The old favourite Road Hole Restaurant in St Andrews retains arguably the best dining views over a golf course in the world, but the menu has recently evolved. Richard Bath went to see whether the food at this three rosette restaurant matches the setting.
Set on the former site of St Andrews station, the Old Course Hotel has a remarkable vantage point. From the Road Hole Restaurant on the fourth floor of the Old Course Hotel & Spa, you look down the 18th hole to the most famous clubhouse in golf. The humpback bridge over the Swilcan Burn, one of the most famous spots in golf, is just to your right and if you look ahead your view is straight over the seventeenth hole of the Old Course, the 18th hole of the New Course, and across the West Sands to the Firth of Tay and, in the distance, Angus.
But it is the restaurant’s proximity to the Old Course’s famously challenging seventeenth – the famed Road Hole – which gives the restaurant its name. The hotel is so close to the fairway that most golfers hit their approach short to the green across a single-storey part of the hotel (like many, I’ve failed to navigate this and have hit the hotel). Put simply, on a hazy summer’s day, as it was when we visited, there is no better place for any golfer to dine.
I remember the days when this was quite a formal destination, but the restaurant has been made more relaxed, with muted colours allowing the views to take centre stage. There’s an open kitchen, and as ever it’s great to watch the professionals at work. The staff are a mix from all four corners of the world, but there’s a great attention to detail from the Reidel glassware to the smart tweed suits worn but the attentive waiting staff.
The Road Hole used to be predominantly a grill, but has evolved to be a restaurant which does its best to showcase the best of Scotland. That is the aspiration of virtually every chef in Scotland, but despite a large section of their clientele being Americans, who are generally quite conservative when it comes to food, executive head chef Coalin Finn (formerly of Claridges and Inverlochy Castle) comes up trumps with a menu that challenges and entices in a way that surprised me. So the starters included rhubarb-cured sea trout, spring pea curd and confit Fife carrot, while the mains were more mainstream, the Whipped Katy Rogers Crowdie Fagottini and braised leek with nori, sesame and tofu excepted.
Given that the pescatarian has spent huge chunks of her life in Millport there was little choice but to get the show on the road with half a dozen Cumbrae oysters (£24), half of which were au natural, half with seasoning, but all superb.
The starters were real fruit of the land choices – smoked lamb tartare (£18) with baked ewe’s milk, radish, rocket and anchovy for me, and half a dozen stems of grilled asparagus with fermented wild garlic emulsion (£18) for my fishy friend. Both were excellent, and despite the extensive roll-call of ingredients, mercifully unadorned. The only disappointment was finding out that asparagus comes from the Wye Valley in Wales when the nearby Deanhead Farm in Coupar Angus has outstanding produce at this time of year.
Our main courses followed suit in that they were built around good produce. The salmon (£36) was served in three large wheels encased in brioche, and served with gorse, salmon roe and grilled fresh peas – the pescatarian announced herself more than satisfied, which is high praise indeed. I opted for the pork loin on the bone (£30), which is one of those dishes which sorts the wheat from the chaff when it comes to chefs, and this was superb – succulent and served with a green apple puree.
Pudding consisted of a nicely light rhubarb and custard soufflé with pistachio ice cream (£12), and a banana pecan chocolate mousse with banana ice cream (£14), which were both well-produced and perfectly satisfactory, but slightly after the lord mayors parade given the quality of the main courses in particular.
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