Haar, St. Andrews, 6th August 2020

In the age of COVID, it was a struggle to find a restaurant that was actually open.  A browse through the Michelin Guide and a couple of phone calls to old favourites resulted in disappointment after disappointment.  Haar didn't look particularly inviting; no sea view and a relatively dull interior.  However, I had heard of it, which scored it a point.  I also liked its name (another point), which is a word derived from Old Norse meaning a sea fog specific to the east coast.  The third and winning point came from the fact that it was open and was accepting reservations.

If there's a tasting menu available, I always choose it, as I feel it's the best way to experience what the restaurant has to offer.  A tasting menu also allows a chef to showcase his or her signature dish.  As luck would have it, Haar was only offering the tasting menu, with no a la carte option, which meant no prolonged arguments with my dining companion.  I made the booking online and was concerned by the rule that the table had to be vacated within two hours, apparently due to COVID restrictions.  So... the virus becomes more vicious and deadly at two hours and one minute than it is at one hour and 59 minutes?  It seemed to me that the restaurant was trying to maximise its covers (fair enough after an enforced closure for months), but just wasn't being honest about it.  Two hours is not necessarily long enough to enjoy a tasting menu and a coffee, so I had a sense of foreboding.

Thankfully, my first impression when we were greeted by the maitre d' was a good one.  He was welcoming without being overly friendly, and instructive without managing to irritate me.  I have found it very difficult to get customers to obey our COVID rules at work, so I felt that he did this really well, and took a mental note for my next day in the office.

I started with a cocktail, a Seaside Bramble.  You can't really go wrong with a gin based cocktail, especially when the sun is shining and it's considerably warmer than you'd expected it to be on your Scottish holiday.  The bread arrived at the same time as the drinks, a beautifully warmed "coblet" served with miso butter.

You can't tell from the photo, but the bread had been sliced, so it was easy enough to break off a piece.  The wooden butter knife was an added bonus.  Aesthetics do make food taste better.

The first course arrived soon after, with which we had some champagne.  It was a pre-appetiser: a single oyster, an olive and a won ton.  The saltiness of each of them instantly created an illusion of being at the seaside.  The oyster was the highlight for me as it genuinely felt like eating a bit of the glorious smell I'd enjoyed earlier during a walk along the beach.  Bryan wasn't keen on trying an oyster, although with the Tom Yum flavour it was definitely a gateway oyster and would have been a good place to start for the uninitiated.  They were all layed out on a bed of pearl barley, and both oysters had a solitary piece of pearl barley inside.  I assume this was supposed to be the pearl inside the oyster!  Attention to detail like is what makes a good meal memorable.  The won ton was steamed, so more like dim sum: wafer thin, soft casing rather than crunchy and crispy.

The next course was my favourite.  It was beef tartare, and it was absolutely bursting with umami.  The yolk was confit egg yolk; I don't know if it usually is but the flavour was incredible.  It came with black garlic which smelt like wild garlic but had a much more subtle flavour.  The tartare was served with urfa (Turkish chili) crackers which appeared flimsy but somehow held the food after I scooped it on.

Next came cod, served with "carrot tail".  This caused debate, because Bryan thought it must mean the fronds coming out the head of the carrot, but I thought it must mean the pointy bits at the end of the carrot.  We were both wrong.

Carrot puree had been perfectly fashioned into a fish tail.  My photography doesn't show the level of detail; there were fish scales!  The cod coated in a green Thai crumb and was served with a coconut broth which was creamy and delicious and continued the Asian fusion theme that was present throughout the whole menu.

Smoked lobster with mirin butter was next.  There was so, so much butter.  It was a relatively small dish, but still felt like too much.  I have never left uneaten sauce on my plate before!  The rice wine enhanced the richness of the butter, and gave it a sweetness similar to sherry. The hard work had been done for you so the meat was either already loose or required minimal teasing to get it out.

The final savoury course was pork done two ways: fillet and pork belly.  The pork belly was one of the highlights of the meal for me as it was flavoured with tamarind which I adore.  It was served with kimchi which had a bit of a kick, and sesame mushrooms to continue the Asian theme.  The photo doesn't really show the pork belly which is at the back left, but rest assured it was the star of this course.

Something that really interested me about the restaurant was the fact that it is carbon zero, surely no mean feat for a restaurant?  If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to:

www.carbonfreedining.org/haar

The six course tasting menu was £80 per person.  With a half bottle of champagne, a cocktail and a couple of (rather fancy) soft drinks, the bill came to £243, which did not include service, but did include a 99p charge to plant a fruit tree to offset the carbon footprint and food waste of the meal.  This seems like a lot of money, but we've only been out for dinner four times since March, whereas we would usually eat out about once a week.  Personally I felt it was worth the price tag for the experience, the exciting menu and the things I had never tried before such as mirin butter and enoki.  Haar is in the Michelin Guide for Fife, but does not have a star.

I'll leave you with a photo of pudding.  It has been suggested that this looks more like a selection of Lush bath bombs... you decide.