Michel Stars 2026: I tried 'exquisite' winter tasting menu from Scottish Michelin Star restaurant
A long-standing Scottish Michelin Star restaurant recently launched a cheaper tasting menu. Rosalind Erskine visited to try the winter addition.
It’s a windy, rainy and very cold night when I walked the 15 minutes to Cail Bruich, located on Great Western Road in Glasgow’s west end. Arriving windswept and frozen, straight away the cold was forgotten when we stepped through the heavy curtain that shields the door from Glasgow’s worst weather.
Cail Bruich has been around in Glasgow almost as long as I have. Opened in 2008, it takes its name from the Gaelic phrase, ‘to eat well’. I’ve spent a few evenings and life milestones in this restaurant, from a pre graduation meal with my parents back in its opening year to a post-Covid decadent dinner with a friend I’d not seen in months.
Over the years it has evolved and, under the stewardship of chef director Lorna McNee, it was awarded a Michelin Star in 2021 just five months after Ms McNee took over after leaving her role at the Two Michelin Star Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles. It also holds three AA Rosettes and, at 2024’s AA Hospitality Awards, it won Best Restaurant in Scotland, and received recognition for its wine list.
Joining Lorna in the kitchen is head chef David Scott, formerly of The Angel at Hetton and senior sous chef at Tom Kerridge's Hand and Flowers; while the restaurant manager is Simon McAtamney, who has been at the restaurant for over six years.
The restaurant interior is a nod to modern Scotland, which compliments the seasonally changing tasting menu, with S-shaped booths in the middle of the room - the biggest seating six -and small tables on the outskirts. It seats 28, each with a view to the open kitchen where the chefs can be seen hard at work - and often quite silent.
Scottish timbers are used throughout the restaurant, including in bespoke handmade wall panels interspersed with living wall plants, to bring a warm, natural feel to the space.
Back in the summer of 2025, Cail Bruich reduced the price of its tasting menu to £125 per person and now offers a weekend five course lunch menu - on Fridays and Saturdays - for £100.
It was the winter tasting menu that I’d braved the weather to try, and it kicked off with a lovely, delicately bubbly glass of champagne which we savoured with the canapes of west coast brown crab in a light Thai green curry dome; a beef tartare crumpet and a moreish old Winchester cheese crumpet.
We then moved on to the larger dishes on the tasting menu which included: crapaudine beetroot served with tangy taramasalata, horseradish, dill and nutty bites of puffed rice for texture. This was followed by hand-dived Orkney scallop served with preserved tomato, blood orange and smoked eel.
The bread course - milk bread brushed with chive butter served with shallow bowls of creedy carver duck - was a brilliant interlude and chance to tear and share the picture perfect loaves, dipped in the layers of confit duck leg, albufera sauce, apricot chutney and duck consomme and/or smothered in more chive butter. This could be topped with slices of cured duck ‘ham’ that had been seasoned with homemade five spice. This very messy course turned the idea of fine dining on its head as we all got crumbs, smears of butter and sauce on the pristine table cloth.
Next up was my favourite course of the night, Scrabster turbot which was stuffed with a scallop and truffle mousse served with morels, thin slivers of black truffle all in a deeply mellow madeira sauce.
The final savoury course was a thick loin of stobo estate sika deer served with a smoked game sausage wrapped in sea beets (and looking for all the world like a giant Brussels sprout) as well as braised chicory and quince for sweetness.
The pretty dessert was a set lemon curd filled with homey crémeux and bergamot gel served with a salted milk ice cream, sugar twill and wild Scottish honey infused with lavender.
Finally, teas and coffees were served with a lovely selection of petite fours - frozen chocolates - a version of dime and bounty bar (disguised as a pebble), black cherry macarons and valrhona caribe 66% dark chocolate and olive oil mi-cuit.
Lorna’s menus have always been a celebration of Scottish produce and the seasons, and the winter tasting menu is no exception. It was exquisite. Over six courses, not including the canapes and petite fours which were based on Lorna’s favourite childhood sweets, we enjoyed vegetables, seafood and game, all cooked with a flair, lightness of touch and creativity in flavour combining that you’d expect from this level but that’s always a joy.
This was high end, yet comforting food that left us all relaxed, enjoying the convivial atmosphere and forgetting the awful weather outside. If that’s not worth a return visit, I don’t know what is.
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