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Urquhart’s restaurant in Inverness

After going on a long roadtrip over the weekend, just before turning our car back towards Glasgow, we visited Inverness. We hoped to eat at a traditional Scottish place and ended up in Urquhart’s Restaurant, a reasonably sized establishment in the second floor.

The restaurant’s decoration was very simple and dark. The purple wall and dark chairs and tables created a very dinner-like atmosphere even though we were visiting at lunchtime. The service was friendly and we got seated next to a window. The restaurant was quiet and comfortable.

After thinking for a while, I ended up getting the mushroom, leek and blue cheese risotto. This opinion might be influenced by the fact that I was very hungry after a long weekend of travelling, but the risotto was definitely one of the best I’ve had in Scotland. The flavours balanced each other perfectly. However, the portion size was enormous so it was impossible to finish, which was a shame.

In conclusion, this is a restaurant I would definitely recommend. The prices were reasonable and the dining space was fairly comfortable, even though the restaurant didn’t have the best decor I’ve ever seen. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed myself and left this restaurant very happy and satisfied.

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Fat Lizard in Espoo, Finland

For my third entry in the world dining -series I’m writing about a restaurant in Finland. The restaurant is called Fat Lizard and it’s famous for something interesting: it serves crickets!

The restaurant space is huge and open, and in a building of its own. The decor is very modern and Nordic with lots of light wood, stone and black. Fat Lizard is not only a restaurant, it’s a brewery as well, and at night the restaurant turns into a bar where the local university students spend time drinking and talking.

The service was very friendly and after thinking for a while, I ended up ordering a vegan pizza with olives, mushrooms, basil and vegan cheese. The restaurant is famous for its sour dough pizza bases and for a good reason – the pizza was one of the best I’ve had in Finland. The base was thin and the dough was airy and tasty. The fillings were fresh and tasty. My only problem with this dish was the vegan cheese – Finland has multiple good vegan cheese brands, but this one left a strange taste in my mouth. That’s just a preference though.

The most interesting thing, however, were the crickets. The mental barrier was unexpected and I ended up staring at them suspiciously for a long time – insects in food are not that big of a deal nowadays, but for someone who’s never even thought about eating insects before the thought of doing just that was slightly nauseating. The crickets were deep-fried and served with peanuts and spices and after a lot of mental preparation, I managed to taste them. And, to my surprise, they were good! The taste of the cricket itself is very bland, but the cruncy texture was definitely not bad and the spices worked very well.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you ever visit Finland. The environment was really nice and the food was good. Unfortunately I can’t say anything about the price, since I didn’t pay – but I imagine visiting it at least once would definitely be worth it.

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Moomin House Cafe in Tokyo

The Moomin House Cafe is a very well thought out character cafe in Tokyo. Everything from the decorations to the food and even the outfits of the staff portray the Moomin franchise. I personally don’t really care for Moomins, but my girlfriend really wanted to visit it, so we did. This post is one of the world dining -series, so I will write it as a guide, just in case someone reading this wants to visit the cafe.

The cafe itself is located near the Tokyo Sky Tree tower. It’s almost hidden under the railway station – it’s easy to miss the signs guiding visitors to it. At the entrance there is a gift shop, where people can buy souvenirs and other merchandise relating to the Moomin franchise. To get a table you almost always have to wait for a while, since it’s very popular. When you’re inside, you write your name to make a reservation and get a time estimate. While you’re waiting, you can shop in the store or explore the surrounding area.

After waiting and shopping in the tiny store, your name gets called and they escort you to your table. The decoration was very well thought out: it was very faithful to the source material without feeling too theme park-ish – it felt like a summer cottage in Finland.

The menu consisted of fusion food between nordic-western and japanese food. I chose the Hattifattener shaped beef curry, since everything on the list was themed.

The portion size was good and the food itself was surprisingly tasty. The tiny details, like the moomin shaped pasta in the salad, were adorable and I would definitely recommend this place to someone with children. (We noticed some other small and interesting things as well, for example the recommended dishes on the menu had “good” written in Finnish, because the creator Tove Jansson was a Finnish Swede.)

The menu had also some Finnish beers and drinks like sima, so as a native Finnish person it was fun to see something like that so far away from home. I would recommend the cafe as an experience, but the prices were pretty high so it wouldn’t be something I would choose regularly.

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Ramen Dayo in Glasgow

Ramen Dayo is hidden in the plain view in city center – when you leave the Argyle Street Primark from the back set of doors, you find this restaurant right in front of you.

As you step in, you might notice the interesting atmosphere. The restaurant is long and very dark, and it feels like you’ve been transported into a small alley somewhere in Tokyo. There are Japanese posters on the walls and a little wooden cart immediately to the left as you step in tells you that this place wants to serve you street food in the comfort of a restaurant table.

I’ve been to Ramen Dayo a couple of times already, and it’s almost always full. It’s not a surprise, since the servers are very friendly and make you feel like you’re visiting a friend.

The food is very good as well. Ramen dayo doesn’t have a long menu: it’s a ramen restaurant, so it serves a few types of Japanese ramen noodle soup. In addition it serves sides such as dumplings, but I have never tried them.

I’ve been to Ramen Dayo multiple times and I definitely recommend it to everyone who’s willing to try something new in Glasgow. A word of advice though – avoid lunch time, since you will have to wait for a table.

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Finnair airplane meal

Here’s something different – I’ve talked about restaurants in Glasgow and in Scotland, but since I travel a lot, I decided to write a few posts about food I have eaten on my travels. This first post of the world eating -series is about airplane meals in a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Tokyo.

