Food Review: The Shore Grill & Fish House, North Queensferry

Scotland’s newest view is a Shore thing

The Shore Grill & Fish House is the new restaurant at what is now the DoubleTree by Hilton in North Queensferry.

With unobscured views of the brand new Queensferry Crossing, the third bridge over this particular stretch of the Forth, the restaurant guarantees views that you are unlikely to find elsewhere in Scotland. And being next to the bridge(s) it’s easy to get here from Edinburgh, Glasgow or anywhere in the Central belt. We don’t have a car though so it was onto the train for us with North Queensferry station a mere 20-minute walk away involving a pleasant stroll down and back up the hill.

We visited on a Sunday when a roast is also available for £10.95. You can have this with soup (lentil on our visit) for £12.95, and add a dessert as well (pumpkin pie on our visit) for £14.95. 3 courses for £14.95 sounds like a pretty sweet deal!

We were seated in prime position at the window with a view of the new bridge and noticed that the windows open up fully for those rare sunny days (from speaking to staff we were informed that there are plans to create a balcony here for late summer nights). Actually, this was a rare sunny day. It was crisp outside but beside the window it was rather toasty!

We liked the look of the restaurant interior, a 70’s Scandi-vibe with leather banquette seating, wooden tables and a curved wooden ceiling, reminiscent of undulating waves, the inside of a ship or perhaps even a bridge!

For drinks we kept it simple, the Mrs had a glass of the house red, a Borsari Cabernet Sauvignon from Campania in Italy, which was surprising delicious for the money (175ml: £4.20, 250ml: £6, bottle: £18) while I had a half pint of the Caledonia Red Rye ale (£2.05), a sweet caramel-flavour beer with a mild bitter lemon finish.

We thought that as we’re beside the water we should have fish but they have a Josper Grill so we decided to order both meat and seafood.

Starters

Trying to cut down (LOL) Mrs Foodie ordered crab blini appetisers (£4.00) instead of a proper starter. She also asked for a gin & cucumber granita oyster but our server returned to tell us that they’d run out of oysters (boo)!  The blinis  were devoured quickly, with much licking of lips!

Scallops and black pudding (£9.50) – It was good to see 3 scallops on the plate, as we’ve had starters elsewhere where you only got 1 or 2! Both the scallops and the black pudding were cooked perfectly and tasted great so this was a promising starter. The apple wasn’t the strongest tasting though so you almost forgot it was there, maybe a sharper variety would  enhance the dish?

Mains

We had hoped to have macaroni cheese on the side but our server returned to tell us that they’d run out of that too and so we asked for two duck eggs instead (£3.00). We weren’t asked how we wanted them but they both had runny yolks as we hoped and arrived on a separate plate.

I had the 10oz Barnsley Cutlet AKA lamb cutlet (£20.00). We asked to have it cooked as per the chef’s recommendation, which was medium-rare so it came out nicely tender, served alongside some garlic butter (my choice from the six available sauces) and perfect fluffy chips.

The Shore ‘Haddock supper’ AKA Fish & chips (£12.00). The haddock was a massive slab of fish in a Caledonian Three Hop batter with triple cooked chips (you can have French fries if you prefer), chunky tartare sauce, mushy peas and charred lemon wedge. The fish batter was crispy with fluffy fish inside but there was a little bit of sogginess in between the fish and the batter, and the dinky portion of mushy peas gave Mrs Foodie a bit of a 🙁 face.

Desserts

Can you resist a dessert called the Flaming ‘Elvis’ Crème Brûlée (£6.50)? We couldn’t and so here it is. When they bring it to your table the tops of both Brûlées are aflame, though it’s difficult to get the full effect in such bright surroundings. And they’re not regular tasting brûlées either as each has peanut butter & strawberry jam in the mix. So why two? Elvis was a glutton wasn’t he!?

It wasn’t really a crème brûlée though as it didn’t have a crisp  top, however, you could certainly taste the flavours. As if there wasn’t enough sugar there’s also a white chocolate cookie on the plate, which Doubletree are known for, and this was soft, tasty and moreish.  Mrs Foodie’s only complaint was that it left her in a bit of a sugar coma, it was very very sweet!.

The Brown sugar custard & pecan tart (£6.50) was more to Mr Foodie’s liking – caramelised banana, lovely banana bread ice cream, a nutty tart and custard.

Verdict

The food was mostly good but the lack of crunch on the creme brulee was disappointing.  The view and friendly service helped us along the way – all 3 courses were served in just under 2 hours and we were advised about the soup of the day and Sunday lunch on arrival, which is great from a service point of view, however, staff had to return to our table twice to tell us that the kitchen had run out of things we’d wanted and we weren’t given menus again to consider other choices.

Free WiFi is provided via Hilton. Both male and female toilets were modern, sparkling and clean.

If you’re looking for a day out, or just happen to be travelling across the Forth and need a pit stop then the Shore is an ideal place to admire the bridges and enjoy some time out.

TL;DR
+ The view!
+ served quickly, 3 courses in just under 2 hours
+ Handy for the new Queensferry Crossing
+ Massive haddock portion
+ Josper-grilled meat
+ Chips were perfect
+ Great house wine
+ Free WiFi
+ 2 Creme Brûlée for the price of 1…

– …but no crunchy topping
– Fish a bit soggy and low on mushy peas
– Staff not up to speed on dishes that were off the menu

Contact:

Telephone: 01383 410000
Website: theshore-queensferry.co.uk

Location:

The Shore, Grill and Fish House, DoubleTree by Hilton Edinburgh – Queensferry Crossing, St. Margaret’s Head, North Queensferry, Fife KY11 1HP
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Disclaimer: Fred sez he would have liked to have seen the bridge, but then again he doesn’t even know what a bridge is.  He vouches that his hoomans are truthful about their dinner.