7 Scottish Gaelic restaurant names and what they mean - from Fhior to Orrin
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Why give your restaurant a boring name?
In Scotland, we don’t give our restaurants our own names, or something relating to the location.
That’s passe.
Instead, beautiful and evocative sounding Gaelic or Old Scots words have become fashionable for hanging above the door.
Here are a few of our favourites, and their meanings.
This name comes from the Gaelic word ‘fior’, which means true. That seems pretty apt, since head chef Scott Smith, who owns the place with his wife, Laura, has stuck to his locally sourced credentials since his place opened back in 2018. They’ve just launched a new a la carte menu, to sit alongside their tasting menus at lunch and dinner.
36 Broughton Street, Edinburgh (0131 477 5000, www.fhior.com)
In Gaelic, this phrase translates as ‘to eat well’. Indeed, they have a Michelin star under head chef Lorna McNee, and dishes might include Kirkwood Farm’s special Shh’annu lamb, served with courgette, romesco and rosemary. You can drink well too, as their Cail Bruich x The Macallan drinks trolley features Jing Teas and three varieties of malt whisky, teamed with petit fours.
725 Great Western Road, Glasgow (0141 334 6265, www.cailbruich.co.uk)
This means ‘meetings of the waters’ in Gaelic, hence Inverness and Inverkip. Inver restaurant with rooms is on the shores of Loch Fyne, and its co-owner, Pam Brunton, has written a new cookbook, Between Two Waters, which is published by Canongate on September 12.
Strathlachlan, Strachur, Argyll & Bute (01369 860 537, www.inverrestaurant.co.uk)
IASG
You pronounce this ‘ee-usk’, and it’s the Gaelic word for fish. This restaurant is part of Glasgow’s five-star Blythswood Hotel, and serves a range of sea creatures, from a dish of sea trout, smoked mussels, pickled salsify, lovage and cannellini beans to grilled monkfish and whole plaice on the bone.
11 Blythswood Square, Glasgow (0141 240 1633, www.iasgrestaurant.com)
It may sound a bit like a drunken donkey’s bray, but this word is Gaelic for ‘barley’. So, is there any barley on the menu right now? Nope, but you can try a seasonal tasting menu that includes fillet of wild turbot, broad beans, baby squid and vin jaune.
68 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh (0131 531 4680, www.eornarestaurant.com)
According to the owners, this name is the Anglicised version of odhran in Gaelic, and is generally understood to mean ‘pale green’. If that’s your favourite colour to see on your plate, then order the sweetbread with Parmesan, pea and mint puree, or the duck with caramelised celeriac, hispi cabbage, miso glazed carrots and bramble gastrique.
2-6 South Street, Elgin (01343 357 564, www.orrinrestaurant.com)
It’s the Scottish Gaelic word for bread, and that’s what you’ll get at this Dunkeld bakery, which is owned by Flora Shedden of Great British Bake Off fame. As well as excellent sourdough loaves, they also sell goodies including cardamom buns and spinach and artichoke, radish and feta Danish.
2 Atholl Street, Dunkeld (01350 727029, www.aran-bakery.com)
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