The Press and Post - Issue no. 23

Continental City Chic

Lets be honest, from the outside Callander Meadows is not the most inviting looking restaurant I have ever seen. I suppose that's because it's quite difficult at first glance to tell what sort of establishment it actually is. Well it is definitely worth suspending any misgivings and heading across the threshold for a meal.

What met me when I ventured forth, was a sup rising, but for me pleasingly continental atmosphere. The restaurant is a lovely cross between a French bistro and a Scottish country house. Tartan curtains and a roaring log fire provide the Scottish part and chalk boards with French quotations and a wall of bottles of wine add the Gallic influence. The international flavour is enhanced by the jazz and the knowledgeable, charming American waiter, Marc.

The food continues the Auld Alliance, with the best of Scottish produce being used to create dishes with a typically French, but modern, feel.

To start I had Prosciutto with Celeriac and Pear Salad and my husband had Ham and Pork Rillettes with Mixed Pickles and Chutney. My Prosciutto was delicious. The Celeriac and Pear salad was a bit like a coleslaw, as it was served in mayonnaise, and worked really well with the cold meat.My husbands starter, although enjoyable, wasn't quite such a success.We visit France often and both adore rillettes. This rillette was not what we were expecting, which is not to say it wasn't good, and the chutney was delicious. For the uninitiated rillettes is a cross between a potted meat and a course pate. The one at the Meadows is cooked with white wine and chicken stock to give added flavour, but it changes the texture, which is perhaps what suprised us.

For main courses we had Paupiettes of Sole with Braised Fennel and Veronique Sauce and pan fried Fillet Steak with Horseradish Mash, Red Onion Marmalade, and Red Wine Sauce.

Talk about melt in the mouth! The steak was just fab - and when my hubbie ordered a blue steak (very rare) he actually got one! The combination of the heat from the mash, the sweetness of the marmalade and the crunchiness of the straw potatoes made for a gorgeous mix of tastes and textures. But despite the richness of the dish it had a surprisingly light touch.

My sole was also lovely. Ever thought of having grapes with fish? Perhaps not but that is what you get with a Veronique sauce and the touch of sweetness is a very nice addition to the fish.

Our meals were served with Gratin Dauphinoise (a potato, cream, garlic and cheese dish) and a selection of fresh veg. Again Gratin Dauphinoise is one of our favourites, but it is rare to find it done properly. The Gratin Dauphinoise is the best one I've had - apart from my mum's!

Next dessert. What can I say about the desserts at the Meadows? The choice on the menu consisited of Steamed Cranberry and Date Sponge with Mulled Red Wine Sauce, Spiced Apple Pie with Custard, Frozen Dark Chocolate Mousse, with Baileys Cream Quenelles, Warm Rice Pudding with Plum Compote and Baked Hazelnut and Vanilla Cheesecake with Orange Syrup. Sound fantastic? Well it was and the best bit of all is that they have a dessert called the Wave - which is a plate with a portion of each dessert on it! Hedonism on a plate was my hubbies description.

You may be wondering what the cost of this feast was? Around £20 per head is the answer. Add in wine, which is available from around £10 per bottle and you could have a very good meal for two for £50. Bargain! I'll definitely be back and I would recommend you to give it a go. Christmas Eve could be the ideal opportunity to treat a loved one with the Meadows putting on a six course gala dinner for £32.50

If you want to try the culinary delights at the Meadows for yourself, then between Dec 10 and Jan 10 the restaurant will be open every night from 6.30 - 9.30 PM ( apart from Christmas day and Boxing day)
Lunches are good value too with a two course meal costing just £6.95. Lunch is served from 12.30 - 2.30 PM daily.

Nick and Sussanah Parkes, who own the Meadows are Gleneagles trained, and it shows. The nice thing is that at Callander Meadows you can get Gleneagles type food without paying Gleneagles type prices! Give it a go.

The Lonely Planet Guide

Run By Chefs who formally plied their trade at the famous Gleneagles,this is a sophisticated restaurant with price that are surprisingly reasonable; if you have lunch here for seven quid you'll feel like Rob Roy after a successful cattle raid.

