Sunday
Herald - 16 October 2005
‘A
truly impressive venison dish was an advert for eating deer.
The meat had a deep, rounded flavour and none of the sourness
that can spoil some game. It was so melt-in-the-mouth, you
could almost eat it with a fork’
Restaurant review: Joanna Blythman
Sunday
Herald readers are a switched-on bunch and I am glad to concur
with this reader’s opinion. Callander Meadows is a more
than reasonable small town restaurant. Nothing to shout about
in the greater order of things gastronomic, but downright
brilliant for Callander.
The
first likeable thing about it is that it is very unpretentious.
The environment is basic and lacks an eye for interiors. It
has unforgiving central lighting, no candles, bare table tops,
hard chairs, and on my my visit at least, it was not quite
warm enough. All that is forgivable because it is inexpensive
for the quality of food and cooking.
My
usual antipathy to black pudding was overcome because it was
an excellent example of its sort: mealy, expertly spiced and
not in the least greasy. Served with a careful green salad
of interesting leaves, alongside a home-made plum chutney,
it went down well.
The
other starter of avocado “blancmange” was reasonable
too, although bland, and not enough of an improvement on a
good ripe sliced avocado to merit the effort.
Main
courses fielded a truly impressive venison dish which really
was an advert for eating deer. The meat had a deep, rounded
flavour and none of the sourness that can spoil some game.
It was so melt-in-the-mouth, you could almost eat it with
a fork. A hard-fried potato rosti and a good gravy added more
appeal.
A
breast of duck was nicely cooked, pink as requested, if underseasoned.
It came with a crunchy crown of straw potatoes. The drop in
standard came with the “side vegetables”. Apart
from a passable gratin Dauphinois, it consisted of the usual
dud, watery blanched vegetables. When will we Scots eventually
realise that boiled cauliflower, or carrot, or kohlrabi or
whatever is irredeemably dull? Either you integrate the vegetables
into the dish, or cook a couple of careful seasonal vegetables
in an interesting way. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Desserts
are something of a feature. Two can share a platter for £11,
but anyone other than a glutton would agree that it would
easily serve three. The highlight for me was a vibrantly zesty
lemon mascarpone cream with a zingy lime syrup, brambles and
grilled, thin slices of lemon cake or lemon “toast”.
But a quivering panettone pudding, a solid malted chocolate
pecan tart, a slightly gluey cheesecake with red berry coulis,
and gingered apple snow all had a lot going for them.
Callander
Meadows marks a welcome breakthrough for Callander. Maybe
other local businesses will get the message that everyone,
tourists and locals alike, deserves better.
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