Jamies Italian restaurant in Glasgow

As you can see, I did a bit of a roundtrip in Scotland recently and tried wonderful places.
So, I came across Jamie Oliver's Glasgow restaurant and gave it a try.
It was incredibly busy which is not suprising as everyone wants a piece of Jamie, or at least his cuisine.
The waiters were friendly, the restaurant was beautifully decorated. I ordered squid as a starter with a garlic mayonnaise and the tagliatelle with truffels.
WHen the squid arrived, about half of them were over-fried and dark brown and very, very crisp. Some might like that but for me, the reason why I order seafood is to enjoy the delicate flavor and not the burned oil on it.
The mayonnaise was quite tasty.

My main was ok, the tagliatelle were cooked al dente and there were truffels on the dish, but I had to order parmesan twice, which to my surprise I was not allowed to hold on to but only was served with it. I felt the dish had no base, a vine cream sauce would have been a good foundation for this simple dish which would have been spicked up by truffel oil and some truffels on top. Unfortunately, there was neither truffel oil nor while wine to taste, the dish simply had no sauce holding it together. The parmesan did that for me in the end.

As a dessert, I ordered a brownie with raspberry and vanilly ice scream which was delicious. Dark chocolate and raspberries gave it a wonderful fresh twist.

Overall, not a Jamie-worthy experience but a nice restaurant to go to without too many expectations. But after all, Jamie can't cook everywhere.

Nico Restaurant in Inverness - Scotland

My family has brought forth many great cooks, so I believe I am quite spoilt when it comes to taste, especially with dishes that were signatures to my family cooks.
I recently went to Inverness in Scotland, a beautiful little town with bouncy bridges, tattoos walking through the streets and a river with a standing wave, and while being there went to Nico's.
It is a small enough restaurant that also functions at the hotel's restaurant where it is located. As we had not reserved, we were asked to wait in the bar next door which was decorated with old couches and kettles and horse riding equipment on the walls. We had the menu brought over by the waiter to use the time to select a starter and a main dish which was served as soon as we got the table.

The starter, scallops on a bed of risotto with black pudding and crispy bacon was well arranged and a good size for a starter. The scallops literally melted in my mouth like butter and gave a great contrast to the peppery black pudding (which might have been a bit too peppery for some).

The main was a venisson with celeriac puree and a caramelized apple and also black pudding which seems to be a Scottish must have with every dinner. It was devine. The venisson was cooked perfectly to leave a pink center and melted on the tongue, paired with the caramelized apple and the puree it formed a wonderful combination in my mouth that almost convinced me that I had room enough in my stomach for ordering this superb dish once more.

Nico's restaurant is a must-go in Inverness, the only disappointing thing was that I was too full to enjoy their desserts.