For delicious crepes and traditional creme brulee Salt and Pine at Tentsmuir Forest is a must.
When you next go down to Tentsmuir Forest you may be in for a big surprise.
Mainly because there’s one of the area’s most popular street food vendors hidden away in the corner of the car park.
It’s no secret that the food firm is there, but for someone who isn’t local to the area, it most certainly was a nice surprise.
I had spent the day (a Sunday) in St Andrews with my boyfriend and on our way home decided a walk along Tentsmuir Sands was a must.
We’d arrived at the main car park at around 2.30pm and immediately spied the food truck on the horizon. We headed straight for it and couldn’t quite believe our eyes when we saw the queue.
Not one for missing out, we joined the queue after investigating what was on offer. Crepes and creme brulee. Having had lunch in St Andrews, we were up for devouring something sweet.
The queue easily had around 15 people in front of us, all patiently waiting and socially distancing. We figured we’d be waiting around 30 minutes maximum and were happy to wait – by this point I’d had a good look on their social media pages and I liked what I saw.
How wrong we were on timings.
We stood in the queue for over an hour, eagerly waiting to see the next customer get served, and then the next. Parents with children had sent them off to the children’s play park a stone’s throw away to the left of the queue to keep them preoccupied.
When we arrived at the front the team explained that they were down a member of staff and apologised for the wait. We were relived we made it to the front when we did as they were closing shortly after. However there was still a huge queue behind us.
Because we’d had plenty of time to study the menu we knew exactly what we wanted.
A s’mores crepe (£4.50) for me and a s’mores creme brulee (£4) for my other half.
There were plenty of other flavours of crepes too, including sugar and lemon, honey, banana and oats, Nutella, banana and coconut, stewed apple and cinnamon with Biscoff and plenty more.
On the savoury front there was hummus, red pepper, slaw, rocket and beetroot chutney, chorizo cheddar, spinach leaves and chilli jam and camembert, Italian salami, rocket and caramelised onion to name a few.
There was plenty choice for all, including a few vegan options, and even a salad of the day and breakfast crepes. Other creme brulee flavours included peanut butter and Biscoff and coconut and Dulce de Leche.
Once we’d ordered and paid, we waited around another 10 minutes for our items. My boyfriend’s brulee came first, followed later by my warm crepe.
The food
We headed for the beach and tucked in en route. My crepe was perfectly cooked and was slightly crispy around the edges of it, which I absolutely love.
It was packed with the thick, rich, sugary Nutella. Some of the marshmallows had started to melt further inside it while the others nearer the mouth of my crepe hadn’t.
It was incredibly sweet with the marshmallows and the Nutella but I loved, it, and I even squeezed some of the hazelnut spread, which had started to pool a bit at the bottom, up so that the whole thing was one big mess – and what a mess it was.
Inside there was also crushed biscuit – that added a new texture into the mix and made it a little crunchy yet grainy.
I was rather pleased with mine but I could tell my other half wasn’t as impressed with his creme brulee.
Unlike the few times he had experienced creme brulee, this one was cold and had been heated on top to caramelise the sugar.
While I explained this was the traditional way to have creme brulee he was still not convinced.
Having waited more than an hour and 15 minutes for a cold creme brulee which had a big chunk of cold chocolate at the bottom, he wasn’t buying it.
Nevertheless he ate it and I even got a spoonful too. It was creamy, rich and had an even coverage of marshmallows throughout.
He did enjoy breaking and eating the crisp top and the fact some of the marshmallows had melted a bit all over also tickled him, so all wasn’t lost.
We walked off our sugar high along the beach that boasts the most stunning views and headed back to the car to drive north to Aberdeen.
The verdict
Salt and Pine serve up some pretty impressive crepes, however, if you are going at the weekend be prepared to wait in a queue, especially if it is a nice day.
While it did take us a while to arrive at the front of the queue, I would definitely recommend getting a crepe – either sweet or savoury.
If traditional creme brulee is something you enjoy then it is also worth picking one up, but if you’re unsure and are swaying between them, I’d say go for the crepe.
Information
Address: Tentsmuir Forest Cark Park, St Andrews, KY16 0DR
Price: £8.50