North Port Review

Opened in 2014 in the Scottish town of Perth, North Port is a well regarded restaurant which has held two AA rosettes for many years, as well a more recently awarded Michelin guide listing too. Whilst traveling for a holiday further north in Scotland via the A9, it seemed an ideal place to stop off along the way, and so I duly rocked up for lunch with my wife, her parents and our two children on an overcast August Saturday, with fairly high expectations of seeing some good cooking on show.

As a town centre venue there's no dedicated parking for the restaurant (albeit there's a little bit of street parking nearby) so we parked at the Thimblerow Car Park, which is a sub-ten-minute walk away. The restaurant is housed in a stone eighteenth century building, and that historic feel continues inside with wood panelling aplenty (including on the ceiling).

The welcome on arrival was perfectly warm, and we were shown to our table in the private dining room, which is effectively a separate quieter room away from the main dining area - we weren't the only table in that room for lunch, but it was a good option for us with the kids. On offer at lunch is a solid three course carte menu (which we ate from) and a cheaper set lunch menu (with a few of the same dishes), plus a few specials. There's no children's menu but our waitress did let us know there are a few not-on-the-menu options available for young children.

Drinks wise, there's a fairly solid wine and drinks list including some non-alcoholic cocktails which my wife and daughter enjoyed. I had my usual Hendrick's and tonic which was fine; the whisky selection is reasonably lengthy (albeit smaller here than a lot of Scottish restaurants), and we tried a couple of glasses of Mc'Nean at the end of the meal also.

Lunch began for me with the Highland venison, served with beetroot and a raspberry dressing. I really enjoyed this; the cooking and resting of the meat was spot on and overall it was a delicious plate. My wife and father in law had the signature 'Haggis, neeps and tatties' starter which was tasty enough also.

For mains, I went for the monkfish served with a broad bean ragu, a chunk of pork belly and grilled fennel. I wasn't a massive fan of this dish to be honest; the monkfish was tasty but the fennel and broad bean combination wasn't very enjoyable, and the pork belly (with a very difficult to cut crispy skin) felt like a bit of an afterthought.

Other mains around the table were enjoyed a lot more though, including the pork fillet (which in hindsight I wish I'd ordered), the hake and the confit carrot. My young son was also happy enough with his portion of chips, which I'd say were very similar to the type of chips you'd get in a fish and chip shop.

After some good savoury cooking, there was little chance of us leaving without dessert, and this proved to be a wise choice. I went for the pistachio cremeux, accompanied by a chocolate mousse and creme fraiche as well as some sugar shards on top. This was another enjoyable dish; it didn't look particularly elegant on the plate, but it was a very tasty dessert.

The same theme continued with the other desserts around the able including the raspberry ganache and strawberry parfait; they weren't great to look at (and less neat than you'd see on a lot of two rosette menus I'd say) but taste wise everyone was happy. As part of the aforementioned not-on-the-menu kids options, the restaurant were happy to provide just some vanilla ice cream for my young son also which was much appreciated.

And so, after collecting the bill (with no automatically included service charge and no option to leave a tip on the card machine), our enjoyable lunch came to an end. Overall I was perfectly happy with the standard of cooking here; yes one or two dishes could have carried a bit more wow-factor, but this is clearly a restaurant that's very comfortable with the type and level of food they serve, and you can't argue with that.

Service too was good with no issues at all, and when combined with what is a very pleasant venue and pretty reasonable pricing in the current hospitality climate, I've no issue proclaiming this is a very good restaurant by any standard. It therefore wasn't a surprise to see the venue still busy for lunch after over ten years in operation, and I for one would have no objection at all to eating here again in future.