I believe I speak for a lot of people when I say I’m incredibly impressed with how fast Jamie Scott turned The Tayberry into Sandbanks Brasserie.
He is of course an experienced restauranteur and baker, but less than two weeks from picking up the keys to serving dinners is no mean feat.
While I have yet to visit his first eatery, The Newport Restaurant, I am a huge fan of The Newport Bakery and Jamie’s kind and honest personality.
Even Great British Menu 2023 winner Adam Handling told me his favourite place to visit when he’s in Dundee is The Newport Restaurant.
Since hearing him say Jamie is a good chef, I knew I’d be in for a treat when I finally got around to visiting one of his restaurants. So, the opening weekend of Sandbanks Brasserie seemed the perfect opportunity.
Sandbanks Brasserie
Just a short walk away from the Broughty Ferry train station, the restaurant is perfectly situated right at the end of Brook Street.
I headed along with my partner on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and we headed down to the beach promenade and walked past the castle on the way to our meal.
A short walk along the beach was the perfect warm up to our visit. As we came into the intimate restaurant, Jamie’s wife Kelly greeted us with a smile and seated us right away.
We got a table downstairs with a view out two windows towards the sandbanks and the esplanade, a perfect people watching spot. I added a note about allergies when I booked our table and our server already knew what adjustments we needed when we ordered.
Everything about the atmosphere in Sandbanks Brasserie made me feel calm and welcome. The colours on the walls, the light coming through the windows and the smiley staff bringing us menus and taking our order.
As we were out for our meal the day after hosting a Eurovision party, we both opted for a glass of (non-alcoholic) ginger beer (£3.40) and had a close gander at the menu.
Throughout my time as a vegetarian, I have eaten a lot of uninspiring food. Slices of butternut squash on top of mixed veg, beetroot burgers, and goats cheese tarts – my God have I had my fair share of goats cheese tarts.
And unfortunately, they’re usually not great. When you’re going for dinner with friends or family and they’ve already chosen the restaurant, you just have to take what you’ll get when it comes to veggie food.
Sandbanks Brasserie is the first time I have actually been excited about ordering beetroot, goat’s cheese and butternut squash. I never thought the day would come.
The food
My vegetarian cliche bingo started with the slow cooked crapaudine beetroot (£10.50) starter with whipped goats curd, walnuts, honey and red chard. As my partner is allergic to nuts, the kitchen swapped the walnuts for croutons so I still got that crunch.
It was beautifully presented, the beetroot had a subtle sweetness and the whipped goats curd had a more mellow taste than goats cheese which held the dish together well.
All the elements came through and nothing was overpowering, it was my first time trying goats curd and I was surprised at how different it was from the cheese. The soft texture made it easy to spread on top of the beetroot and I found myself trying to mop up every last bit of it from the plate.
Though when the starters arrived, I was more intrigued by my partner’s wild garlic velouté (£10.50) because the soup came in a separate jug from the crispy pancetta, egg and gnocchi in his bowl. We both watched eagerly as the waitress poured the soup into it.
Once again, the kitchen had made adjustments to make the dish allergy friendly and it was not noticeable in the flavour. He enjoyed every part of the dish, especially the creamy velouté and fried gnocchi. Each part of the dish had a soft mouthfeel, and he said he wished the pancetta had a bit more of a bite or crunch to it – though the flavour was spot on.
For my main, I took on every vegetarian’s worst enemy when eating out – the butternut squash.
Sandbanks’ slow roasted butternut squash (£16.50) was covered in puffed quinoa and toasted pumpkin seeds and on the side there was purple sprouting broccoli and a black garlic and smoked pepper sauce.
It was beautifully tender from the slow roasting, and the quinoa and seeds added a welcome texture. I was surprised to find it was slightly spicy (though I’m a wuss, so take that with a grain of salt), but not so much that I struggled. It had a bit of a barbeque or smoky flavour, which I really enjoyed.
The broccoli was fresh and flavourful – which helped balance out the spiciness – standing out as a quality ingredient and part of the meal. It was topped with a few pieces of what looked like pickled onion or cabbage, adding some acidity as well.
This is hand on heart the best butternut squash I have ever had at a restaurant. I would absolutely order it again, and every time in the future I’m stuck with butternut squash as a restaurant’s only option I will say “not as good as Sandbanks though”.
My partner opted for Sandbanks pork (£22.50), a slow cooked pork belly, sage and pancetta sausage, clotted cream mash, asparagus and peppercorn sauce.
Before he tucked in I got a forkful of the clotted cream mash, and it was a standout for us both. It’s available as a side and we’d both order it again. It was smooth, creamy and rich, he was disappointed there wasn’t more, but quickly realised you could easily get too much of a good thing here.
The pork belly had a nice crust to it and great flavour coming through. He liked having the textured meat of the pork belly paired with the ground meat of the sausage and said both tasted like high quality meat. The peppercorn sauce was a tasty addition, he enjoyed the gravy texture as opposed to a creamy sauce as the mash was plenty creamy for the whole dish.
Often pork is glazed or sweet – take his word for it, I wouldn’t know – so he enjoyed that the meat was allowed to shine on its own and the fat was well incorporated. His only criticism was he wished the pork belly slice was bigger and the sausage smaller.
Since I saw that Sandbanks’ desserts would come from The Newport Bakery I knew saving space was vital. I spotted the table next to us tucking into a cinnamon bun and it was huge.
I opted for the lemon meringue tart (£8.50) and it was just incredible. Topped with fluffy and sweet meringue, filled with smooth and tart lemon curd, sitting in a crispy crust it was everything I had hoped for.
It was decorated with raspberries from Balhungie farm, and under the tart I also found some lovely berry juice as well, lifting the dessert even higher.
My partner had his eyes set on the Basque baked vanilla cheesecake (£8) and he was not disappointed either. This one was topped with Balhungie strawberries, shortbread crumbs and lemon verbena syrup.
The cheesecake was fluffy and baked to perfection, with the vanilla flavour coming through so much he didn’t notice much of the lemon verbena syrup. But it was a large portion and we both left feeling full and happy.
The verdict
From the moment I walked in the door of the Brook Street restaurant I felt welcome and relaxed, and my partner’s allergies were catered for. It wasn’t full during our visit, but there was a mix of couples and families with children and grandparents dining together.
The menu isn’t very large, but it doesn’t need to be. In each dish, I could tell that the fresh ingredients would be the star of the show and that proved to be true.
The next time I go along, I will probably opt for a main with a side or some bread instead of a starter, as the sides – including Koffman’s fries, steamed potato with cafe de Paris butter and asparagus, confit lemon and watercress – looked tempting.
One thing I cannot compromise on though is dessert, I have to leave space for one of those delicious Newport Bakery treats with a Sandbanks twist.
Information
Address: 594 Brook Street, Broughty Ferry DD5 2EA
T: 01382 698280
W: www.opentable.co.uk/r/sandbanks-brasserie-broughty-ferry
Price: £83.3 for two starters, two mains, two desserts and two drinks
Scores:
- Food: 4.5/5
- Service: 5/5
- Surrounding: 5/5
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