lairhillock Inn is located in Netherley, in rural Aberdeenshire near Stonehaven and Portlethen. It is easy to find from either town as it is signposted from the A90, however due to its location public transport is not an option - you'll need to drive or take a taxi. The Lairhillock is a country pub, with a roaring log ... fire in winter, a large conservatory and traditional decor. The adjacent Crynoch Restaurant is highly rated, however I have never been there so this will focus on the Lairhillock itself. "We're going to the Lairhillock" is a sentence which, in my family, means a treat. We like to go out for a nice meal when I go to visit my parents in Aberdeenshire, but usually we go to one of the pubs in Stonehaven. When I was there in November we went to the Creel in Catterline, which was a treat, so when I was told we would go for lunch at the Lairhillock during my recent visit, I was pleasantly surprised. I've been to the Lairhillock on a couple of previous occasions over the years, although my parents have been more often. I remember good food, a warm pub and a lovely open fire. I was really looking forward to our lunch... My first glance at the menu brought a surprise - the prices are really very reasonable, no higher than most pub meals. However my second look brought some disappointment - nothing jumped out at me as looking particularly special. It actually took me a while to decide what to order, and I did feel disappointed that nothing was really making my mouth water. There was plenty on the menu to choose from, including a few fish and vegetarian options for me, lighter meals such as baguettes, and plenty of meat choices. I ended up choosing fish and chips, which was actually from the specials board; given that it is a pub staple, I expect it will be a regular special. My mum went for roast chicken supreme, and my dad for Cajun steak burger. We decided not to have starters. When the meal arrived, my fish looked as if it might be a little on the crunchy side. However a swift prod of the fork revealed it to be nice and tender. The fish was served with what were clearly home made chips and a side salad. The most interesting thing on the plate was the tartare sauce - not only was it homemade, it was served in an edible filo pastry shell! The fish turned out to be delicious, the breadcrumbs not too crunchy, the fish tender but not undercooked, and a generous size without being too much. The chips were also very good, as was the tartare sauce. Once I had finished I tried the filo pastry case, which was nice but a bit too saturated in tartare sauce! My mum was very happy with her chicken, and my dad with his burger - which was a spectacular size, about twice the thickness of a decent supermarket burger. Having polished off my plateful, I was thinking I wouldn't have pudding. But of course we had to look at the dessert menu, and of course I ended up with something...my mum had some kind of fancy apple pie, and I chose mango and passionfruit chessecake, thinking it would have a refreshing fruity flavour without being too heavy. Sadly, there was very little flavour to it - it wasn't unpleasant, but it just had no flavour, which was a real disappointment. The Lairhillock always has a few real ales on offer, and my dad chose to sample Misty Law - and it must have been good as he had another half pint. My mum and I stuck to soft drinks. As I've mentioned already, the decor of the Lairhillock is very traditional - bare stone walls, old farming implements and a mixture of unmatched wooden furniture, yet it all fits in perfectly. This is exactly the kind of country pub I like. The toilets are clean and well supplied, although they could do with some modernising. The service at the Lairhillock is attentive, friendly and efficient, and just the right balance of all three. The staff don't hover over you or pressure you to hurry up and order, but they are always there when you need something. Despite my lack of excitement over the menu and the disappointing cheesecake on this last visit, I still think the Lairhillock is a great place for a tasty meal, whether it's for a special occasion or just because. All in all, I would highly recommend a visit to the Lairhillock Inn if you are in the area - the food is good, the prices are reasonable, and it is a very pleasant environment to enjoy a relaxing meal. Read the complete review |
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The Wee Curry Shop (Glasgow)
by charby This is a review of the Wee Curry Shop on Ashton Lane, not on Byres Road as listed in the Dooyoo description. There are three Wee Curry Shops in Glasgow but adding an extra one to the Dooyoo catalogue seemed a bit pedantic. Don't hesitate to contact me and Dooyoo if you disagree. Since my semester studying at Leipzig ... University doesn't officially start until the 1st of April and my only friend in the city has swanned off back to Paris for a couple of weeks (being a language student certainly has its perks, doesn't it?) I decided to take the opportunity to come back home for a week or two. Being back in the UK, as always, involves visiting my three favourite British cities of Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow and living life to the full while there. As I write this I am currently in Glasgow staying with my boyfriend and to celebrate this fact we went out for lunch today. As he lives in the West End we decided it would be nice to go to a restaurant around the Byres Road/Great Western Road area and so headed to that part of town. After looking at several lunch menus and pondering what type of food we were most in the mood for, we eventually opted to go to the Wee Curry Shop on Ashton Lane as I would never say no to Indian food and had always heard good things about this particular restaurant. Situated above Jinty McGuinty's Bar, the Wee Curry Shop is wee indeed with seating for only thirty or so people. While this is fine for the Wednesday lunchtime when we went, I imagine you'd want to book if