Cottier's

The food here is fantastic, a real forgotten treasure in the West End.

There was a set menu for valentines weekend, however we opted for main courses from the a la carte menu.

Grant opted for The Brazillian Coco Polo which was beautifully cooked in a nice creamy sauce and served with rice. There were jalapenos which were on the hot side, but could have been avoided if not to your liking. The portion was generous with two large pieces of chicken, and just enough rice so as not to leave you too full.

Rona ordered Lamb Shank which was perfectly cooked, tender and falling off the bone. It was served on a bed of Moroccan Couscous and was a fitting accompaniment.

For dessert we had a Dark Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake as well as Apple Crumble. The Cheesecake was very good and a great choice on the menu. The Crumble was undercooked which was the poorest part of the meal, it felt like a real afterthought from the chef.

All in all the food was excellent however the restaurant (the attic of the church) felt a bit cold and lacked atmosphere (it was less than half full). Compared to the bar downstairs which had a roaring fire and plenty atmosphere, it was a little disappointing.

The smells in the restaurant were fantastic and certainly would leave us wanting to return and try something else from the menu. Perhaps the courses are a couple of pounds dearer than rivals in the area which explains the empty restaurant compared to the buzzing bar, however this is certainly fine dining and our main courses were really brilliant brilliant meals.

Def recommend this place to all and we will be going back, with a few friends I'm sure.

I've spent many a sunny day sat in the beer garden at Cottiers over the years but had never eaten there til Friday. Sadly, it was a much less pleasant experience.
It wasn't a good start, with only two white wines (sauvignon blanc and chardonnay - my least favourite) available by the glass. It then took the waitress three attempts to get our drinks to us (a beer and a coke - nothing complicated). Our starters were fine (deep fried brie, and feta salad) though nothing special. The main courses, unfortunately, werent fine. Between the two of us we had the only two veggie choices - veg fajitas, and polenta with goats cheese. To be honest both dishes looked pretty similar - a mish mash of roasted veg all overcooked to a sort of brown mess, we couldnt even distinguish some of the veg. My polenta was soggy and not even seasoned. It was really, really not worth the money. We both left about half of our dishes. I hoped that the meal could be redeemed by what sounded like a decent dessert - lemon posset with home made shortbread. The shortbread was nice, but the posset came in a nasty-looking drinks tumbler which was WAY too large, and it was lumpy as well. Really overall a quite terrible and very disappointing meal, especially for the most of fifty quid.
We then had to wait absolutely ages after requesting our bill and in the end had to go and seek it out ourselves. I was about to make my complaint about the food when I realised I was actually going to throw up, imminently, so had to just leave the money and run downstairs. My partner, who hadnt even eaten any of the same dishes as me, was ill about half an hour later.
I dont have any desire to ever cross the threshold of this place ever again.