Art Lover's Café

The 2013 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2013) edition.

Not just for art lovers and ladies who lunch, this is fine dining at reasonable prices in a unique and aesthetically appealing setting. The house may be a 1990s baby itself but the original Mackintosh design is from the first year of the last century. Charles Rennie’s blueprint was a late (and unsuccessful) competition entry and today those looking for late dining in this spacious, bright and airy restaurant may be downhearted too, with food only served until 4pm. Attractive presentation is important here, and the food lives up to what it sits on and how it looks. Sea bream is grilled with a tomato and fennel broth and served with crab beignets, deep-fried gatecrashers to the sweet and delicate meeting of fish flesh. Carnivore treats make up most of the à la carte mains and the one vegetarian interloper is the intriguing gateau of tattie scone filled with creamed wild mushrooms, cracked black pepper mash and chargrilled asparagus. Apricot and white chocolate bavarois, a fluffy, soft custard-creamy dessert, is the perfect finishing flourish to the very fairly priced set menu.

• High point: Fine food in very fine surroundings
• Low point: No evening opening