I RECOGNISED her as soon as I walked through the door but had to sift through the cobwebs of my mind going back almost 17 years to place her.
It was Ann Doran, of course. She and husband Alan ran the Glenlivet bar in Regent Quay, alongside Aberdeen harbour, and it became my home from home when I first arrived in the city.
They made me feel right at home and I have only fond memories of my times there. Later, they gave the bar a makeover and changed the name to Characters. A good name, I thought, as I remembered some off the “characters” who used to frequent the Glenlivet.
Now Alan and Ann have done a makeover on another well known former harbour-side bar, the Anchorage, and transformed it into the smart, sophisticated 210 Bistro.
Warm greetings and smiling faces from Alan and Ann were just what I remembered from all those years ago. I knew we were in for a treat on Saturday night.
It appears a shrewd, and brave, move by the couple, and a business partner, to pour £1.5million into this project. It’s not the prettiest part of town, but it has potential, particularly with the footfall created by the Union Square shopping complex a stone’s throw away.
As I gazed out from 210’s first-floor restaurant across the harbour, with the lights of oil supply vessels twinkling through the dark, I thought how wonderful it would be if a few more enterprising individuals invested in this stretch of the quayside to make it come alive.
It has been open for only a year, but 210 is already a firm favourite and has a loyal clientele. It was fully booked on the night we visited. It occupies four levels, with a ground-floor bar/cafe, the restaurant on the first floor and private dining and conference rooms above.
It has modern, sharp lines everywhere, but also a warm, cosy feel, which is not an easy combination to achieve. The waiting staff were friendly, well drilled and knowledgeable about the food and where it had been sourced. We discovered that our excellent waiter was Alan and Ann’s son.
The menu became a talking point in itself as my wife and I scanned an impressive range of eye-catching dishes. Many menus just look the same these days, with the same old variations, but this was fresh and different.
For starters, we went for warm Thai steak salad with green leaves and spring onions and smoked halibut on warm bilini with salad and creme fraiche.
These proved to be an elegant pair of show-stoppers and were beautifully presented. The steak was juicy and tender, with a spicy sauce reminiscent of black bean. My smoked halibut came in delicate, wafer-thin strips, but worked well with the bilini and made a nice change from smoked salmon, for example.
I observed a man at the next table staring in rapture at a scallop on the end of his fork, and he was just repeating the word, “excellent”, over and again to his fellow diners. He also gave the thumbs-up to a passing waiter just to reinforce his point.
For mains, my wife went for rack of lamb on a bed of horseradish mashed potato, with honey-glazed roasted vegetables. For me, it was the more exotic tandoori monkfish with king prawns on skewers and saffron rice, with coconut and coriander. I told you it was bit different here.
As it arrived, Mr Doran jun informed me proudly that the monkfish had been landed just yards away. My dish was bursting with colour and flavour. My wife’s delicious lamb and mash could not fail to hit the spot, either, and its complementary mint jus finished it off nicely – but it didn’t stop her from being unable to resist the temptation to reach over and help herself to some of my prawns.
As we polished these dishes off, we both felt we could have eaten more, partly because they were so good, but also because our only criticism was that both mains seemed a bit on the light side. My wife’s three small lamb cutlets and my two skewers did not quite match the price tag of just 5p short of £17 and £15, respectively.
210 was filling up fast and Alan and Ann were greeting patrons like old friends. Maybe they were for all I knew, but I also gained the impression that quite a few were regulars and there was a nice atmosphere around the place.
We rounded off with an exquisite vanilla creme brulee and a selection of continental cheeses. Our bill for the food came to £50, with another £20 for drinks.
As we left, we bumped into Alan and Ann again and they found time for a chat and bade us a very warm farewell, but they could not quite place me from their past. Not surprising when you consider how many faces they must see. They asked us to spread the word, but it seemed to me that they were already doing pretty well at that themselves.
Nice food, nice place, nice people – what more can you ask for?
210 Bistro, 210 South Market Street, Aberdeen. Phone 01224 211857.