Cottiers is situated in a gorgeous converted church, with a bar downstairs and a restaurant on the upper floor. The restaurant has a Scottish influenced menu and classic ‘pub grub’ bar snacks are available downstairs. The building is beautiful, with outside seating and plenty of candles, fairy lights and an open fire to add to the charm. Music is played downstairs, usually a low key affair which suits the atmosphere. Well worth a visit.
The Fodor
Meanwhile back in douce Dowanhill (or Upper Partick, as I call it), the upstairs restaurant at Cottier’s has a new head chef – Jonathan McFarlane, formerly of the Ubiquitous Chip – and a new menu.
In the bar you can order classy-sounding spins on Stornoway black pudding, salmon fishcakes, haggis neeps and tatties (also veggie options), and (starter) home-made beef stovies, all of which will appeal to the visitor market as much as to locally-based customers.
I’ll skip my usual lecture about the design genius of Daniel Cottier, who created the original interior (being painstakingly restored over many years) of the former church, but the present decor scheme in the restaurant is reckoned to suit that general historic artistic vibe.
Jonathan’s arrival has seen “a reincarnation of Cottier’s traditional South American cuisine” – there was always been a Latin influence there; but more obviously there’s also a new focus on classic Scottish fare, with an emphasis on fresh produce.
Roy Beers Pats guide to the Westend
