St Mary's, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

“Outstanding” seafood and views to match are the enticing prospect at this upscale contemporary-Italian, which is “not what you’d expect in traditional St Andrews: a dramatic, modern glass box overlooking the sea (great for watching the fulmars come in to land on the cliffs)”. “Scotland seems, at last, to have discovered it has some of the best fresh seafood in the world and this restaurant cooks it simply and well”. Any downsides? “In high summer it’s the default choice of the Pebble Beach golfing fraternity, so can become both noisy and busy”. The Ristorante celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and is smartly run by a young owner from a prominent Scottish-Italian hospitality family, Stefano Pieraccini.

Chef Roy Brett’s Ondine closed in Edinburgh last December after 16 years, to reopen in spring 2025 at this new five-star hotel overlooking the hallowed golfing turf of the Old Course. It opened rather late to attract reports in our annual diners’ poll, but in her July 2025 review, The Times’s Chitra Ramaswamy invested in “the most expensive lunch… in ages”. Oysters are the star turn here according to Chitra – “to sit in this fine room at teatime, with this view, eating oysters of this calibre at these outrageously good prices, is one of the best things you can do with your hard-earned cash in Scotland.” Other dishes on the “minimalist and French-leaning” menu were a mixed bag: “lemon sole meunière is a masterclass in fish cookery, the fish soft, fluffy and white as a cumulus cloud”, but some of the cooking “needs finessing” – in particular, both salt-baked beets with whipped crowdie and monkfish au poivre were “way too salty”.