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Ali & Mairi Penman - Glasgow
FLAT SCREEN TV / Availabile in all bedrooms.
Reviews and Awards
LATEST NEWS!
Mother's Day Lunch - 14th March 2010
Three wonderful courses to treat mum with! £29.50 per person. Click here to download our menu
Café 22 are now serving cocktails.
OPUS ONE WINS 'URBAN RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2010'
We are delighted to announce that Opus One Restaurant has won the 'Urban Restaurant of the Year' category at the Scottish Restaurant Awards on Mon 22nd Feb at the Corn Exchange, Edinburgh.
We also have been nominated as finalists in 3 categories for the SCOTTISH HOTEL AWARDS in April. The categories are - 'Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year', 'Rising Star Chef of the Year' and 'Turnaround achievement Award'.
Opus One Restaurant has retained its sought after 2 Rosette award from the AA - testimony to the hard work of our team and the creativity of our head chef Ryan Young!
Opus One is proud to announce we have been awarded a Silver Medal from Eat Scotland.
A Silver Award is given to those EatScotland participants who consistently exceed the EatScotland entry standard in a high proportion of the areas assessed. Establishments holding a Silver award represent some of the best eating places across Scotland, and are well worth a detour to experience.
Magnum opus - Sunday Herald
By Joanna Blythman
Lunch £15.95/£17.95
Dinner £23.95/£27.95
Food rating 9/10
Do you know what? I think we're actually making food progress in Scotland. I'm on a roll with good meals of late and Opus One simply confirms what I take to be the emerging trend. Five years ago - even two - I'd have expected the cooking in a place like this to be pretty duff, or at best, predictable and dull. But this recently opened restaurant in the smart, family-owned, boutique New County Hotel in Perth cheered up my January with its well-chosen, carefully cooked food.
The Perth area, of course, is a bubbling cocotte of chef talent. Andrew Fairlie has been installed for long enough at Gleneagles to provide a fertile training ground for hard-working, ambitious young chefs who want to raise their game. Chefs who worked with the most reliable Jeremy Wares, once of 63 Tay Street and now at the Anglers in Guildtown, have turned up in all sorts of good places, like Hamish's in Methven. Ryan Young, Opus One's head chef worked there but the night I ate at Opus One, Young was on a night off and his sous chef, David Cochrane, was at the helm. He put not a foot wrong. If this was the B-team, Young must be an excellent trainer as well as a fine chef.
Presentation, as regular readers know, is not one of my key concerns. So often cerebral fiddling interferes with the flavour, but here everything was neatly and enticingly presented and heightened expectations were delivered in the mouth. A delicate carpaccio of raw monkfish cured in a refreshing, zesty lime oil formed a pretty bracelet around an elegant roll of cucumber that encased a fresh little salad of micro leaves and sprouted greens. Another starter - a beetroot risotto with chalky-firm rice that was thoroughly infused with the root's sweetness - came with a notably high-quality goat cheese "crottin" on top which had been grilled to just the right bubbling brownness.
Eschewing my current fish and vegetable-centric eating habits, I was drawn to the loin of venison because it came with a marsala jus. I wasn't disappointed; the venison was stunningly tender with a not-over-pronounced wild flavour that spoke of heather moors and wintry woods. The marsala added a round, raisiny sweetness that flattered the meat. It came with melting confit potatoes, celeriac purée lent backbone by rosemary and a plump mushroom tortellini. Every mouthful was pleasing.
Sautéed fillet of beef made a similarly manageable and well-balanced dish. The steak came flanked by a dainty "crumble" of unctuous oxtail on top of creamed savoy cabbage, but the real stroke of inspiration here was an invigorating verdant-green parsley purée.
Dinner at Opus One costs £27.95 for three courses - that's remarkable value for cooking of this standard. It comes miraculously even cheaper with the hotel's winter rates; £59 buys you dinner, bed and breakfast. There's cheaper food to be had in the bar too. I scanned the menu, which looked very promising. In particular, I'll be back to try the Border tart with nutmeg ice cream.
