Pennygate Restaurant
Isle of Mull, Argyll & Bute
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Visitors fresh from the Oban-Craignure ferry still come to check-in at Pennygate Lodge B&B, or else detour to the small, seperately run Pennygate Restaurant where sash windows present views of rolling lawns, changing tides and a horizon of heathery hills. The menu performs something of a double act with hearty, pub-like comfort food at lunch (paninis, Cajun chicken Caesar salad, a rich, creamy Tobermory smoked haddock chowder), and more intricately constructed dishes materialising at dinner – although Hebridean seafood is a leitmotif throughout. Start with Isle of Mull scallops, flecked with Stornoway black pudding and pea purée, or a bowl of Isle of Inverlussa mussels with Chardonnay, syboes (Scots for spring onion) and garlic. Mains have some meatier moments: Mull pork belly partnered by mashed tatties laced with Arran mustard, fennel, asparagus and vermouth jus is one example, another being venison loin with dauphinoise potatoes, butternut squash and spiced Marsala reduction. Desserts are straightforward crowd-pleasers – hazelnut dark chocolate brownie, for instance – or you can plump for the all-Caledonian cheeseboard. Service adds some welcoming warmth to this windswept island.
