Restaurant review: Hefty portions of quality food equals serious value for money at The Cock and Bull in Aberdeenshire

By Julia Bryce

July 14 2022, 5:00 pm

A few of the dishes. Pictures by Wullie Marr / DC Thomson

Is anyone else’s social calendar crazy just now?

There’s a big birthday, four weddings, a holiday, multiple dinners and lunches with family and friends and I think there may even be a trip away one weekend in the space of six weeks. I tell you what though, my bank account is paying for it.

When I arrange to go our for dinner value for money is a big factor, even more so if I’m ravenous.

I’d just been to two weddings back-to-back over the weekend and needed some filling scran that would hit the spot.

The Cock and Bull

It has been forever since I last ventured to The Cock and Bull in Balmedie so I figured I’d give that a go.

I called my sister to see if she was up for a bite to eat. I don’t know any student that would refuse food, especially when they aren’t fitting the bill, so she tagged along.

After a quick look around the shops in Aberdeen city centre, I phoned and booked a table before we drove 20 minutes out the road.

It had been a long time since I last dined at the country pub with rooms and its interior had changed a lot.

The front area, where dogs are allowed, has been recently refurbished with rather quirky interiors and colour galore. There’s book shelves to break the space up, and big leather sofas, intriguing animal portraits and antiques.

Up a set of short stairs lies the main restaurant area which boasts a wooden chandelier decked out with wine and Champagne bottles, some booth seating and has a more neutral, earthy colour pallete.

After being greeted at the door by a friendly staff member, we were shown our seats in the restaurant and got to pick where we sat. I opted for a table at the window as it was such a gorgeous day. While it overlooked the children’s play area we also spied a goat in a pen at the back of the venue which distracted us from reviewing the various menus we’d been handed.

There was a specials menu, a lunch one and a main one to pick from, so the choice was aplenty.

The dining area up the small set of stairs with the quirky chandelier.

The food

We ordered two soft drinks and debated for a while over what to have.

You can’t go wrong with fish and chips or a good burger, but the pork belly was teasing me, as was the prawn and chorizo gumbo.

For starters we’d both eyed up the black pudding spring roll (£7.50) and agreed we’d share that plus the haggis bon bons special (£7.50).

My sister chose the pulled pork barbecue macaroni and cheese, another dish I had eyed up.

As if we weren’t going to be ordering more than enough the salt and pepper chips side was a must.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy so our food appeared relatively quickly.

I was fair chuffed with my plate which boasted a spring roll cut diagonally in half on top of a bed of Scotch bonnet chilli jam and Asian slaw with red onion and shredded carrot, which almost reminded me of kimchi.

The black pudding itself was deliciously rich and the pastry shell was crisp and thin. The sauce was warm with heat from the chillies and worked really well with the bold flavours.

On the other side of the table my sister said the haggis was heavy with spice and that the crispy breadcrumb casing which had been deep fried was lovely.

There were three bon bons served with rocket, thin slices of red onion and chopped tomatoes.

The only bug bear we had was the lack of whisky mayonnaise to dip the bon bons into. Each needed a little more of a generous dollop underneath it in our opinions.

We polished both plates off, grabbing a few mouthfuls of each others as we did.

The venue was picking up now as customers had started to trickle in. Ladies lunching and businessmen catching up mainly.

A bathroom break was needed and on my way I discovered a blackboard covered in pictures of customers’ dogs which I thought was such a lovely touch.

Again, our food didn’t take too long to venture from the kitchen and we were presented with two huge portions.

The mac and cheese (£15.75) bubbled away as some of the sauce dribbled down the side of the bowl. It came served with fries topped with a heap of Cajun spice, with many of them engulfed by the spice.

I was so tempted to reach over and stick my fork in the crusty top, but got completely distracted by my gumbo (£18).

I haven’t had it in ages so this was a welcome treat. Four massive king prawns sat in the saucy spiced tomato and red pepper rice and the chunks of chorizo were enormous. I must have had at least half a chorizo ring sausage in there. It was delicious and very well cooked.

Prawn and chorizo gumbo went down a treat.

The shellfish was succulent and the rice was soft without being mushy. The onion and peppers throughout had been fried, but remained a little al dente, and the tiny chopped pieces of spring onion to garnish added a sharp freshness.

There was serious value for money here.

My sister commented on how creamy the cheese sauce was and the pasta was cooked perfectly.

It was light, and there was plenty of it. The grilled cheese on top had a good crust to it having been in the oven. As for the tender pulled pork, the sauce it was in was sweet and smoky, but my sister would have preferred if the meat had been mixed throughout.

The salt and pepper chips (£5.50) were fried in tempura batter and had Sriracha sauce all over, with fried onion and peppers featuring throughout. It was a decent portion although I probably didn’t need them.

The same could be said for the sticky toffee pudding (£7) we ordered which came with vanilla ice cream and the most gorgeous toffee sauce. The sponge itself was super moist and the portion size, again, was great.

The verdict

While The Cock and Bull may be a little more out of sight out of mind at the best of times, the food is certainly worth travelling for.

Not only is there really something for everyone, but the quality of the dishes, the creativity of them and the friendly staff make it a must.

The value for money is excellent with the hefty portion sizes alone, but the real saving here is the quality of the food as it really is superbly fresh.

There’s also a children’s play park and two resident goats who are in pens which children can go and see, so little ones during the summer holidays would easily be well catered to.

I have to give credit to Rosie our server who was very attentive and helpful throughout.

A first class meal indeed.