Forgan's, St Andrews

The Monday night of my visit found us at Forgan's, where Christopher works, and where I had been excited about visiting ever since he read a menu preview to me over the phone (before they even had a working website!).

Straight off it's really cool because it used to be a "cleek factory" (a golf club factory) so it's quite a characterful place with an interesting story. They have a doorway on Market Street (next to Mitchell's Deli which is owned by the same people...review coming soon) which leads up a passageway with artfully arranged crates of vegetables, bird houses, plants etc, which I thought gave it quite a cool farmhouse type look!

The interior - taken early on a Wednesday night, hence the quietness!

Something which also makes Forgan's stand out for me is the existence of "bothies". These are private areas for groups up to 12, and each is different! They have one called "The Reading Room" which has a well stocked bookshelf - Christopher said that book clubs hold their meetings there which I thought was such a nice idea. Our one was called "The Snug" - it was really cosy and even had its own fire! Also I don't know why I was so obsessed with this but I thought the pegs for hanging our coats on was a thoughtful addition to it too!

Full bothy!

As well as the food, Forgan's have a fab selection of drinks which you can view here. You can even get "flights" of things like wine, gin, beer or champagne, where you get three different varieties to sample. I was tempted to try the champagne flight but thought it might be better to wait til my parents were paying...! I decided to have a "Cockt-ale" which are cocktails but with the unconventional addition of ale. Mine was called Bitter Fruit and included Aivy strawberry pear mint vodka, St Germain elderflower liqueur, sugar, cranberry, fresh lemon juice and Schiehallion.

I was a bit worried that the ale would be the overwhelming taste, but I'm glad I tried it because it was really delicious. You could taste the ale but it wasn't overpowering at all and the fruit still came across nicely - perhaps it could even be a way of weaning myself onto liking beer?! Keep adding more and more each time...

Our food arrived really quickly after we had ordered considering we were such a large party, so I was really impressed with the service. For starter I went for a special, which was a salad with chicken, bacon, sundried tomatoes, smoked cheddar and a honey mustard dressing.

It was so so good! The combination of flavours was amazing and I really liked the gooey slightly runny texture of the cheese. The honey mustard dressing was just the right sweetness, the salad was crispy, and the bacon was salty and perfectly cooked to add a bit of crunch. 

Other starters included the crispy haggis balls, neeps, tatties and malt whisky gravy (Christopher's choice - I nearly went for it but then decided I would have the special as I wouldn't get an opportunity to next time)

Quite a hard dish to present extremely attractively so I think they did a pretty good job of it! Traditional Scottish food perhaps doesn't offer the interesting colour constrasts of, for example, Italian!!

Sweet potato and aubergine soup with freshly baked bread 

I loved the plates; also, I should probably stop being obsessed by food in baby jam jars as I've seen it a few times, but it never gets any less sweet!

Hannah and Kat's goat's cheese in filo pastry with homemade beetroot chutney

So nicely presented, and a huge portion for a starter - why can't I just like goat's cheese?!

For main, I went for their famous (or so it seems after my whole family have told me about it) duck shepherd's pie with roasted veg and gravy

Gravy in a tiny saucepan!!

 The pie was topped with lovely creamy mash, and the duck underneath was shredded, so almost like you would have to put in pancakes at a Chinese! It was really tasty, and it was good to have the gravy to pour on top to add some moisture - otherwise I might have committed my classic sin of adding ketchup!

Some pictures of other mains

Potato gnocchi with mushroom and garlic cream, sundried tomatoes and rocket

Boeuf bourguignon with a puff pastry lid, mash and veg

Muir's beautifully cooked rare steak! 

I was so full after the main but wanted a traditionally Scottish pudding as I had bypassed the haggis, so I went for cranachan

Served in a pretty teacup - lovely presentation again!

 Cranachan is a mixture of whisky, cream, raspberries, honey and oats. This one was really creamy with sharp bursts of raspberry, and luckily for me, not too strong a taste of whisky (although Christopher tried it and said he could taste it really strongly, so I must have managed to avoid most of it!). I really liked the extra texture the oats added - otherwise it might have been just a bit too mousse like. I would definitely order it again and I was pleased to have tried something traditionally Scottish! Next up, deep fried mars bar....!

Another popular pudding was the sticky toffee which looked rich and delicious!

If you want to see their full food selection, you can view their menu here.

I recently went back to St Andrews with Christopher and my parents and visited Forgan's again - once for the Saturday night ceilidh, and once for another meal. The ceilidh was absolutely brilliant - so much fun! There were quite a lot of Scottish people there who clearly knew what they were doing, but it wasn't scary to join in as the dances were fairly easy to pick up and they explained all the moves beforehand (although my parents still managed to mess up big time much to our amusement!). The live band were great and it was just a really brilliant night - very atmospheric and even the drunk man celebrating his 50th birthday dressed as Elvis added to the ambience!!!

The meal was really good and probably one of the best of the week. For starter Christopher, my mum and I all had lobster bisque and my dad had chicken liver pâté

The lobster bisque was really rich and warming, with lovely soft homemade bread and butter in a jam jar! The pâté was smooth and rich too and I liked the presentation of it in the tin!

For main my mum and I had seared tuna steak with green beans, olives, tomato, new potatoes, sesame and soy dressing, and my dad had the burger with haggis and cheddar, and Christopher had duck shepherd's pie and chips (his usual!).

I tried my dad's burger and it was actually really good - seeing as I am a bit of a burger snob I wasn't expecting it to be too great but it was really juicy, with nice mature cheddar and the bun was soft and squidgy. Lovely fat chips too! My tuna was absolutely delicious - so fresh tasting, with saltiness from the soy, and tangy olives. All the veg was really well cooked and the combination of the vegetables with the fish added different textures and tasted great.

I also had a side of macaroni cheese because I just can't seem to resist it.

It was one of the best macaroni cheeses I've had in a while - nice strong cheese and a crunchy crispy top, with a rich and creamy cheese sauce!

I didn't have space for pudding and nor did my mum,  but my dad had Cranachan like I did last time, and Christopher had the macaroon cheesecake, both of which they really enjoyed.

Forgan's is a really great restaurant with excellent food and drink, made even better by the history of the building and the bothies. Also, fun fact - Hilary Clinton came here to eat when she was in St Andrews to be presented with her honorary degree! If it's good enough for her, it should be good enough for us all!