Herald restaurant reviewer Ron Mackenna travels across Scotland reviewing the best - and occasionally worst - of the nation's restaurants.
It's a tough job but, hey, someone's got to do it.
You can read his review in print and online every Saturday - or two days early if you sign up to our newsletter.
Here are 10 of his most recent reviews, from best to worst.
Damasquino, Saltmarket, Glasgow
“We’ve got a platter of this Lebanese street food for £4.90. And I can’t stop eating them even after I detour to crunch my way through a filo cigar that is a cheese sambousek (£4.90) and pause for a few moments more to have a go at the mohamarah.”
- Menu: That mixed grill, arayes, mohamarahs, shashliks, tikkas, labnehs plus other Lebanese dishes we didn’t try including broasted chicken. 4/5
- Atmosphere: Listen. it’s homespun, feels part cafe, part restaurant. There’s a take-away kebab bit. It’s cosmopolitan too; bustling all night. I liked it. 4/5
- Service: Impossible to fault, friendly relaxed and very helpful. 5/5
- Price: That mixed grill was £32.50 and would feed a few; the arayes was £5.40 for a platter, the other starters all less than a fiver. 5/5
- Food: Not just your ordinary mixed grill but one where every item is full of marinated surprises, even the arayes was outstanding. 9/10
- Total: 27/30
Goat In The Tree, 16 Park Road, Glasgow
“Moroccan Chicken, braised in saffron, falling from the bone (I was given a choice) on a mound of turmeric rice – yet again cooked in a good and spiced stock – juicy, richly-flavoured braised vegetables hidden like little joy nuggets inside.”
- Menu: It’s Moroccan, so couscous, tagines, Zaalouk, Merguez, great Pastilla not breaking any new ground but who needs to? 4/5
- Atmosphere: Listen, it’s tiny, it’s old skool, no restaurant designer ever had their hands on it, but it’s warm, cosy and pretty comfortable. 5/5
- Service: Friendly, even when I turned up 45 minutes late, cheery and helpful. 5/5
- Price: There’s still reasonably priced restaurants out there: Moroccan Chicken and Tagine £11.95, small dishes from under a fiver. 4/5
- Food: Simple things done very well; that M’hammar or Moroccan chicken was just good honest food; the Pastilla and the Zaalouk likewise. 8/10
- Total: 26/30
Noto, 47a Thistle Street, Edinburgh
“The food in here never really stops coming. No perceptible delay between dishes. Little sitting waiting time, a very slick kitchen.”
- Menu: It’s still one of Edinburgh’s hottest restaurants with Duck Bao Buns, Fried Chicken and Arbroath Smokie croquettes. 5/5
- Atmosphere: The customers are the atmosphere, otherwise it’s fashionable minimalist and aesthetic, avoid eating at the bar. 4/5
- Service: Very professional, clearly used to handling a non-stop busy service, moved us from the bar too - even though I booked a seat there. 5/5
- Price: The prices seem reasonable for the quality of the food, but portions are small and you need. a lot of them and that means: pretty pricey. 3/5
- Food: Knock-out dishes include that chicken, and the delightful Duck Bao Buns; would not have the short rib again, still a class act overall. 8/10
- Total: 25/30
Eighty-eight, 88 Dumbarton Rd, Glasgow
“The butterflied mackerel with miso, white kimchi and chicken sauce (may contain bones) looks fabulous. The fish skin seared to a bubbly black and gold, the kimchi juices and chicken sauces melding beautifully.”
- Menu: They don’t make a big deal of it but superb, light, inventive vegetarian delights, butterflied mackerel, hanger steaks, and pasta. 4/5
- Atmosphere: Cosy little nook of a place, there were other customers just in for a relaxing drink, great vibe even when pretty empty. 5/5
- Service: Young waiter dude was cool, calm, relaxed and helpful even with this customer who thinks he’s funny – when he’s not. 5/5
- Price: Prices have gone mad everywhere post-Covid, so small plates ranging from £7 to £10, plus £15 for the fish, and £8 for desserts. 3/5
- Food: The meat-free dishes by far the best, all three first plates were a joy, mackerel not so good, but overall to a high standard. 8/10
- Total: 25/30
Dulse, 17 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh
“Actually? That Abroath smokie spring roll is light, crisp, filled (though certainly not packed) with warming haddock and adrift in a sea of Connage Gouda fondue, which to the untrained may look like gloop. But it tastes much better than that. Sort of cheesy, tangy, moreish... gloop.”
- Menu: Proper seafood restaurant in a proper capital city, complete with smokies, hake, cod of course and dulse – like the name. 5/5
- Atmosphere: They’ve gone plain vanilla with the decor on the basis, you come for the food. January probably not the best month to appreciate it. 3/5
- Service: Old-school, very efficient, yet slightly distant service. It was a dull, cold, Tuesday night though and hard for anybody to warm up. 4/5
- Price: It’s fish. It’s Scotland. It’s high-end too, of course it’s going to be pricey. Big hit is on the small plates, mains and desserts. 4/5
- Food: Those ginger toffee madeleines at the end? Outstanding. The tandoori hake too: deft, light, worth the journey. Nothing fell below very good. 8/10
- Total: 24/30
Kora By Tom Kitchin, 14 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh
“Like everything in here, it was designed to look great. Eats poorly though. Cooling rapidly as we watch, seafood having to be rolled to get flavoured, abandoned half-eaten.”
