Restaurants
Award-winning chip shops serving fresh lobster and crab, exotic world cuisine and some of the world’s best Michelin-rated restaurants, dining out in Scotland is easy, enjoyable and very reasonably priced.
Dining out in Scotland
When it comes to dining out in Scotland, you’re spoilt for choice. From Lebanese to Sudanese and Vietnamese, Scottish restaurants serve world-class cuisine from all over the globe.
Bookings are usually required for dinning out at the weekend, especially for large groups
Scottish restaurants will have either an a la carte or a pre theatre menu – where there’s a set price for 2/3 courses before 7pm in the evening.
Increasingly, many licensed cafes offer Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) promotions that let you, for a small fee, bring your own bottle of wine or beer to enjoy with your meal.
eatScotland
When dining in Scotland’s restaurants look out for the eatScotland stickers and advertisements. EatScotland has two main objectives. Firstly it helps the residents and visitors to Scotland find great places to eat, not just the well-established places but also the many unsung and sometimes relatively undiscovered places within Scotland that are providing good food, but who may not have managed to get into the glossy printed guides.
The second aim is to raise the profile of Scottish food as an important part of tourism, giving credit to those who are achieving high standards and encouraging others to aspire to that standard. Good examples in the industry, no matter what type of business, will be acknowledged for their achievements.
An award-winning chip shop
Scotland has a number of very popular fish and chips shops, or chippies, throughout the country. But it’s in the small fishing town of Anstruther, on the east coast of the country, where you’ll find the freshest and most delicious fish suppers.
The award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar serves locally sourced lobster and crab, along with traditional fish and chip shop favourites like haddock, cod and plaice. You can either choose to sit in the restaurant next door to have your meal or to eat your fish and chips in a handy cardboard take away box on the harbour side.
Scotland’s Michelin Stars
The Michelin company has been anonymously reviewing restaurants since 1926.
A staggering sixteen restaurants in Scotland have Michelin star status. Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles was awarded two-Michelin stars in 2010.
The Michelin star is the hallmark of fine dining and takes into account food quality, service, mastery and cooking techniques of restaurants across Europe.
Whether they’re traditional or more contemporary, Scotland’s best restaurants will usually specialise in game, venison and beef dishes and of course, Scottish seafood.
The prices for Scotland’s top restaurants are reasonable and, provided that you book ahead of time, very accessible.
More on the award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar
More on Andrew Fairlie @ Gleneagles
More on Scottish restaurants from eatScotland