you were planning on visiting on a Friday or Saturday night, for example, as it will undoubtedly fill up quickly. The curry shop was about half full when we ventured in and we were invited to choose where we wanted to sit, which we did happily. Upon sitting ourselves down we were brought two menus: a two courses for £8.95 pre-theatre option and their 'new' wee tasters menu, which has a list of ten or so curries which you can order small portions of instead of having a full sized curry. Now tapas style curry menus aren't a new idea (especially in Glasgow) but are nonetheless a great one and so we quickly discarded the pre-theatre menu and decided on a few from the taster menu. This menu can be seen at http://www.weecurryshopglasgow.co.uk/index.php?action=cms.wee_taster_ashton though this differs slightly with the one we were offered and so it is possible that it changes every so often, so I wouldn't read the menu and go along with a definite plan to order a certain one, as you may be disappointed. The boyfriend and I opted for ginger and green chilli haddock, saag paneer, lamb with spinach leaf, dall and pulses, chicken tikka makni, rice and two chapatis between us and since the waiter didn't advise us that this would be too much/too little food, we assumed that this was a reasonable amount to order. When it came out some fifteen to twenty minutes later, we were happy to see that we were right. Despite finding it difficult to fit everything on the table we found that it was the perfect amount of food for a reasonable sized meal out between us, although if you were after more of a light lunch one or two dishes fewer would technically have been enough. Each curry came in a bowl which contained enough for each of us to have a decent amount of each and I imagine that even between three people each dish would have gone fairly far. Of course, it's quality that triumphs over quantity, and fortunately the dishes at The Wee Curry Shop did not disappoint. Each of the curries tasted fresh and well spiced with them all complementing each other well while still being varied in terms of flavour and texture. The lamb with spinach leaf came in a fairly spicy but delicious tomato sauce, with the meat being cooked to tender perfection; the saag paneer was equally tasty with its abundance of spinach and good amount of indian cheese; the haddock was well cooked in a nice but potentially overly spicy sauce; the chicken tikka makni had a subtly buttery sauce which took the edge off the spicier dishes surrounding it; the dall and pulses were pleasant and well cooked though probably my least favourite dish of the group, while the chapatis and rice were as good as any. We definitely felt that we had made a good choice of curries, as we loved them all, though I would assume that the quality would be as high for the rest of the dishes on the taster menu. To drink I had a diet coke and we had a jug of tap water for the table but beer and other beverages were available if we had wanted. The bill was brought to us quickly when we asked for it, and we were delighted to see that for the two of us the total only came to £17.80. While we had only had soft drinks and water I still found this to be a fantastic price for lunch for two people, especially considering the quality of the food and the restaurant's location. All in all it was a fantastic meal and I have no complaints, so you could expect me to give it a five star rating, right? Well, no, as although it was a very enjoyable meal at a very reasonable price I have to say that it's more of a 4/4.5 star restaurant and isn't wholly deserving of the full five. The lack of music in the restaurant meant that it lacked the ambience that I would associate with a locale in the West End of Glasgow or the atmosphere often found in Indian restaurants. The steep steps up to the front door mean that it's not ideal for people with mobility problems or small children. Also, while the food was great, I still couldn't put it into my list of top five curry houses (though it would probably make the top ten at a push) and so I feel that a four star rating is more suitable. It's definitely worth a visit if you live in Glasgow, but I wouldn't travel for miles to go. Read the complete review |
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Yang Sing (Falkirk)
by wigglylittleworm It's a family tradition that on birthdays we go out for a meal with the birthday boy or girl getting to choose the restaurant; last week my nephew was 13 and so it was his turn to choose. Me and my nephew don't exactly have the same kind of tastes where food is concerned, I love trying new types of cuisine while his favourite meal is a ... Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle so I was dreading to see where he would choose especially since he chose to go to KFC a couple of years back. His choice of restaurant was the Yang Sing Chinese buffet in the village of Camelon beside Falkirk, a surprising choice because normally when he goes to a buffet he just eats chips and curry sauce but according to him he also likes the chicken balls from there. I still wasn't particularly looking forward to the meal as the proximity to his dad's family meant that some of them might want to come out too and I would end up having to make conversation with a bunch of halfwits. In the end it was just Granny who came and she was surprisingly well behaved and I only had the urge to slap her once or twice! Yang Sing seems to be fairly centrally located as the surrounding area had loads of shops, there is a free and spacious car park at the side of the restaurant which is council run but had plenty of spaces on a Sunday lunchtime. The restaurant is surprisingly spacious inside but the dozens of tables are really packed together, the next table to use was less than 6 inches away and it was a real squeeze to get to our seats without asking people at the table behind us to pull their chairs in. The overall ambience was a little bit tired and gloomy, it was fairly