AN award-winning restaurant in Argyll has reopened following a two-month winter makeover.
The Pierhouse Hotel in Port Appin is gearing up its seafood restaurant for the spring and summer seasons after expanding its kitchen facilities, following a “significant investment” by its owners. The hotel, located on the shores of Loch Linnhe, is part of The Wee Hotel Company owned by veteran hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray, which also owns the famous Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye.
The Pierhouse restaurant has won multiple awards and honours, having recently been crowned national restaurant of the year at the Hotels of the Year Scotland Awards 2023-24. It holds two AA rosettes and is one of only three Argyll restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland 2024.
READ MORE: Outgoing VisitScotland chief looks back on highs and lows
Fiona McLean, general manager at The Pierhouse Hotel, said: “It’s a real honour to be Scotland’s ‘National Restaurant of the Year’. As we reopen to guests for the 2024 season, our team is already gearing up to ensure our wee corner of Argyll gives the warmest of welcomes to all our guests.
“Our new kitchen makeover will help our team of chefs to enhance the dining experience for all day visitors and overnight guests. Our head chef Michael Leathley will also continue working with a close network of the region’s best local producers and suppliers to help retain our place on Scotland’s food map.”
The hotel said chef Leathley and his team will be making the use of the expanded kitchen space to create a new spring menu, showcasing the best fish and seafood from the west coast. Dishes will include piermaster bouillabaisse with west coast fish, mussels, langoustine and miso; and plaice Kiev with a parsley and caper sauce.
READ MORE: 'Spectacular own goal' as tourism laments Hunt Budget
Mr Leathley said: “I enjoy letting the food speak for itself using classic, simple techniques. The real luxury in cooking these days is making use of what is here, right now. It’s a joy to use produce available locally, with known quality and provenance, sourced wherever possible from within 50 miles of the hotel.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here