Undiscovered Scotland

 

Those wishing to dine at the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel have a range of options available to them, and can look forward to excellent food and impressive service. They can choose to eat in Elliot's Bar, or in Elliot's Restaurant, or private dining can be arranged for groups or functions. Disabled access is good to the bar and part of the restaurant, and disabled facilities are available. It is also possible to eat without leaving your room from the 24 hour room service menu. You can read our hotel review for Apex Waterloo Place here.

We'll start at the slightly more informal end of the spectrum, in Elliot's Bar. Here you can choose from a fondue selection available each evening, or from a light bites menu available from late morning to late evening. This includes a wide range of dishes including nibbles such as olives or salted almonds, the daily soup with a bread roll, sandwiches, or larger offerings such as the Aberdeen Angus beefburger with all the trimmings. There is also an afternoon tea menu available from mid to late afternoon, Mondays to Saturdays.

Most dining takes place in Elliot's Restaurant. This is an extremely attractive space occupying part of the street frontage at the Waterloo Place level of the hotel. A combination of retained original features and classy modern decor and high quality furnishings produce an ideal place in which to pass a pleasant lunchtime or evening enjoying excellent food. Lunch and dinner are both served seven days per week. When we visited the lunch and dinner menus were the same, but offered plenty of choice for anyone staying at the hotel who wanted both. There was also a Kids' Menu offering a large choice of smaller meals targeted at junior guests.

The à la carte lunch/dinner menu when we stayed started with artisan bread before moving on to a choice of seven starters and nine mains, including the special. There were also six side orders, six desserts and (unusually) a number of cheese options. If that were not wide enough choice, there was an additional fixed price menu with a further three of each course, which could also be selected by those going à la carte.

We started with "oak smoked salmon, horseradish and beetroot sauce" and "seared west coast scallops, celeriac and apple remoulade", both of which were excellent. For our main course we selected "roast Shetland cod, colcannon mash and panchetta cream", and "dry-aged Angus ribeye, horseradish cream and glazed shallots". These dishes combined outstanding ingredients with careful preparation, nice presentation and good portion sizes.

For sweets we selected the "poached pear and chocolate trifle" from the fixed price menu and the ice cream of the day, ginger and orange. A great way to round off the dining experience, which was made all the better by the friendly and professional service.

Breakfast is served in Elliot's Restaurant. The cold first course is self-served from a buffet offering an usually wide range of beautifully presented fruits, cereals, meats, breads and more. For the hot course the choice includes a fried breakfast comprising all the usual components; a vegetarian breakfast; or a number of "speciality breakfasts" including dishes such as omelettes, eggs Benedict, porridge or an Arbroath smoked haddock. You can read our hotel review for Apex Waterloo Place here.