- Menu: It’s Edinburgh-cool, righteous Scottish sourcing, hand-made pastas, Wagyu shins, even a bowl of Scottish fish soup. On message. 4/5
- Atmosphere: There’s a strange lack of any controlling feel or identity to the place when we are in, the decor doesn’t help. Not for me. 3/5
- Service: We had to get up to get the bill, get extra cutlery, at these prices? Layout makes it hard for the pleasant staff. Dishes not hot enough. 3/5
- Price: Prices are what people will pay. A very small portion of fried chicken £14, a so-so soup £28, yet Wagyu Shin at £28.50 well worth it. 4/5
- Food: High five to the Wagyu Shin again. Otherwise so-so. Not helped by being served lukewarm in sprawling ceramic dishes. Being generous? 7/10
- Total: 21/30
Bombaywalla, 186 West Regent St, Glasgow
“The food? Yeah, pretty good. Portions are small, be warned. And yet when we head back up the stairs and onto West Regent Street and I ask the inevitable question would we go back it’s a universal: meh.”
- Menu: Bombaywalla Chicken Curry, Utta Pizzas, Ghee Dosas, Vada Pavs, Indian street food. Different. Interesting. 5/5
- Atmosphere: Okay it’s a Sunday afternoon. In February. Plain basement joint needed something more to bring it to life. A tired and weary feel. 3/5
- Service: They don’t waste much time on the warm welcome, or even do much in the way of interaction. 3/5
- Price: Two poppadoms and chutneys, £4.25, Utta-Pizza £10.95, Chicken curry £9.95. Given portion sizes it can add up. 3/5
- Food: That curry was good, the Utta-Pizza enjoyed, the Ghee Dosa a clear standout, overall simple but decent. Needs to sparkle though. 7/10
- Total: 21/30
Wagamama, 97 West George St, Glasgow
“Far better are the glazed mackerel fillets on brown rice fried with kimchee, broccoli, chilli, bok-choi shiitake, so much so that I’m still flicking up the last of the oaty brown rice and spearing pan-fried veg, as the ramen over there goes completely cold.”
- Menu: They pretty much cover all bases: donburi, hot-pots, teppanyaki, soul bowls, bao – though so does just about everyone else nowadays. 3/5
- Atmosphere: Is the secret the lighting, the open kitchen or the long picnic tables? Certainly seems to attract families, couples and single diners. 5/5
- Service: Variable from cheery “here’s your food” from one server to otherwise all-day-restaurant disinterested. 3/5
- Price: It’s certainly not in bargain territory: small bao buns £7.80 for two, duck gyoza £7.80. Mains hitting £16 easily. 3/5
- Food: Liked the spicy mackerel miso with the brown rice and the pan-fried vibe. Bao buns were OK if not the cheapest. Otherwise, inoffensive. 6/10
- Total: 20/30
Il Pastaio, 80 St Vincent St, Glasgow
“Yet I almost like the papardelle, porcini, brown butter, black truffle. Also £13. The papardelle itself is soft, silky, as it should be. The mushrooms pleasant if a bit over the top.”
- Menu: It’s a fresh pasta restaurant, made in-house every day they say. Not an original idea but a hard one to pull off. As they prove. 4/5
- Atmosphere: To be fair, on a Tuesday night in January, the place is deader than a dodo. It’s surely more enjoyable and atmospheric at weekends. 3/5
- Service: No complaints at all here. Waitress engaging and chatty and very enthusiastic about her job. 5/5
- Price: They sidestep it’s generally £13 for a plate of pasta (yes it’s freshly made) by serving big portions loaded with ingredients. 3/5
- Food: Everyone has a bad night. I thought the pappardelle prawns was truly terrible, pappardelle porcini OK. 5/10
- Total: 20/30
Harvester, Napier Road, Hillington Industrial Estate, Glasgow
“I ordered up cheese and spinach pasta shells with a cherry tomato sauce and a hunk of garlic bread. This is overcooked cheesy goo. And at £13.49 doesn’t tick any good value box I possess.”
- Menu: Burgers, ribs, chicken, pasta. They try to give it a bit of an interesting twist, and Greg swears by the chain. 3/5
- Atmosphere: It’s certainly very spacious, decor seems a bit tired, but enough people in to give it some warmth. 3/5
- Service: Not great. At all. One waitress fine. Otherwise seemed offhand and there was that kitchen-closed thing. 3/5
- Price: Starters from a penny under a fiver to £6, flatbreads from £8.99, the enormous tasting menu on a single plate combo £25. It’s okay. 4/5
- Food: Big menus often mean big freezers, and plenty of choice. Smoked belly pork great, the rest ranged from okay to downright strange. 6/10
- Total: 19/30
Read Ron Mackenna every Saturday on heraldscotland.com or get his review two days early in our newsletter
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