The Foodie Guide

  Don't let an unspectacular exterior fool you – inside lies an exceptional restaurant that's rapidly attracting plaudits I TRY not to be deceived by appearances, but from the outside the New County Hotel isn't much to look at. The whitewashed Victorian terrace housing this little boutique hotel is as close to the conspicuously run-down bit of Perth's centre as it is to the posh quarters along the road, where the grand façade of the library dominates the skyline. Yet once you step through the front door, the whole environment mysteriously morphs into that of a top-quality hotel. The place was extensively renovated just over a year ago, and it shows. The service is slick, the lounge comfortable yet smart, while the bar is somewhere you would be happy to while away a few hours in cheerful contemplation of a pint or two. All of that, though, is just a support cast for the star of the show, Opus One. The hotel's restaurant is immaculate and its menu immediately draws you in with its mix of simple ingredients augmented with novel twists. As soon as the dishes start to arrive, it becomes apparent that this is food designed to make you sit up and take notice. It does so brilliantly, too, grabbing your attention and keeping it from first bite to last. But we're a conservative bunch, and it has taken time for the fact that this Skoda has a Ferrari engine to filter through to the outside world. After a year of producing consistently outstanding food, it is shedding the 'best-kept secret' tag. Word has spread and the place is now attracting decent head-counts at weekends. The plaudits and gongs are starting to arrive, too. Head chef Ryan Young and sous chef David Cochrane head up a startlingly young team, which has gained two AA rosettes and the title of Rising Star Restaurant of 2009 at the Scottish Hotel Awards. Judging by our meal, these are well deserved. The first delivery was an amuse bouche of bruschetta smeared with finely chopped roasted red peppers and topped with three streaks of anchovy, all supplemented with rocket oil. It was a quirky mix of strong flavours that fused beautifully. Within ten minutes of sitting down, we were already on our mettle. Our suspicion that this could be an exceptional meal was confirmed when the starters arrived. I'd chosen the marinated breast of pigeon with raspberry vinaigrette and a smoked venison rasher, while Mike had gone for carrot and coriander soup. Rosanna opted for the boudin of scallops with poached asparagus and pea foam. For some reason, I've found that cooking pigeon perfectly is, along with the ability to produce perfect risotto, a useful barometer of a chef's competence. Young passed this simple if idiosyncratic test without breaking sweat. The six intricately arranged crimson stripes of pigeon breast on my plate were absolutely spot-on: just a hint of gameyness, so tender I could have used a fork to slice them in half. I dabbled briefly with the raspberry accompaniment and then thought better of it: this dish was best consumed without fripperies. If Mike's soup passed muster, then Rosanna's boudin of scallops – quite literally a huge sausage-shaped expanse of the stuff – reduced her to mumbling ecstasy. We took this as a sign of approval. If our starters looked like mini works of art, our main courses were fully fledged masterpieces. Mike's sautéed loin of lamb rolled in herbs and served with what was described as a nicoise salad garnish was particularly spectacular. All the salad ingredients were there, from the boiled quail's egg to the minutely chopped green beans, disassembled to flank what can only be described as a spectacular food sculpture. It tasted remarkably good, too, the lamb incredibly tender and succulent. Next to that, both my roasted saddle of venison with roasted salsify and shallots, and Rosanna's monkfish wrapped in parma ham looked almost run of the mill. Neither were remotely ordinary, though: the monkfish and venison, which came with an excellent wild mushroom ravioli and a small jug of garlic consommé (the latter turned out to be surplus to requirements), were both perfectly cooked dishes. The pick of the puddings was definitely Mike's supremely light yet zesty lemon and crème fraîche mousse with rhubarb crumble and custard, an ensemble that was once again broken down into its constituent parts. As every fragment turned out to be near-perfect, this was no problem. My hot chocolate fondant, however, wasn't great: not only was it pretty stodgy, but the rum and raisin ice-cream was surprisingly bland and the hot chocolate shot lukewarm. Rosanna was equivocal about her sticky toffee pudding, too. Yet there were no complaints about my eye-wateringly strong double espresso, which was accompanied by a tray containing five petits fours per person (I'm pretty sure I got to double figures). There is, in short, very little not to like about Opus One. The service was slick and cheery, the food generally fluctuated between good and great, the wine list worked for me, and at less than £30 a head it's great value (even better is a night's dinner, bed and breakfast at £59). The only downside was a lack of atmosphere. But if the wooden-floored room itself looked very sparse, then that's hardly surprising, because on the Tuesday night we visited we were the only diners. However, if the food continues to be this consistently good, then this is a state of affairs that won't persist for much longer.

