Monthly Archives: September 2010

Gandolfi Fish, Merchant City, Glasgow

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A couple of weeks ago we found ourselves in the Merchant City in need of a quick dinner before meeting up with friends. One of the joys of this area is that you will never struggle to find a decent restaurant, and we felt confident that we could find somewhere which took our fancy simply by wandering about and looking at the menus. After a dropping into a couple of other restaurants who were booked out for pre-theatre meals (Guy’s and Elia Greek Restaurant), we decided to try Gandolfi Fish, which has been recommended to us by a number of our friends.

As we were a little pressed for time and were all decisioned out, we ordered from their fixed price menu, which limits the choices to three or four starters and mains. As this was from a few weeks, ago, and as the menu has changed slightly from when we were there, I’m afraid our descriptions and comments are going to be slightly less detailed than normal!

Both of us started off with the fishcakes, which were good, although two weeks down the line we are struggling to find anything memorable to say about them. This isn’t to say that we didn’t like them, just that they weren’t amazing.



For my main course, I decided on a fillet of sea bass. This was probably our favourite of all the dishes; the bass was cooked perfectly, with the skin nice and crispy just how I like it. By sheer luck, I manage to order wine which complimented the dish perfectly (this is a very rare occurrence!), and it intensified some already strong and interesting flavours.



Briony chose the salmon fillet with salsa verde. As with the fishcakes, this was a good, solid dish which was well cooked, but perhaps lacking that little bit extra to bring it above the other good, solid salmon dishes we have had in other restaurants. The salsa was quite strong, and to some may have been a little overpowering, but I thought it worked well. We also ordered a side portion of chips to share, which were excellent.



To finish, we shared a Gandolfi cranachan, which offered a slight twist on the traditional, de-constructing the dessert into its component parts. As a desserts fiend, this went down very well indeed with me, and gave the old classic a contemporary twist – as much as I hate to admit it I was disappointed to have to share it!



All in all, and despite the relatively sparse commentary above, we enjoyed our time at Gandolfi Fish. The food was of a good standard, the staff excellent, and the decor relaxing (the large windows and good location make people watching that little bit easier!). If we return we would probably order off the a la carte menu for a little more variety, but the experience was good enough to make us consider going there again.


Gandolfi Fish on Urbanspoon

Blue Monday cheese

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I’m an avid Blur fan, and I know Alex James makes cheese, but I never thought to actually investigate what cheese he made, and where I could try it. That was until I was reading the Castle Terrace Restaurant menu before our lunch on Saturday, and discovered a gnocchi dish with Blue Monday cheese sauce. I wondered what this was, and with some speedy googling, discovered it was the cheese made by the Evenlode Partnership consisting of Alex James and Juliet Harbutt. (At this point, the 14-year-old in me reappeared,  squealing with of excitement).

“Complex, creamy with bold cracks and streaks of blue – spicy, steely and sweet”
Upon discovering it was not on the Castle Terrace Restaurant cheese trolley, so began the mission to source my own block. This was a lot easier than I expected as there is a cheese specialist in Glasgow, J.R. Fine Foods who ordered a block in for me. A short wait from Monday (ordering date) to Thursday (collection date) meant that I had plenty of time to be excited, and dream about how delicious the cheese was going to be.
So the day arrived. After an epic drive through parts of Glasgow I’ve never been before, and £8.75 for a 650g block, I had my hands on the cheese.
The cheese is exactly as described on the label, and has the right balance of “blueness” for me. I’m not partial to strong, lingering blue cheese but I love a mild and creamy cheese, and this is just it. It has a real depth of flavour that I’ve not encountered before and I really enjoyed the portion I sampled for lunch. The cheese features the Saltire on the packaging as it is produced in Tain, north of Inverness. I have a whole block to get through though so expect a few more photos of how I’ve used the rest of the block. Recipe suggestions are always welcome!

Castle Terrace Restaurant, Edinburgh

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We’ve been looking forward to trying Castle Terrace Restaurant since it opened in July. As previously mentioned, we are massive fans of the Kitchin and were really excited to try its sister restaurant, conveniently located behind Edinburgh Castle.



We were also celebrating the anniversary of my one-year-of-living-in-Scotland which (to us) was a pretty momentous occasion. This was probably the impetus for us changing our minds from having the set-lunch menu (3 course set menu is £19.50, matched wines an extra £15.00), to maybe a la carte, and then finally settling on the surprise tasting menu. 


We were given these little cookies, grissini sticks and other nibbles while we made up our minds.  An indication of standards to follow, as these were certainly a cut above your usual bread sticks!

Mostly, our decision was inspired by laziness. From our experience of the tasting menu at the Kitchin we knew we would be pleasantly surprised and would discover new favourite foods (e.g. razor clam). This made the decision to go for the tasting menu an easy one, and even were even persuaded to upgrade our mains to grouse. 

