Arisaig
- Food served: 11am–midnight
- Pre-theatre times: 5pm–7pm daily
- Number of wines sold by the glass: 16
- Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least ¼ main courses), Gluten-free options, Children's portions, Children's high chairs, Wheelchair access, Takeaway, Pre-theatre menu, Live music
- Music on stereo: Chill-out sounds
- Capacity: 140
- Largest group: 70
- Open since: 2009
- Average price 2 courses:
£10 (set lunch)
£15 (evening meal) - Pre-theatre price: £10 for two courses
- House wine: £12.97 per bottle
This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2009 – in the shops now or buy online.
Owners Naveed Rachid and Stephen Bonomi have not had their troubles to seek with their Arisaig operation, but are now happily ensconsed in Merchant Square where they opened in mid-March. And the signs are all good. Inspired by Arisaig – the beautiful stretch of white sands near Mallaig and childhood haunt of Bonomi – the interior has natural rustic tones and seascape photography. Downstairs features brasserie-style dining while upstairs is a more formal space. The brasserie menu is divided into Starters, The Sea, The Land, On the Side and Desserts. With a strongly Scottish bent, dishes boast ingredients such as Shuna mussels, Loch Etive oysters, Cargein seaweed, Colonsay beer batter, Speyside sirloin, Sound of Cuillin squid. The Arisaig seaboard offers a generous plate of mussels, oysters, smoked salmon, prawns, clams, kelp, mayonnaise and bread and butter for £9.95, which makes an ideal sharing platter. For mains, a pale smoked haddock and mussel potato cream cheese bake with oat gratin is just heaven on a plate. The flavours of the smoky fish, mussels and cream cheese marry perfectly with a pale creamy tomato sauce – this is simple comfort food of the highest order, so good the leftovers were packed up and taken home. For dessert, the cranachan is exemplary: fluffy double cream flecked with toasted honeyed oats and fresh raspberries. Arisaig is settling into its stride offering good Scottish classics at exceptional prices – a three-course pre-theatre dinner will set you back a measly £12.50.
- High point: Excellent seafood
- Low point: Clattery cobbled surroundings can be noisy
Comments
- 1. Elizabeth, Paisley – 7 July 2008, 4:46pmReport
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Very unsatisfactory visit for lunch. Ordered Chicken and Haggis Meatballs in Spicy Tomato sauce but didn't realise that "spicy" meant that it had chillies in it which I can't eat. Spoke to the manager and explained that in every other restaurant I have eaten in across the world if there are chillies in a dish it is normally specified so and that if I had realised there were chillies in it I wouldn't have ordered it. I said I thought I'd had the chicken and haggis meatballs before with whisky sauce and he agreed that there was a starter with those ingredients. All the more reason then that they should have stipulated the existence of chillies in the main course dish. The manager was bordering on the offensive because in his view I should have realised that spicy meant it had chillies in it. He refused to accept that he had a responsibility to his customers to state that the sauce had chillies in it. He even thought the responsibility was mine to tell him that I couldn't eat chillies !!! He offered to get me something else but stated I'd have to pay for the meal from which I had had one small bite. I told him no thank you and then had a a real struggle getting him to give me a doggy bag so that my husband, who loves chillies, could eat it later. His words "we don't do carry out" Eventually we left with the doggy bag and a very sour taste in our mouths, not to mention that I was still hungry.
Will definitely not be recommending this restaurant to anyone.
- 2. Jeffrey, Port Tremble – 26 August 2008, 8:23pmReport
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In response to the previous posting, I have never, never, read anything more ridiculous than someone complaining that they ordered 'spicy' meatballs and then was genuinely surprised that they may have used chillies in order to make the dish.... 'spicy'? now that I have stopped laughing, I would say this is an excellent restaurant but I would warn you that I did order the chicken and was very surprised that when it came, it was chicken....
Do go.
Jeff
- 3. Comment removed
- This comment has been removed by a moderator.
- 4. KN – 14 January 2009, 2:09pmReport
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Oh dear. Elizabeth from Paisley - what planet are you on. What does spicy mean if not chilli????? If you have a dietary issue then it is up to you to seek clarification from the kitchen. It is not a restaurant's responsibility to spell out each and every ingredient. If chillies are such an issue for you then you should take responsibility for yourself.
BTW i ordered a curry the other day and it did not specify that it had chilli on - should i take it back to the curry house?Arisaig is a lovely restaurant.
- 5. GB, Glasgow – 3 April 2009, 2:16pm
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Elizabeth is bang on. It's a sad reflection on the low standards and general abuse of the English language in this city when "spicy" is used as shorthand for "hot". Plenty of ingredients are spicy but not hot e.g cinammon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, tumeric - need I go on??
Arisaig should immediately changes its menu to say "hot & spicy"Not a bad place though.
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