Today's Lunch extravaganza came in the form of The Cellar in Anstruther . Anstruther is located in the heart of the East Neuk. For those of you not familiar with this area , its in the kingdom of Fife . Anstruther is only 10 miles from St Andrews and boasts many a reason to visit , none less than being one of the biggest and prettiest fishing villages on the East coast . It also has Award winning beaches ( If you are brave enough to face the biting east cold wind) . Surprisingly us scots are hardy, as there are more ice-cream shops here than some sunny tourist destinations !
Anyhow as usual I am sidetracked by this lovely little seaside village which is extraordinarily well kept, clean , peaceful and proud. I loved everything about Anstruther.
The Cellar is a Michelin Star Restaurant which has been around for about 40 years as a leading restaurant in the East Neuk , but in 2014 a local Anstruther man -Billy Boyter and his family took over ownership .
Billy has a 15 year history of working in some of Scotland's best Restuarant's and now has achieved Michelin Star status with his own, and more importantly back to where he is from – Anstruther.
On entering through tiny brick lined cobbled arch ways it was not unlike dining on the Amalfi coast in Italy – Tiny little nooks and crannies packed with Scottish artifacts adorning all the maze like entrance . A roaring fire was awaiting me where I sat and waited to be seated in the main dining room. The dining room is brick , candlelit , and felt just like a Cellar but warm and tastefully decorated . I absolutely loved everything about the décor , ambience and temperature of this room, not tightly packed together like sardines either.
The lunch menu consisted of 5 courses and was very reasonably priced , again not pretentious .
I started with a mouth watering Smoked Haddock and potato Mousse which was wrapped in the lightest crisp , like a spring roll shape only a thousand times better to taste .
The second course was an old favourite of mine – A Venison Haggis bon bon with a slither of pickled pear .
The main was simply exquisite and made my taste buds dance around madly – Pollock with a brown butter sauce which was served with pea puree and crispy kale ,Kelp and soft leeks – I loved the fact that all the different components on the plate were all easily recognisable and not drowned out by one another – brilliance no less!
The dessert was not my idea of a dessert ,but I simply can not fault all the ingredients that married together expertly on the plate . There was Chocolate cream as a base Jerusalem artichoke ice cream and calamansi ( Small citrus fruit similar to a lime/Lemon ) , lovely white chocolate aero type pieces and crisp wafers to decorate. A Very Michelin dessert , light and refreshing for a lunch menu .
All in all an excellent lunch and one restaurant I will definitely return too when I am off duty !
