A trip to the East Neuk always offers a number of great places to stop for lunch, but many have already been reviewed in these pages.
There’s also the issue that some which call for a revisit, like the fantastic East Pier Smokehouse, seem to require too much forward planning for my addled brain to deal with right now.
Asking the customer to book up to six days in advance is one thing but expecting us to decide what we’d like to eat at the time of booking is quite another – I don’t even know what age I’ll admit to six days hence, never mind if I’ll want to eat pan fried sardines with rhubarb pickle (£12.50) or hot-smoked sea bass with apple and pink peppercorn chutney for £16.50.
For me, the joy of eating out – in fact the joy of living – is responding to what your body tells you it needs on that day.
If the sun is blazing I’ll want sex, sake or sashimi – or, ideally, all three; if a storm is brewing over the North Sea, or I’ve just watched the Tories on telly, I’ll want cod and chips, a lifejacket, a bottle of whisky, a pack of Ambien and two tubs of Ben & Jerry’s to numb the pain of existence.
This is no slur on the Smokehouse – it’s just the way things are for small businesses in the latter part of 2021 as they try to somehow balance the books while dealing with problems caused by the pandemic and Brexit. This is a countrywide problem and, sadly, I see no solution soon.
Maybe Douglas Ross, with his usual intellectual rigour – more Densa than Mensa – could give the hospitality industry some advice on how to deal with the crippling staffing issues largely caused by Brexit.
This week, for instance, I’d been very keen to try the Harbour Cafe in Elie, having sampled their excellent home-delivery box during lockdown – but we just couldn’t get a booking for the day we wanted so had to find somewhere else in a hurry.
I will definitely ensure I go there soon though as I’m very keen to experience chef Amy Elles’s cooking in situ, especially knowing her fish comes fresh from the fantastic David Lowrie in St Monans, just down the road.
How reviews work
In case you were wondering how these reviews work, I usually decide where to go the week before, although sometimes it’s completely spur of the moment. I book the tables myself and am largely impervious to PR intervention, although suggestions are always more than welcome.
I mostly use false names so there’s no risk of preferential treatment; I pay full price for every meal and the cost of the meal comes from my own pocket, not that of The Courier – so these reviews are as unbiased and honest as possible. I get paid the same if I spend £100 on a meal or £20.
I mostly use false names so there’s no risk of preferential treatment.”
Murray Chalmers.
While this is obviously the way I prefer to do it in order to keep a sense of integrity, this does mean that reviews depend on restaurant availability and it should be remembered that a lot of places just aren’t open on as many days as they would have been in the days BC (before Covid).
It’s also worth pointing out that right now I try when possible to focus on some positives when reviewing because hospitality is under such threat that I wouldn’t want to be the sting in the tail that administers a final fatal blow to a place struggling to survive.
Nevertheless, these reviews must be honest because we’re all spending our hard-earned cash in these places and if a restaurant is charging full price for their offering then it has to expect to be reviewed properly.
Recent outing
A recent outing found me criticising a restaurant for its lack of imagination with vegetarian food, a situation sadly all too prevalent on Tayside. The chef/owner’s response was to contact the Courier asking that I never write about his place again.
My point remains; why charge the same price for dreary falafel as for prime rib of beef?
I paid full price for this food – just as you would – and I think this criticism is valid; chickpeas do not cost the same as beef and nor do falafels take an inordinate amount of time or imagination to prepare, so why should they cost the same as a traditional Sunday roast?
Back in the East Neuk, a quick internet trawl revealed The Dory Bistro, somewhere I’d never noticed before on my frequent visits to Pittenweem – although it turns out I was very familiar with the work of one of the co-owners, the artist Malcolm Cheape.
Two of Cheape’s excellent paintings of lobsters currently sit in a storage facility in SW France, victims of me selling my house there just as Brexit and Covid unleashed their nihilistic force against the world.
Before lunch at the Dory though this day started with a visit to the excellent Bowhouse market, now with more stalls and more of an atmosphere of life BC than in recent memory.
However, this trip was bittersweet because it was the last Bowhouse market to feature the lovely cooking of Jess Rose Young, who is soon returning to London with her equally gifted chef partner Will Verdino from Kinneuchar Inn.
