My Aberdeen: Foodie Julia Bryce shares her favourite restaurants

Content creator and journalist Julia Bryce is well known as an Aberdeen foodie. Here are her top picks and favourite memories in the Granite City.

What springs to mind when you think of Aberdeen?

I guess what makes Aberdeen so special is the access to nature.

We have an incredible offering with both the beach and the Cairngorms on our doorstep.

And not far from the city, there’s the Newburgh Seal Beach where you can see puffins, whales go by as well as dolphins pods at the harbour.

That’s the part that I love the most about it – it’s the nature and wildlife.

It would have to be my Tiger Tiger, Pearl Lounge, Espionage days with my uni girls.

We used to go out all the time. The Tiger Tiger bus was a moment – you had to be there to believe it.

You would get on a bus outside of what is Jam Jar now, but it was Tonic then. And you would get a big bus down to Tiger Tiger.

You’d be there with your long vodkas, then jump on the bus and be in Tiger Tiger till early morning. Then go to the casino for breakfast.

It’s so hard.

My absolute be all and end all if anybody comes to visit is Maggie’s Grill . This is the one place that to me is home.

The owners and the team are so lovely. And I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about it.

The food is just incredible, and the chicken tenders and St Louis ribs are amazing.

It’s the quality of the meat, the time that they take to smoke everything, and the passion that they all have which makes it one of my favourites.

I love walking around and seeing all the Nuart.

The street art tour is just wonderful in terms of getting you to think about lots of things at once.

I’m quite a creative person so I love stuff like that.

But I also love Johnston Gardens.

Spring or autumn are my favourite times to go there because it is alive with colour.

I’ve seen herons and a kingfisher there.

I don’t drink coffee – me and coffee don’t agree with each other.

So I usually go for a hot chocolate or a chai latte now that I’m being a bit more adventurous.

I love Parx Cafe – that’s my go-to in the city for meetings or grabbing a hot drink.

It’s my first year working for myself freelance, so I’m still trying to figure everything out.

I’ve got a good feeling about 2025.

2024 was a big year for me: I won an award and I was on Netflix. So it’s a hard act to follow.

I’ve got some really exciting projects going on. I’ve been working with Shop Aberdeen and I’m an Aberdeen Restaurant Week ambassador.

And there are some really lovely projects bubbling away.

It’s a mysterious, wonderful and exciting year ahead – but who knows, really!

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