Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

Owing to its close proximity to popular tourist spots and other scenic locales, The Parklands Hotel in Perth, is a frequent stopover for tourists visiting Scotland. Located close to the South Inch Park, the hotel also has an elegant restaurant, 63 at Parklands, which affords its guests a memorable dining experience offering fine British cuisine in a refined and spacious setting. The restaurant has an intimate ambience with subdued lighting, rich furnishings and an informal atmosphere.

Head Chef Graeme Pallister has created a menu with an intriguing combination of modern and traditional dishes prepared from ingredients sourced from the local countryside. They include starters of sautéed chicken liver salad with whipped goats' cheese and pine nut relish, and Arbroath smokie gratin with creamed leeks and mull cheddar. Mains take in grilled sole fillets with potato puree, lobster and Shetland mussel sauce followed by scrumptious desserts of lime and ginger crème brûlée with sesame tuille and Auld Alliance cheese oatcakes with grapes.

Guests can enjoy their meals in the dining room or alfresco, while enjoying spectacular views of Kinnoull Hill and over the River Tay.

Located in one of the less cluttered parts of Pitlochry, the Inn was taken over by the Thewes family in 2002. In the two years since they have assembled an awesome reputation for achievement, underlined by the accolade of Restaurant of the Year awarded by Les Routiers. Jamie Thewes, the family member most closely associated with the stoves is a great collector of recipes, particularly the more rustic and simple variety that coincide with his philosophy of food minimally handled and devoid of its original character.

The menu changes with the seasons and what the market has to offer. Meat is hung for a month, the family garden produces a wonderful collection of herbs. Locally bred pork fillet with red peppers and sherry sauce is a winner, together with organic salmon served on braised baby gems, bacon and spring onion, finished with a horseradish veloute.

Puddings, all priced at £4, embrace extensive use of dark chocolate and dishes such as a caramelised lemon tart with crème fraiche have a ringing authenticity. Scotland has some wonderful cheeses, and it is good to see Lanark Blue taking pride of place amongst a wide collection from home and abroad. The treat is rounded off with the home-made oatcakes produced by the Thewes, a seemingly never ending family who keep on cropping up in various guises, one of the more pleasurable of which is keeping the wine list up to a high standard. Port-na-craig Inn is definitely one to watch.