WE were invited along for a taste of the impressive new restaurant and cocktail bar at North Ayrshire's Seamill Hydro.
And it's going to be a big hit with foodies and cocktail fans, if the special previews are anything to go by...
Owners the RAD Hotel Group unveiled Tides, the resort’s new dining space, this week, transforming the former Orangery restaurant into an all-day destination from breakfast through to supper.
The design follows the ebb and flow of the tides, with curved banquettes, storytelling murals, and undulating bar detailing that mirrors the movement of water.
And the view from the new look restaurant is nothing less than spectacular, making the most of the adjoining Firth of Clyde and Arran beyond.
Meanwhile, the new champagne and cocktail lounge Sirens draws inspiration from lunar goddesses, sirens, and themes of transformation, and is designed to feel hypnotic, intimate, and atmospheric.
With such a stunning new look, the food had to be extra special. And the Hydro team may well have surpassed that - especially for seafood fans.
My wife Helen and I both decided on the seared Orkney scallops as a starter. Accompanied by braised fennel, lemon and parsley with a brown butter crumb, they were sensational. Certainly amongst the tastiest scallops I've dined on... and I've enjoyed a few over the years.
For the main course, Helen decided on the impressive individual beef wellington - fillet steak with mushroom deluxe, puff pastry, red wine jus, maple glazed carrots, fondant potato and charred broccoli. It was an extremely worthy addition to the new menu.
I stuck with a seafood theme and went for the whole chargrilled sea bream, which came with fennel and herbs, roast baby potato, charred peppers and a delicious lemon and tarragon butter. There was a fair bit of eating in the bream, which was cooked to perfection and slipped off the bone beautifully.
The selection of sweet courses was exquisite too.
Helen dived into a passionfruit and coconut panacotta, accompanied with lime and lemongrass and a miso compote, while I tucked into a Burnt Basque cheesecake, which came with macerated liquor cherries. A pretty heavenly end to a fine meal.
The menu offers a very wide range of choices, which we reckon will suit most tastes.
One of the starter highlights was a seafood tower to share, with chilled poached langoustines, salmon rillette toasts, lemon king prawns, parsley oil, miso cured salmon, sesame seeds, Bloody Mary baby prawn shots, focaccia, herb butter and Blackthorn Salt.
There's a range of speciality and classic mains, ranging from Miso-cured and glazed salmon, roast duck breast, Chimichurri chargrilled chicken, Saag masala curry and the Tides seafood pie.
Classics include steak pie, lasagne, Cajun spiced chicken breast and beer battered fish and chips.
The grill offers langoustines, a 10oz rib of Ayrshire beef, fillet of Scotch beef, and an intriguing Cote De Beof bone in rib for two, as well as tasty looking house burgers and crispy chicken burgers.
After the meal, we made our way to the nearby Sirens cocktail lounge, finishing off the evening with a couple of Old Fashioned drinks...
So it was five stars all the way for the food and drink as well as the setting... but what made the dining experience even more special was the attentive and informative staff team who looked after us so well.
More cocktails, anyone?
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