The East Neuk’s loss is London’s gain and I urge you to go to Jess’s stall at Bowhouse today. There is no market but she and the excellent butchers are open and it’s the last time you can sample her classic cardamom doughnuts in Scotland.
The Dory Bistro
With the sugar rush of a breakfast doughnut under our expanding belts, we hit Pittenweem and were pleased to discover that The Dory Bistro and Gallery is a nice find. My sister and I had a most enjoyable Sunday lunch there.
The gallery element is strong and it’s lovely to eat facing one of Cheape’s distinctive paintings. I do love the idea of combining food and art in this way although of course if the restaurant is busy – which it was today – it would be hard to go in there to view paintings alone.
But if I were the kind of person who just had to break off from eating six Cumbrae oysters to buy an artwork straight from the walls I’d be very happy here.
The place is bright and with enough maritime touches to make you feel that you’re at the seaside. Overlooking Pittenweem harbour, it’s an attractive space although I couldn’t help selfishly wishing the view of the harbour wasn’t blocked by parked cars on the day we visited.
The food
When choosing to eat here I’d been struck by the Dory’s list of suppliers, including local and noteworthy businesses like the aforementioned Lowrie fish, the East Neuk Market Garden for vegetables and notably good salad leaves, and Barnett’s bakery for bread.
The Dory’s description of themselves online is so on the money that I quote it here verbatim; “The Dory Bistro is a seafood restaurant serving affordable food with a focus on Fife food treasures. Lobsters, langoustines and crabs are landed less than 40 metres from our front door in the harbour and we get the freshest fish from St Monans and Pittenweem.
“We serve wild game dishes through autumn and winter using meat from Fife estates. We have a decent-sized kitchen garden and produce our own vegetables, herbs and fruit. Our aim is to celebrate the bounty from Fife and Angus and its seasonal rhythms so that we can serve local, sustainable and reasonably priced fantastic fresh food”.
It has to be said that we ate very well for £80 which included some wonderful langoustines and two glasses of wine.
Specials are chalked on a board and change often. Menus change weekly.
The specials on the day we visited included three crispy Cumbrae oysters with horseradish and lemon dressing and pickled cucumber (£9.50) and local roe deer with mustard mash, roast veg and rowan jus for £16.50.
I chose Pittenweem salt and pepper squid with leaves and herb aioli (£8.25) and it was excellent – the squid crunchy and the herb aioli assertive.
Elaine had a good caprese salad with Fife Buffalo Farm mozzarella, tomatoes and basil (£8.50) and this too was a joy, the local mozzarella grainier than Italian, and very, very good. I was also tempted by the courgette and herb soup for £5, even though soup can often drown the palate at the start of a meal.
Main courses were just as successful with my pan-fried monkfish, prosciutto shard, new potatoes, summer vegetables and capers (£17) good enough to make me forget my aversion to shards.
On a hot day this was the taste of a maritime summer on a plate.
My sister’s Pittenweem langoustines were served with a herb aioli, chips and salad (£24) and were wonderful – a huge mound of langoustines and very good chips.
Because the Dory is ostensibly a fish restaurant I felt I had to resist the wild chanterelle, chestnut mushroom and shallot tart, served with wild mushroom puree and leaves (£13.50) for this visit but if it’s on a future menu I’m having it.
Desserts all sounded good although I’ve had enough riffs on Eton Mess to last me a lifetime, even if the Dory’s does feature a passionfruit cream (£7.50).
Out of curiosity we had the Buffalo farm ice cream which is £2 a scoop and proves that banana can somehow be made to taste even more of itself.
The verdict
This place is a quiet treasure and I hugely admire their desire to offer good ingredients and skilled cooking at pretty reasonable prices.
It was rammed when we visited and I can see why; this is the kind of place that people like to keep as their secret.
At the bottom of the bill they say they would be grateful for online reviews “if you have time”. How charming is that? Nice work the Dory; we’ll be back!
Information
Address: The Dory Bistro, 15 East Shore, Pittenweem, Fife, KY10 2NH
T: 01333 311222
W: thedory.co.uk
Price: £80
Starters from £5; Main courses from £13.50; Desserts from £2