Queensferry, Edinburgh 0870 423 4293 Style: Chic bistro Food: Scots/international Price: £25-£35 for three courses Wheelchair access: Yes The bonus of eating in a hotel restaurant is that you get all that holiday buzz thrown in for free; plus the fun of eavesdropping on exotic fellow diners to determine their first impressions of your "patch". I'm in the bar of the uber-trendy Dakota Forthbridge, so the natives are a sophisticated bunch; mostly English and seemingly delighted with their choice of weekend break. And so they should be.
They've not only landed in one of the two most exciting new-build hotels in Scotland for decades (the other is Dakota Eurocentral, 10 minutes from Glasgow on the M8); but they're drinking delicious cocktails (if theirs are anything like my exquisite Mandarin Cosmopolitan, £6) and about to get a good feed. A really good feed. All in surroundings so stylish, that you begin to wonder if you measure up. The furniture, the lighting, the sculptures, it's just so ... right.
Ken McCulloch, of Malmaison legend, is the man behind all three of these big, black, glass-box hotels (the third is in Nottingham), and it is Mrs M (Amanda Rosa) who is responsible for the design. It's tempting to go on about her decor (and we did over dinner, believe me - three women out for the night, with no men to rein us in). But let's get on with the food and those who are consuming it.
The musician hotfooted it in from Edinburgh by train, using her superior local knowledge. But the walk from the station was slightly longer than she had calculated and now she's starving. The future business magnate has dumped her chic black Merc in the car park and her chic self at a spacious round table to which I am being beckoned. I'm floating from two cocktails and now have the task of wrestling with the A3-size menu, which looks interesting. Dishes that set the place apart? Steak tartare, massive seafood platters, lots of fish it's all very French, apart from the welcome Brit staples of Omelette Arnold Bennett and calves liver with bacon.
Starters - a dozen to choose from - range from £5.50 (fish and shellfish soup) to £9 for six Loch Fyne oysters. Mains range from £10.50 to £28 for grilled lobster or conversation-stopping seafood platters (£19.50 for one, £39 for two).
The menu, put together by group head chef Roy Brett, is particularly well thought through. The seared tuna salad - my choice of starter - comes with a Vietnamese dressing whose sweetness cossets and caresses the delicate slices of fish, complementing every subtlety of their flavour. The dressed Eyemouth crab - the musician's choice - is made memorable by its accompanying walnut toast. (Beware, carbo-phobes, the bread here is uniformly delicious.) The fish soup comes with the rouille and parmesan that it always deserves but so rarely gets. And the liver and bacon? Creamed potatoes, of course. It's a busy Friday night but all is ordered, produced and eaten, in record time, thank you very much.
On to the mains: the musician is not long back from Paris and has a pile of raw mince in front of her, topped by a raw egg in its shell. This is steak tartare, a classic French dish, rarely seen on Scots menus, and she tucks in with relish. Magnate likes her fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce. I try a bit for research purposes, and agree (but Chinaski's in Glasgow remains my favourite). I'm carving into a full-flavoured, aged rib-eye steak, cooked just as I ordered and benefiting from the flavour of the accompanying anchovy butter melting over the top. My side dish of buttered spinach (£2.50) is good and the leaf salad (£2.50) when it eventually arrives is plain lettuce leaves in a heap but, despite appearances, tastes freshly picked and is beautifully dressed.
We're drinking a fine Barbera d'Alba barolo (£24.95), meaty enough to stand up to my steak and powerful enough to help us all put a hard week's work to bed. Around us, the tourists excitedly plan their days out in Fife and Edinburgh. It's an energising atmosphere; full of the hum of contented diners being efficiently served.
This is a classic bistro with enough USPs to make it worth the schlep out there. Though not cheap, for well-sourced, quality produce, it's fair value for money.
They've not only landed in one of the two most exciting new-build hotels in Scotland for decades (the other is Dakota Eurocentral, 10 minutes from Glasgow on the M8); but they're drinking delicious cocktails (if theirs are anything like my exquisite Mandarin Cosmopolitan, £6) and about to get a good feed. A really good feed. All in surroundings so stylish, that you begin to wonder if you measure up. The furniture, the lighting, the sculptures, it's just so ... right.
Ken McCulloch, of Malmaison legend, is the man behind all three of these big, black, glass-box hotels (the third is in Nottingham), and it is Mrs M (Amanda Rosa) who is responsible for the design. It's tempting to go on about her decor (and we did over dinner, believe me - three women out for the night, with no men to rein us in). But let's get on with the food and those who are consuming it.
The musician hotfooted it in from Edinburgh by train, using her superior local knowledge. But the walk from the station was slightly longer than she had calculated and now she's starving. The future business magnate has dumped her chic black Merc in the car park and her chic self at a spacious round table to which I am being beckoned. I'm floating from two cocktails and now have the task of wrestling with the A3-size menu, which looks interesting. Dishes that set the place apart? Steak tartare, massive seafood platters, lots of fish it's all very French, apart from the welcome Brit staples of Omelette Arnold Bennett and calves liver with bacon.
Starters - a dozen to choose from - range from £5.50 (fish and shellfish soup) to £9 for six Loch Fyne oysters. Mains range from £10.50 to £28 for grilled lobster or conversation-stopping seafood platters (£19.50 for one, £39 for two).
The menu, put together by group head chef Roy Brett, is particularly well thought through. The seared tuna salad - my choice of starter - comes with a Vietnamese dressing whose sweetness cossets and caresses the delicate slices of fish, complementing every subtlety of their flavour. The dressed Eyemouth crab - the musician's choice - is made memorable by its accompanying walnut toast. (Beware, carbo-phobes, the bread here is uniformly delicious.) The fish soup comes with the rouille and parmesan that it always deserves but so rarely gets. And the liver and bacon? Creamed potatoes, of course. It's a busy Friday night but all is ordered, produced and eaten, in record time, thank you very much.
On to the mains: the musician is not long back from Paris and has a pile of raw mince in front of her, topped by a raw egg in its shell. This is steak tartare, a classic French dish, rarely seen on Scots menus, and she tucks in with relish. Magnate likes her fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce. I try a bit for research purposes, and agree (but Chinaski's in Glasgow remains my favourite). I'm carving into a full-flavoured, aged rib-eye steak, cooked just as I ordered and benefiting from the flavour of the accompanying anchovy butter melting over the top. My side dish of buttered spinach (£2.50) is good and the leaf salad (£2.50) when it eventually arrives is plain lettuce leaves in a heap but, despite appearances, tastes freshly picked and is beautifully dressed.
We're drinking a fine Barbera d'Alba barolo (£24.95), meaty enough to stand up to my steak and powerful enough to help us all put a hard week's work to bed. Around us, the tourists excitedly plan their days out in Fife and Edinburgh. It's an energising atmosphere; full of the hum of contented diners being efficiently served.
This is a classic bistro with enough USPs to make it worth the schlep out there. Though not cheap, for well-sourced, quality produce, it's fair value for money.
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