If you’ve ever flown with Finnair, you might know that they take pride in the travel comfort, especially in longer flights to Asia. (This post is not sponsored, by the way.) This flight was no different – two free meals and free wine to make the 10-hour flight go by faster. But how was the food?

Many travelers have said this before, but food really does taste different in an airplane. I chose the vegetarian option.

The vegetarian dinner included:

– Spicy chickpea sauce, aubergine and a lentil baked dish

– A salad with red cabbage and peanuts

– Hummus and bread

– Blueberry bun

– Free drink (white wine)

The vegetarian breakfast included:

– Blueberry soy yogurt

– Vegetable pie (with vegetables)

– Hummus and bread

– Chocolate muffin

– Orange juice

Out of these two meals, my favourite has to be the breakfast. As far as ariplane food goes, there is nothing wrong with the dinner either. There was a surprisingly good variety of different tastes, since food in airplanes usually tastes very bland. This is understandable, since it has to be prepackaged, kept in a small space for a long time and prepared for dozens of people at the same time.

That being said, I found the dinner’s main dish slightly uninspiring. The only taste I could recognise was the spiciness and the texture was very boring. The food wasn’t dry, but it felt like it – some kind of sauce was missing. The hummus and the salad, however, were very simple and good. The blueberry bun was very basic and slightly dry. It tasted very factory-made.

The breakfast would have been delightful, if not for the pie. It was tasteless and made from frozen vegetable cubes. There was some texture though, which makes the situation slightly better. The hummus was still good, as well as the yogurt and the muffin.

All in all, as far as airplane food goes, I would recommend Finnair. It’s nothing special, sure, but it does its job and the generous portion sizes keep a traveller full for the whole flight. And in the end, that’s all that matters for airplane food.

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Waterstones in Glasgow City Centre

The large bookstore in Glasgow city centre, Waterstones, has a cafe and a bar in addition to multiple floors full of books. A search for the perfect studying place lead me there during one very cold afternoon – and I will definitely be returning.

The atmosphere of the cafe is very cozy. Someone’s playing piano in the corner and the people are conversing quietly. The tables are surrounded by warm and soft light and time seems to be standing still – the perfect environment to have a peaceful cup of tea.

With my tea, I ended up ordering a chicken, bacon & avocado sandwich. The presentation of the sandwich was quite nice, although I would rather eat from a plate than from a cutting board.

The taste of the sandwich was honestly quite bland and boring. It did its job, but the only thing I could taste was salt – everything else was just textures. It was, however, fairly easy to eat without a fork and a knife and the ingredients felt fresh.

The sandwich was £5.20 which is a wee bit expensive. The amount of fillings was satisfactory for the price. I also ordered some tea, which was some very basic English Breakfast.

In conclusion, the peaceful atmosphere makes this cafe worth a visit even though the food leaves something to be desired. I would feel comfortable sitting here for hours and I feel like that makes the higher prices worth it. The cafe in the Waterstones is a lovely little safe haven in the middle of the busy city centre, and it does a good job at being just that.

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The Waterfront Fishouse Restaurant in Oban

A couple weeks ago when I was visiting Oban, I ended up going to the same restaurant twice. The restaurant was in a convenient location and it was recommended to us, but it didn’t necessarily meet all expectations. The Waterfront Fishouse Restaurant isn’t bad, it’s definitely worth a visit, just not maybe two days in a row.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is nothing to complain about, as you can see from the restaurants’ Google page. It’s located in the second floor and the dining area is very spacious – you can see ships through the open windows since the restaurant is in the middle of the harbour, right next to the water. The lighting of the restaurant is warm and the atmosphere is cozy and peaceful.

For the starter, I had three oysters. I had nothing to complain about. Even though the presentation was very simple, the oysters were fresh and good quality.

The main course I had was a hake fillets filled with prawn filling and served with red pesto mash and pepper cream sauce. The presentation is not very elegant, it looks like a home-made meal. I had several problems with this dish – the prawn flavour was completely overpowered by dill and I even found some pieces of prawn shell in it. The mash was alright – the idea of using pesto is not original, but it worked with the dish. Bigger problem was the thickness of it. The mash was unnecessarily heavy without any of the fluffy lightness you would expect from restaurant-quality mash. The sauce, however, saved the dish. It was very smooth, creamy and full of flavour, even if that flavour was relatively simple.

For the dessert, I chose a Scottish cheese selection, maybe the best part of my meal: Tain cheddar, Morangie Brie, black crowdie and Strathdon blue. The combination of the cheeses was ideal, they were well chosen and flavourful great surprises and the oat cookies worked extremely well, better than any wheat based ones would have. The plum and apple chutney was an absolute joy to eat. The portion sizes for the cheeses were maybe slightly too big, but that’s just my personal taste.

In conclusion: the Waterfront Fishouse Restaurant does many things well, but it could improve on presentation and execution of the food. If I return to Oban however, I might just visit again – the service was very good and polite, at least when the waiter remembered to visit our table. (The second night we ordered some drinks that were charged in the bill but never arrived and the service took longer, but those are just human mistakes. We got compensated with a discount.)

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Introduction

This is a blog about food – in Scotland.

I was struck by an inspiration to start a blog after moving from Finland to Glasgow, when in this lovely, quirky city I was suddenly surrounded by restaurants of all kinds – an overwhelming amount of choices that was hard but rewarding to navigate. In the months I’ve lived here I’ve experienced some of the most fun culinary experiences a student can have.

In this blog I will be helping you – the readers – to find the best restaurants in Glasgow, and sometimes somewhere else in Scotland. Once every week I will bring a new review to your attention, helping you choose where to dine tonight – whether you live here or are just visiting.

Welcome aboard!

-FoodFinn

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