By reason of its name, the details of the surprise tasting menu are not listed on the menu, and I really enjoyed being taken on a journey where you had no idea where it was heading (except for the cheese and the grouse of course). 

We drank a bottle of Pinot Gris from André Scherer, Husseren-les-Chateaux which was immediately sweet but had a soft fruity finish, so was never sickly sweet.   

Appetiser: Smoked salmon with cucumber jelly (apologies, I do not have the menu description of this dish!)

Our journey started with this small appetiser, which brought out the food child in us.  It was great fun, dipping the “soldier” into the foam to find the salmon below, and then finishing off with a cucumber jelly which was nice and sweet.  Everything was presented beautifully, and let us know that we were in for a great meal.

Mackerel: Tartare of line caught mackerel from Eyemouth, served with ginger, lemon and apple

One of the joys of a tasting menu, and a good restaurant, is to give you a dish that you wouldn’t consider ordering and then astounding you with how good it tastes.  This was certainly the case with this: the tartare was fantastic, with the miniature crispy croutons adding a contrasting crunch.  The apple sorbet was amazing as well, and really complemented the main dish as a refreshing accompaniment. This dish was really packed with flavour, and this carried on throughout the rest of the meal.

Scallop: Hand-dived Orkney scallop, seared with fennel and orange and served in the shell with black olives

We agree that this was probably the highlight of the meal.  The scallop was cooked to perfection, and the orange flavour was noticeable without being too overpowering.  Luckily we still had some bread to hand, so we were able to get to all of the sauce! This dish is a real testament of the virtues of using local produce – something Castle Terrace and the Kitchin pride themselves on. It is really wonderful to see local scallops being a star attraction in a high end restaurant, and to be presented with such a tasty, fresh piece of seafood. 

 Spelt: Risotto of organic spelt from Doves Farm, served with sautéed Scottish girolles and persillade

As the menu is local and seasonal, there were common themes through the menu and the girolles were the theme I really noticed. I am not a mushroom fan at all but these certainly won me over, and I ate them all.  The risotto was superb, creamy and complimented well by the mushrooms. I really enjoyed the unusual texture of spelt risotto as it was quite different to usual arborio rice as it had more bite and flavour.

 Hake: Fillet of wild North Sea hake, gently poached and served on salt cod brandade with crisp potato

By this point, we were starting to feel a little full, and this was recognised by the waiting staff who allowed us some “extra time” for a break between courses. We were glad we made a bit of room for this, as it was excellent.  The hake was full of flavour, and the skin was crisp without being too chewy. I really enjoyed the texture of the hake as well – it was so delicately poached that it was literally sliding apart on my fork. The branade was a really interesting change from a standard potato mash, and the crispy potato strips felt like a nice accompaniment rather than a flashy afterthought. Being a new convert to the world of olives, my only criticism was that I wanted more of the olive slick!

Grouse: Grouse from Heriot, served with sautéed Perthshire girolles, bread sauce and watercress 

Grouse leg: the leg was served separately as it was cooked for longer
Neither of us had ever tried grouse before, and being only a few weeks into the shooting season, now was the right time to try it (so we were persuaded by our waiter!). The grouse had a supplement of £10.00 per head but it was definitely worth it. It was a rich meat, but not overly gamey and each part of the bird tasted incredibly different. As with all the previous courses, the grouse was accompanied superbly with the girolles making another appearance, fancy potato crisps and light gnocchi.  It was a real delight to try, and to really savour as it was such a unique meal to eat.  
Cheese: A selection of Scottish and French cheese, served from the trollet with a selection of home-made fig bread and oatcakes

This is the stuff my dreams are made of. A whole trolley of cheese! Sadly, it wasn’t all for me, but we selected four cheeses each to try. I had some really lovely blue cheese as well as interesting creamy goats cheese, while Graeme enjoyed some varieties of smoked cheddar and bries. 
Dessert: Millefeuille of Perthshire brambles, served with ginger icecream
Finally, we’d reached the last course. This was the perfect finale as it was refreshing and light, not heavy or overwhelming. The brandy snap and ginger icecream were a lovely contrast to the millefeuille and was generally a very uplifting dessert. 

We had a totally amazing lunch at Castle Terrace and the staff really were excellent throughout. It’s a warming experience to be greeted by every single waiter when you enter a restaurant, and have helpful guidance on hand when you need it. Every question we had about our meals was answered, they were friendly without being stuffy, and the sommelier was incredibly friendly and gave us some much appreciated guidance on the difference between pinot gris and pinot grigio. The tasting menu is £55.00 per head (cheese course is an added supplement) and is a highly recommended journey into some exciting, interesting taste sensations. 


As mentioned earlier, it is great to see Scottish restaurants producing amazing food from local ingredients. Castle Terrace Restaurant really does highlight the extensive variety of seasonal produce in Scotland, and for this reason, it will be a restaurant we look forward to revisiting as the seasons change.

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