The menu is mainly Scottish and the dishes are prepared with flair and presented with style. Up stairs there are three bedrooms from £50 elegantly kitted out with dark-varnished furnishings. One of the rooms has a four posted bed and all are colourful in the more stylish way.

Sunday Herald

16 October 2005

‘A truly impressive venison dish was an advert for eating deer. The meat had a deep, rounded flavour and none of the sourness that can spoil some game. It was so melt-in-the-mouth, you could almost eat it with a fork’
Restaurant review: Joanna Blythman

Sunday Herald readers are a switched-on bunch and I am glad to concur with this reader’s opinion. Callander Meadows is a more than reasonable small town restaurant. Nothing to shout about in the greater order of things gastronomic, but downright brilliant for Callander.

The first likeable thing about it is that it is very unpretentious. The environment is basic and lacks an eye for interiors. It has unforgiving central lighting, no candles, bare table tops, hard chairs, and on my my visit at least, it was not quite warm enough. All that is forgivable because it is inexpensive for the quality of food and cooking.

My usual antipathy to black pudding was overcome because it was an excellent example of its sort: mealy, expertly spiced and not in the least greasy. Served with a careful green salad of interesting leaves, alongside a home-made plum chutney, it went down well.

The other starter of avocado “blancmange” was reasonable too, although bland, and not enough of an improvement on a good ripe sliced avocado to merit the effort.

Main courses fielded a truly impressive venison dish which really was an advert for eating deer. The meat had a deep, rounded flavour and none of the sourness that can spoil some game. It was so melt-in-the-mouth, you could almost eat it with a fork. A hard-fried potato rosti and a good gravy added more appeal.

A breast of duck was nicely cooked, pink as requested, if underseasoned. It came with a crunchy crown of straw potatoes. The drop in standard came with the “side vegetables”. Apart from a passable gratin Dauphinois, it consisted of the usual dud, watery blanched vegetables. When will we Scots eventually realise that boiled cauliflower, or carrot, or kohlrabi or whatever is irredeemably dull? Either you integrate the vegetables into the dish, or cook a couple of careful seasonal vegetables in an interesting way. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Desserts are something of a feature. Two can share a platter for £11, but anyone other than a glutton would agree that it would easily serve three. The highlight for me was a vibrantly zesty lemon mascarpone cream with a zingy lime syrup, brambles and grilled, thin slices of lemon cake or lemon “toast”. But a quivering panettone pudding, a solid malted chocolate pecan tart, a slightly gluey cheesecake with red berry coulis, and gingered apple snow all had a lot going for them.

Callander Meadows marks a welcome breakthrough for Callander. Maybe other local businesses will get the message that everyone, tourists and locals alike, deserves better.

The List

( http://www.list.co.uk/place/102767-callander-meadows/ )

With a commitment to fine, locally-sourced produce and no-frills cookery, Callander Meadows is helping its parent town shed a reputation for culinary misdemeanours. Situated in a handsome old town house that was, in a previous life, one of Callander's many tartanised tearooms,

Nick and Susannah Parkes' laudable venture seems successfully to have exorcised lingering ghosts. Both formerly at Gleneagles, the Parkes have eschewed the ornate tendencies of their old stomping ground in favour of a homely philosophy of robust, flavoursome food that strikes a knock-out blow for simplicity.

A salad of goat's cheese, fennel and pear and onion marmalade combines tang and sweetness to good effect, while a seafood pâté, chunky in texture with generous amounts of prawn and smoked salmon, comes complete with crunchy, home-made oatcakes and a light, but creamy, chive mayonnaise.

A main of poached salmon with spring greens and dill butter sauce is all you'd wish from the dish: it's perfectly cooked fish with an understated, yet wholly fitting accompaniment. Susannah comes into her own with the desserts - a rich chocolate brownie with maple syrup and a slab of Baileys cheesecake proving fitting finales to a refreshingly different Trossachs experience.