quiet when we visited (although two little brats at the other side of the room managed to make enough noise to make it seem busier) and it would be a nightmare to visit when it was really busy. The buffet is set up across one side of the room in pretty much the standard format for buffets these days with various hotplates containing a myriad of dishes while a fridge on the other side of the room contained desserts and salad bar items. We had deliberately starved ourselves all morning to make sure we had plenty of room in our bellies for loads of food. Our first visit was for soup, the only offering being chicken noodle. The soup was fairly nice, nothing out of the ordinary but the broth was nice with big chunks of chicken breast and plentiful strands of long noodles. Now onto the second course of the day and the starters. The choice here was nothing out of the ordinary with spare ribs, prawn toast, chicken toast, onion rings, teeny spring rolls, various types of chicken and prawn crackers on offer. The food here tended to be slightly overcooked, not burnt exactly but browner than I would like and the quality was nothing to write home about. The teeny spring rolls seemed to contain no filling, the sesame chicken toast was described by one of my fellow diners as being like toast dipped in grease and the spare ribs were meaty but also very fatty. The one good thing from the starter section was the barbeque sauce which was delicious; apparently the curry sauce was also good too. My sensible niece went to the salad bar and filled up on loads of nice fresh salad veg and king prawns so it is also possible to eat healthily here. Despite feeling rather full now it was time to move onto the main courses. Again there was not a massive selection with curry, sweet and sour chicken, crispy beef, rices, noodles and a couple of veggie dishes on offer. There was also a dish of sausages and some revolting looking cauliflower and broccoli swimming round in water for those who have more western tastes. The crispy beef in sweet chilli sauce was amazing as was the sweet and sour chicken. The fried rice was also really nice, not at all greasy with a nice proportion of egg mixed through it. I also enjoyed the egg foo yung which is unusual to see on a buffet and the mushrooms in some kind of sauce were tasty. Time to move onto desserts now. There was a very limited choice of cakes in the chiller and most of them looked pretty horrible so I plumped for a small slice of chocolate cake and added some whippy ice cream from the machine. I then went up and got a banana and pineapple fritter from the hotplate and they were awful; the batter was thick and stodgy and the pineapple seemed to be totally devoid of all flavour. My sensible niece had some plums and melon so again a healthy option is on offer. The service was pretty poor throughout our meal. We were seated quickly and our initial drinks orders taken and brought out within a couple of minutes but after that it went downhill. It's not as if you need much service in a buffet place but dirty plates were left to pile up and it took ages to get the attention of a waiter to get some water. One waitress in particular (the one wearing track suit bottoms!) was miserable; when she discovered that we had piled empty plates onto the extra table next to us she glowered at us. The toilets were surprisingly nice and modern and clean but when I went to wipe discovered the toilet roll dispenser was empty which I was not happy about. Our Sunday lunches cost £6.99 each and the drinks on top added another £1.50 or so to the bill so eating there won't break the bank. Kids under 14 eat half price and evening meals are £10.50. My nephew enjoyed his meal; he had a couple of plates of chicken balls, chips and curry sauce and loads of chocolate cake with ice cream and was the centre of attention for the day. I wasn't quite so impressed with the gloomy atmosphere and the quality of the food being a bit hit and miss. Yang Sing is not a place I would eat out at again in a hurry as it is definitely at the lower end of the quality scale when it comes to Chinese buffets but if you have a fussy child to feed then they might be happy there. Read the complete review |
Scotland Restaurant / Cafe National |
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Address: 3 Bath Place / Restaurant / Cafe National / Moffat / Dumfriesshire / Scotland / DG10 9HJ |
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Address: 13 West Richmond Street / Restaurant / Cafe National / Edinburgh / EH8 9EF / Tel: 0131 667 8263 |
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Address: 14-17 Bridge Street / Restaurant / Cafe National / Inverness / Scotland |
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1 review Address: 73 Broughton St / Restaurant / Cafe National / Edinburgh / Scotland / EH1 3RJ / Phone 0131 557 6900 |
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Isle of North Uist / Restaurant / Cafe National / Scotland / HS6 5EP / Tel: Tel: 01876 580390 |
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3 reviews VIETNAMESE / Restaurant / Cafe National / ASIAN. 29a Crown Terrace Aberdeen, Grampian, Scotland AB11 6HD. Tel: +44 (0)1224 213 212. |
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2 reviews Address: Perth Road / Restaurant / Cafe National / Newtonmore / Inverness-shire / PH20-1BB / Scotland / Tel:01540 673 702 |
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Address: 14 George Street / Restaurant / Cafe National / Edinburgh / EH2 2PF / Scotland / Tel: 0131 624 8624 |
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Type: Chinese & Eastern / Restaurant / Cafe National / Address: 19-25 New Row / Dunfermline / KY12 7EA / Scotland / Tel: 01383 842400 |
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1 review Type: Indian Cuisine / Restaurant / Cafe National / Address: 3-5 Infirmary Street / Edinburgh EH1 1LT / Scotland / Tel: 0131 524 980 |
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