Location, location, location? If that’s the criterion for buying a house, purchasing a meal might just have other priorities built in, too. Suffice to say that when you take yourself off to The View at Wormit, right on the river Tay on the Fife side of the estuary, you get location, location, location and good, good food.
We were there in the run-up to Christmas so there was a festive menu on offer – plenty to choose from for each course, another special available for both starter and main and no fewer than three dessert extras besides. And looking at the regular sample menus, if festive makes you restive, it’s perfectly fair to assume that a visit to The View at any time of year will be a gift that keeps on giving.
We each started with a G&T (£4.50 each) while we looked at the menu and the fabulous outlook from which this neat, modern venue, light and contemporary without being hard-edged, takes its name. Most of the tables allow you to enjoy more than a glimpse across the river and there is something very relaxing and welcoming about how both this place and its menu are put together. It’s fine dining but at the less fantoosh and fiddly end. And the combinations of taste and texture are well-executed and often, inspired. The resident cook in our house, with whom I was sharing this meal, put it perfectly. “Clever cooks know what goes with what,” he stated firmly.
At that point, he, being the Soup Dragon in a previous existence, was tucking into a generous bowl of cauliflower, Mull cheddar and Arran mustard soup. He was totally won over by its smooth creaminess and the fact that the flavours of all the main components came through as each spoonful went down, with a kick of cheese followed by a subtle but definite mustard punch.
The accompanying bread was excellent and highlights the policy that local and Scottish produce take centre stage at The View. On each table is a little laminated info square detailing where and from whom many of the ingredients originate. Eagle eyes will spot many Fife sources, from just along the road in Newport down to the East Neuk.
I opted for the special starter – smoked haddock fishcakes with a curry mayo. The two well-packed, well-flavoured cakes melded smokiness, smoothness and lightness with a proper balance of fish, what tasted like almost whipped potato and light, crunchy coating.
Mains were featherblade of beef, mushroom peppercorn cream, spinach, root veg puree and crispy wedges and local pheasant breast, bread sauce, savoy cabbage, caramelised red onion, black pudding and croquettes.
Composer John Barry once wrote a piece called The Beyondness of Things but here, Himself was raving about The Falling-Apartness of the beef and the brilliant way the accompaniments worked separately and together. He pronounced it a “superb plate of food”.
My pheasant had depth of flavour without over-gaminess, perhaps a little firm but definitely succulent. The black pudding triangles and crispy savoy cabbage also distinguished themselves as stand-outs. We may have gone for serious meat times two but vegetarian and gluten-free alternatives are available on request.
To complement the big flavours, we chose the South African house red, Highveld shiraz merlot, a fruity 13-per-cent-er at a very reasonable £17 per bottle. Several choices are also available by the glass from a generally well-chosen and interesting list.
And did we get our just desserts? We surely did. Soup Dragon managed to stop himself ordering another bowl of the cauliflower concoction to finish off and instead became entranced by a vanilla cheesecake with pear, amaretti biscuits, caramel sauce and chocolate shavings – light texture combining with fruitiness, crunch and gooey caramel.
I did my usual “Will I? Won’t I?” prevaricating between iced raspberry and cassis meringue roulade with blueberries and steamed Christmas pud; true to form, the pud eventually won out. It was lovely, rich, fruity, earthy and amazingly airy, complemented perfectly by cardamom ice cream. And there you have it. Another flavour perhaps associated more with savoury or spicy meat and veg dishes, here doing its thing as a dessert. Inspired. The server and I tied ourselves in knots trying to find the right words to describe its flavour. In the end, she definitely won. “It tastes like fresh air,” she said. And it did.
The service is excellent, informal and friendly but sharp and timely, with our server in particular obviously completely familiar with the menu and how and why it was put together.
Chef Steve Robertson definitely deserves Himself’s “clever cook” accolade. Showcasing intrinsic flavours, creating unusual combinations and doing all this with a welcome lightness of touch is very clever indeed.
Price: Festive lunch two courses £25, three courses £30; dinner two courses £34, three courses £39. Full a la carte from £4-£28.
Value: 8/10
Menu: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Food: 9/10
Total: 41/50
Info: The View
Address: 5 Naughton Road, Wormit, DD6 8NE
Tel: 01382 542287
Web: www.view-restaurant.co.uk
