I WAS not sure if I was approaching this assignment from the right direction, quite literally, as we ventured into the Dunavon House Hotel in Dyce.
We had parked at the back, where refurbishment and building work appeared to have been carried out, and wandered around to the front.
Not really sure of our bearings, we peered through one of the front windows to have a peek at what we thought was the restaurant.
It turned out to be one of the bedrooms. It had slipped my mind that it was a hotel, too. Nobody was in it, thank heavens.
Can you imagine if someone had just walked out of the shower only to see my wife and I with our noses pressed up against the window? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
We hastily made for the front entrance. Once inside, we were among the bedrooms and some interesting original features on the ceiling and stairs. A few steps on and it was as though we had gone through a time warp as we breezed into what appeared to be a smart new lounge with cosy and eye-catching modern furnishings.
Further on was the newly refurbished dining-room, which was equally smart and modern. Just beyond lay a conservatory-style function room, where a large group of diners were enjoying themselves.
We were guided to a table near the door by a friendly waitress. We were the only guests in the dining-room, but everything was laid out and in its place ready for the evening’s action – so much so that the waitress politely, but firmly, turned down my wife’s request to move to an identical table nearby.
She said it was laid for four, so presumably she was not keen on re-laying the two tables. We didn’t want to make a fuss or cause any inconvenience, so moved on quickly to the menu.
The menu was an interesting and eye-catching line-up, and it was obvious that quite a bit of thought had gone into it to achieve a balance of familiar favourites and some more unusual dishes without stretching the kitchen with too many options.
For starters, I chose oak-smoked salmon wrapped around Atlantic prawns with lemon and basil mayonnaise. My wife went for chicken liver pate with oatcakes.
We both had a plate and knife for bread or rolls, but were not offered any, which seemed odd. By the time we noticed, we were halfway through our starters, so we didn’t ask about it.
Perhaps it was because we were absorbed by the quality of our starters, which were rather nice. If you are into salmon and prawns, you will know there is something very comforting about the texture and taste, and this generously proportioned version had the desired effect.
There was also a generous portion of pate across the table, with a sweet, red onion salad as a nice contrast.
There was not a lot of natural light in this room, but the ceiling was dotted with downlights to compensate. We thought fewer lights would be better to create a more cosy ambience, but that was just our taste.
Talking of which, my taste buds were leaning towards pheasant and black pudding stack for the main course, but in the end I went for lamb shank. My wife picked out a 10-ounce T-bone steak with the usual trimmings and Diane sauce.
With a big party for dinner in the other room and the dining-room filling up, I thought service might be a bit slow, but the mains arrived at a decent speed, which presumably meant the kitchen had put in some preparatory work.
The impressive lamb shank caused a few heads to turn as the waitress paraded across the room with it held high. A couple of lamb shank orders went in almost straight away from some people who had just sat down and spied this fine specimen on my table.
It tasted as good as it looked, with deliciously tender meat falling off the bone and combining well with a rosemary jus and roasted vegetables. I also asked for black pudding mash, which was supposed to go with a pork dish, but they were happy to do it. A nice touch, I thought, to pander to a mashed potato addict.
My wife’s steak was a whopper, but was overdone for a medium. It was still tasty, however, but she left the onion rings and mushrooms, which are usually favourites with her, as they seemed to come with too much cooking oil or fat for her taste.
We rounded off with sticky toffee pudding and ice cream and a home-made blackcurrant cheesecake for me, which looked a strange pink/purple colour under these lights but was very good.
With a couple of glasses of wine and a beer, the bill came to £67.
As we were leaving, another couple was asking to switch tables, but as the waitress’s voice faded away, we could just hear her saying something along the lines of, “Oh no, sorry, Mr and Mrs So-and-So are going there. They always have that table ...”.
We are all creatures of habit, I suppose, and it looks, on this showing, that there are plenty of people making Dunavon House a habit.
Dunavon House Hotel, 60 Victoria Street, Dyce, Aberdeen. Phone 01224 722483. Visit www.dunavon-hotel.com