Back in Opus One, we happily lapped up our desserts. A warm chocolate risotto (essentially a rice pudding made more grown up by the addition of bitter chocolate) really hit the spot. Its accompanying white chocolate ice cream (often sickeningly cloying) was surprisingly light and a quenelle of intensely dark, glossily emulsified chocolate mousse elevated the dish from the comforting to the stylish. The lemon tart was about as good as lemon tart ever gets, given the technical challenges of keeping pastry crumbly and short under a custard. I predicted that the chocolate sorbet that came with it wouldn't go. I take it back. The sorbet was bracingly bitter and didn't add to the sugar load of the tart. You could almost convince yourself that it was a health food - polyphenol antioxidants and all that.
The front-of-house service here is affable and solicitous. Don't, whatever you do, skip coffee and tea. They come with a plateful of home-made chocolates that are not to be missed. As you will have gathered, to add to its other accomplishments, Opus One shows supreme competence in the chocolate department.
Shaun McLaren, Travel Corespondent for the Scotland on Sunday
"...we'd just enjoyed an absolutely superb meal in the hotel's much lauded Opus One restaurant (two AA Rosettes no less) and a couple of drinks in the comfortable hotel bar. Our room,temperature apart, was clean and comfortable, with everything you'dexpect from a three-star hotel: helpful and friendly staff and a location that couldn't be more central. All in all, a very pleasant hotel with absolutely outstanding food and a great base for a night out in the Fair City."
Review in the Perthshire Advertiser
Opus One: It’s simply the best meal of the year!
Dec 5 2008 by Lady Who Lunches
“IT’S the best meal I’ve had since Andrew Fairlie’s, so make sure you give the place a good review,” was Daddy’s parting shot as the Range Rover disappeared in a cloud of cigar smoke (him) and gin fumes (Mummy).
I must admit I was a tad taken aback by his enthusiasm – not because it wasn’t the best meal I’ve had all year as well, but because the lunch had started out rather unpromisingly.
“Good gravy, I’m not walking all the way up South Street for lunch,” moaned the old fella when I told him the intended location of his 77th birthday treat.
Luckily, a poster outside That Bar advertising the forthcoming appearance of the Cheeky Girls seemed to take his mind off the trek from Watergate to County Place. Judging from Daddy’s reaction, I can’t help but think that ‘The Cheekies’ should swap their tour of night clubs for a tour of golf clubs…they certainly seem to strike a chord with gentlemen of a certain age.
His mood didn’t improve when our charming waiter pointed out that we could have saved the walk if we had used the hotel car park!
He was still grumpy when the small, but beautifully formed, lunchtime menu arrived, but after a glass Petit Ange his mood began to soften.
By the time he had wiped up the last of his spicy lentil soup with a warm roll, he was purring like a pussycat. My steamed west coast mussels (Other Half had the same) with smoked bacon, shallots and garlic, served in a white wine and cream sauce were equally good, and Mummy positively raved about her baked goats cheese souffle with caramelised, beetroot and rocket salad.
Main courses were equally successful. By-passing the hake with chorizo mash, the pan-fried breast of corn-fed chicken and the butternut squash risotto, all four of us went for the slow roasted belly of pork.
An unusual dish to see on a restaurant menu, pork belly needs long slow cooking otherwise what should be an unctuous treat can become a fatty nightmare. I’m glad to report that it was the former and if I’ve eaten anything better in the last year then I can’t rightly remember when.
Coffees and mints finished off what was – by general consensus – the best meal of the year. And at £12.95 for two courses, it was one of the best value too!
At a glance
Venue: Opus One @ the New County Hotel, 26 County Place, Perth.
Food: Small, but perfectly formed, lunchtime menu aimed at the serious foodie.
Service: Fast, friendly and unobtrusive.
Décor: Crisp linen, sparkling crystal and dark wood, a flickering fireplace adds a cosy touch to the room.
Price: £73.75 (four people with wine).
New County Hotel, Perth