23/03/2007

Emma Cowing says the Manor Restaurant at the Cabarfeidh Hotel in Stornaway. Isle of Lewis, is well worth making the trek for. Writing in The Scotsman, she says that although the “hotel it is housed in…is nothing special”, there is “creativity to the food which is refreshingly modern, without becoming pretentious”. A homemade country-style terrine was a “hearty and tasty” starter; the locally-sourced sautéed sea scallops were “cooked to perfection” and a main of lamb noisettes on potato rosti, was also “delicious”.

The Scotsman’s Raymond Travers believes the Big Slope bar, in Kelvingrove Street, Glasgow, is “worthy of its predecessor, Air Organic”. He writes that the “snug bar” mixes “modern and traditional styles” and “an appealingly laid-back atmosphere”. The only downside is “the volume from TV screens”.

La Parmigiana has retained it high standards, according to the Sunday Herald’s Joanna Blythman. It is “a venerable restaurant” that “clearly qualifies for a long-service medal”, writes Blythman, and “while there is certainly something very old school…there is absolutely no sign that it is creaking at the seams or resting on its laurels.” She continues: “the service feels personal, the place seems cared for and intimate…” and the “menu is refreshing both in concept and in presentation.” According to Blythman, the restaurant offers “the best sort of Italian cooking” and “it feels like a treat to eat” there.

Sara Valentin is wooed by See Woo, in Saracen Street, Glasgow. Writing in The Herald she says the restaurant’s nextdoor supermarket has the “wonder factor” and is a “must-do if you're a foodie or if you're simply after good ingredients”. The restaurant is more “like a ballroom”, on the one side a “fascinating kitchen” and on the other “huge tanks filled with lobster and langoustines”. There’s a “massive menu…dominated by fish and seafood dishes”, writes Valentin, and much of it “perfectly cooked”. A visit to the See Woo is a “culinary high as much as it is a cultural experience”, like “a trip into another world” and one Valentin would “like to take again and again”.