The Apron Stage

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses: £21.20
• House wine: £13.50 per bottle

• High point: Makes a virtue out of limitations
• Low point: Starters a little less impressive than other courses
• Food served: Wed-Sat 6.30-9.30pm. Closed Sun-Tue.
• Open since: 2006
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of main courses), Children's portions

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is taken from the 2007 edition.

A bend and drop in the Tay at Stanley - just off the A9, eight miles north of Perth - helped Sir Richard Arkwright decide where to establish his cotton mills. The same feature now brings canoeists and fisherfolk to the river, and, since September 2006, such visitors and lucky locals have been able to eat in style in a perfectly formed dining room tucked between mill cottages. Bright and stylish with painted wood panelling, cane chairs, attractive place settings and a rustic Scandinavian feel, it is necessarily intimate, with just 18 covers. Shona Drysdale (formerly of Let's Eat in Perth) and Jane Nicoll offer, from a huge blackboard, a carefully-selected menu that changes weekly. Prepared in the open kitchen - their own 'apron stage' - there are typically three or four choices of starter, and three main courses, including a vegetarian option. An emphasis on best local ingredients pays off in tender and rare fillet of Angus beef, or seared fillets of red mullet and John Dory. A choice of original desserts includes mousse with caramel sauce or golden plum compote with generous portions of vanilla ice-cream. Limited storage has produced an intriguing wine selection suggesting personal knowledge. A restaurant to prove small is beautiful.