Rogue, St Andrews

Congratulate me, everyone. I got engaged in Rogue!

Ah, wait a minute. That was in the late lamented Rogues, David Ramsden's take on a great Parisian brasserie in Edinburgh's Morrison Street. And it was somewhere around the turn of the century. Still, what's in a name, eh? This singular version in St Andrews has been here for much longer than I thought. It's a fourth outlet for Kained Holdings, apparently a joint venture with brewers Greene King, owners of the Drouthy Neebors pub which formerly occupied the site.

It's KH's first outpost in the east. In Glasgow they have a trio of well respected establishments in a little pocket of Finnieston, namely Porter & Rye, Lebowski's and The Finnieston itself. With these three specialising in steak, burgers and seafood respectively, the St Andrews menu seems to be a combination.

It's a very good looking place at the west end of South Street, near the arch. There's a warm welcome. We were seated near the back of the restaurant. I was facing straight into the kitchen, which I don't mind too much. Chefs at work can provide endless interest, in both good and bad ways. We also were looking straight into the little onsite distillery where they make their own gin, Felons. Bizarrely, this doesn't feature at all on their drinks list.

Be warned that there is precious little here for vegetarians, just one token starter and main. It's fair to say that the menu is aiming at the well heeled, of whom there are plenty in St Andrews at all times of year. In the interests of balance, I should say that this is a comment on the dinner menu. At lunch there is a good selection of attractive sounding sandwiches around the £12 - £14 mark. The most expensive main is £14. The lunch menu also includes their Cullen Skink, and I would strongly point you in that direction.

At dinner, the lobster, langoustines, and seafood platters were a bit more than we wanted to pay. In addition to the skink (a wonderful, but very odd sounding word) we had scallops and mussels. L loved her scallop dish which was served in a Thai yellow curry broth. These days we talk about chefs caramelising scallops. This had been done literally here, with crunchy bits at the edges, but mercifully not overcooked. D, meantime, was skink munching and rhapsodising in equal measure. Mussels were described as being spiced, featuring 'nduja, tomato, fennel and Thai basil. When you see the former ingredient you expect a bit of heat. Unfortunately the thick tomato broth was so hot it rather masked the flavour of the mussels.

The list of starters was nothing if not eclectic. It featured, amongst other things, crab cakes, ox cheek and wood pigeon. Temptations for another time, perhaps. As is not uncommon these days the menu had another section, For The Table. As well as bread and olives, you could go for a seafood platter or a charcuterie board. The ladies shared the latter. It was in fact half charcuterie, half cheese,  They were well satisfied.

It was shaping up to be a white wine sort of meal, so I resisted the steak selection. Risotto is always a good test for a kitchen, and a king prawn and squid version with advertised bisque, mascarpone and chervil pangrattato sounded enticing. I mentioned the kitchen. It was an L shape. All I could see was the pass, which was being run by Steven with incredible, calm efficiency. He didn't stop once and had a smile on his face the whole time. Interestingly, he's not the head chef. That's Jaz, whom we saw from time to time, clearly doing much of the cooking.

The squid rings were fine. Not chewy, but not interesting. Come for the prawns. Five of them, good sized, juicy and of fabulous flavour. On a very tasty bed. Oh, you can anticipate the but? The real star of a risotto has to be the rice. This was over when the plate arrived, and was going to mush by the end. Such a shame, and I note from Trip Advisor that that's not a one off.

I'm really not sure how to score this place. Excluding wine, three of us dined on a meal which included scallops and prawns, for under £100. (Unusually and refreshingly no service charge is added to your bill.)  You could pay a lot more, but I'm not going to criticise a place for charging a lot for prime ingredients. The two ladies were happy - my company, presumably.

I'd love to return for some pigeon, an aged ribeye, beef dripping chips and a bottle of good red. This time next year, perhaps.

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Delighted to see that friend to this column, chef John Williams and his team at The Ritz, London have just been awarded a second Michelin star. Congratulations to all involved.