Mhor Fish

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2009 – in the shops now or buy online.

The Lewis family’s fish restaurant on Callander’s busy main thoroughfare caters to daytrippers and enthusiastic locals alike. Offering fish teas and seafood dishes from a daily-changing specials menu, Mhor Fish boasts a fresh catch daily from the Seagull, a trawler that operates out of Scrabster on the north coast. With old wooden fish shop signs on the walls and witty pieces of fish-themed art, it’s a small cosy space with a popular booth table in the window. Service is fast, friendly and accommodating – though the halibut was long gone, monkfish was offered in the same style, with buttered curly kale and béarnaise sauce. Finely seasoned in thick fleshy slices, it was an excellent choice. Two huge fat scallops come ‘seahorse’ style in their shells with corals in a lip-smacking garlic and parsley butter. A sweet potato and leek soup is smooth and full of flavour, topped off with a smattering of chives and homemade sourdough bread. The classic fish tea with bread and butter is a huge, satisfying portion of freshly battered haddock and with chips fried in beef dripping, and a big hit with hungry hillwalkers returning from the nearby Trossachs. If you can manage it, you can get a cone as you walk out the door.

• High point: The freshest fish; interesting menu
• Low point: All the good stuff goes sells out quickly