  Magnum opus By Joanna Blythman Restaurant review Do you know what? I think we’re actually making food progress in Scotland. OPUS ONE, New County Hotel 20-30 County Place, Perth 01738 623355 Lunch £15.95/£17.95 Dinner £23.95/£27.95 Food rating 9/10 Do you know what? I think we're actually making food progress in Scotland. I'm on a roll with good meals of late and Opus One simply confirms what I take to be the emerging trend. Five years ago - even two - I'd have expected the cooking in a place like this to be pretty duff, or at best, predictable and dull. But this recently opened restaurant in the smart, family-owned, boutique New County Hotel in Perth cheered up my January with its well-chosen, carefully cooked food. The Perth area, of course, is a bubbling cocotte of chef talent. Andrew Fairlie has been installed for long enough at Gleneagles to provide a fertile training ground for hard-working, ambitious young chefs who want to raise their game. Chefs who worked with the most reliable Jeremy Wares, once of 63 Tay Street and now at the Anglers in Guildtown, have turned up in all sorts of good places, like Hamish's in Methven. Ryan Young, Opus One's head chef worked there but the night I ate at Opus One, Young was on a night off and his sous chef, David Cochrane, was at the helm. He put not a foot wrong. If this was the B-team, Young must be an excellent trainer as well as a fine chef. Presentation, as regular readers know, is not one of my key concerns. So often cerebral fiddling interferes with the flavour, but here everything was neatly and enticingly presented and heightened expectations were delivered in the mouth. A delicate carpaccio of raw monkfish cured in a refreshing, zesty lime oil formed a pretty bracelet around an elegant roll of cucumber that encased a fresh little salad of micro leaves and sprouted greens. Another starter - a beetroot risotto with chalky-firm rice that was thoroughly infused with the root's sweetness - came with a notably high-quality goat cheese "crottin" on top which had been grilled to just the right bubbling brownness. advertisement ‘The lemon tart was about as good as lemon tart ever gets’ Eschewing my current fish and vegetable-centric eating habits, I was drawn to the loin of venison because it came with a marsala jus. I wasn't disappointed; the venison was stunningly tender with a not-over-pronounced wild flavour that spoke of heather moors and wintry woods. The marsala added a round, raisiny sweetness that flattered the meat. It came with melting confit potatoes, celeriac purée lent backbone by rosemary and a plump mushroom tortellini. Every mouthful was pleasing. Sautéed fillet of beef made a similarly manageable and well-balanced dish. The steak came flanked by a dainty "crumble" of unctuous oxtail on top of creamed savoy cabbage, but the real stroke of inspiration here was an invigorating verdant-green parsley purée. Dinner at Opus One costs £27.95 for three courses - that's remarkable value for cooking of this standard. It comes miraculously even cheaper with the hotel's winter rates; £59 buys you dinner, bed and breakfast. There's cheaper food to be had in the bar too. I scanned the menu, which looked very promising. In particular, I'll be back to try the Border tart with nutmeg ice cream. Back in Opus One, we happily lapped up our desserts. A warm chocolate risotto (essentially a rice pudding made more grown up by the addition of bitter chocolate) really hit the spot. Its accompanying white chocolate ice cream (often sickeningly cloying) was surprisingly light and a quenelle of intensely dark, glossily emulsified chocolate mousse elevated the dish from the comforting to the stylish. The lemon tart was about as good as lemon tart ever gets, given the technical challenges of keeping pastry crumbly and short under a custard. I predicted that the chocolate sorbet that came with it wouldn't go. I take it back. The sorbet was bracingly bitter and didn't add to the sugar load of the tart. You could almost convince yourself that it was a health food - polyphenol antioxidants and all that. The front-of-house service here is affable and solicitous. Don't, whatever you do, skip coffee and tea. They come with a plateful of home-made chocolates that are not to be missed. As you will have gathered, to add to its other accomplishments, Opus One shows supreme competence in the chocolate department.

  Opus One: It’s simply the best meal of the year! Dec 5 2008 by Lady Who Lunches “IT’S the best meal I’ve had since Andrew Fairlie’s, so make sure you give the place a good review,â€? was Daddy’s parting shot as the Range Rover disappeared in a cloud of cigar smoke (him) and gin fumes (Mummy). I must admit I was a tad taken aback by his enthusiasm – not because it wasn’t the best meal I’ve had all year as well, but because the lunch had started out rather unpromisingly. “Good gravy, I’m not walking all the way up South Street for lunch,â€? moaned the old fella when I told him the intended location of his 77th birthday treat. Luckily, a poster outside That Bar advertising the forthcoming appearance of the Cheeky Girls seemed to take his mind off the trek from Watergate to County Place. Judging from Daddy’s reaction, I can’t help but think that ‘The Cheekies’ should swap their tour of night clubs for a tour of golf clubs…they certainly seem to strike a chord with gentlemen of a certain age. His mood didn’t improve when our charming waiter pointed out that we could have saved the walk if we had used the hotel car park! He was still grumpy when the small, but beautifully formed, lunchtime menu arrived, but after a glass Petit Ange his mood began to soften. By the time he had wiped up the last of his spicy lentil soup with a warm roll, he was purring like a pussycat. My steamed west coast mussels (Other Half had the same) with smoked bacon, shallots and garlic, served in a white wine and cream sauce were equally good, and Mummy positively raved about her baked goats cheese souffle with caramelised, beetroot and rocket salad. Main courses were equally successful. By-passing the hake with chorizo mash, the pan-fried breast of corn-fed chicken and the butternut squash risotto, all four of us went for the slow roasted belly of pork. An unusual dish to see on a restaurant menu, pork belly needs long slow cooking otherwise what should be an unctuous treat can become a fatty nightmare. I’m glad to report that it was the former and if I’ve eaten anything better in the last year then I can’t rightly remember when. Coffees and mints finished off what was – by general consensus – the best meal of the year. And at £12.95 for two courses, it was one of the best value too! At a glance Venue: Opus One @ the New County Hotel, 26 County Place, Perth. Food: Small, but perfectly formed, lunchtime menu aimed at the serious foodie. Service: Fast, friendly and unobtrusive. Décor: Crisp linen, sparkling crystal and dark wood, a flickering fireplace adds a cosy touch to the room. Price: £73.75 (four people with wine).