Mercury Maia, Dundee

Mercury Maia has taken all the glamour and elegance of a bygone era and given it a contemporary twist – we kicked off our meal with pre-dinner cocktails from a specially created list inspired by classic cocktails from the 20s and 30s and brought bang up to date by renowned mixologist, Nick Strangeway.

In 1938, the flying boat Maia (a 'Mercury' model) famously took off from the River Tay, travelling to South Africa completing the longest sea plane journey ever. In keeping with the aviation theme I ordered Mercury Maia’s signature cocktail, The Aviator. With its heady mixture of gin, lemon juice, maraschino and crème de violette, it packed a punch and certainly got the night off to a flying start.

Our starters of scallops (teamed with a vanilla ‘froth’) and slow braised pork belly were generously sized portions and completely delicious.

Afterwards I had the rack of lamb, cooked to perfection and accompanied by a red onion tart, crushed peas and port jus; Steve plumped for the salmon with chorizo crushed potatoes, fennel relish and saffron and vanilla sauce. He was supposed to save me a bit to try (a necessity in the interests of journalistic research, I told him) but when I looked up from my lamb, all that was left to see was the pattern on the plate. It was very good, I’m told!

We shared the assiette of desserts (no, we didn’t know what that meant either, but it turns out to be a selection of miniature puddings, so now you know…) which included coconut, passionfruit and mango pannacotta, lemon tart with clotted cream ice cream, and walnut ice cream. Tasty yet light, it was the perfect ending to a most enjoyable meal. So far, Alchemy in the Dundee Apex hotel is the only restaurant in Dundee to achieve 2 AA rosettes - but we could have another contender here.