Best restaurants in Dundee

For more city food recommendations, check out the best restaurants in Glasgow, best restaurants in Edinburgh and best restaurants in Leeds.

Best places to eat and drink in Dundee

Pacamara

This dedicated breakfast and brunch spot (open 9am-5pm) is an easy-going kind of place with wooden tables and large shop-front windows to watch the world pass by. The breakfast menu is a winner for those of us who are always disappointed to arrive somewhere for lunch to find they’ve stopped serving eggs benedict at 11.30. Big plates arrive packed with Full Scottish Breakfast classics alongside tasty sourdough toast, fresh juice and rich smooth coffees, for which you can choose your blend. Alternatively, go sweet with waffles or pancakes, or choose a big fat savoury hash-brown stack, with poached egg, spinach and mushrooms. @pacamaradundee

The Parlour

This relaxed neighbourhood café serves hearty modern food for breakfast and lunch and does the occasional pop-up evening, too. A tasty-looking Libyan food event was on offer when we visited. Breakfast specials could be shakshuka baked Turkish eggs, and lunch might be a hard choice between an Arbroath smokie and spring greens frittata, an excellent panzanella or a bowlful of deli salads. There are also interesting homemade sandwiches and soups, and cakes out on display to tempt you. Facebook

Tatha Bar and Kitchen at V&A Dundee

First off, it’s pronounced Tayva, which is Gaelic for Tay. This is the main restaurant at the V&A Dundee design museum - the reason for all that new Dundee buzz - which architect Kengo Kuma hopes it will be “a living room for the city”. The restaurant is at the heart of the building on the mezzanine level, with an expansive view over the water. It’s also exposed to the huge atrium, not tucked away in a basement as with so many gallery cafes.

Food is a crowd-pleasing daytime mix of seasonal salads and sandwiches, scones and cakes, but it’s also open in the evenings (Thursdays to Sundays from 27 September), via a separate entrance once the gallery itself has closed for the day. Evening dishes go one notch less casual, with main courses such as chargrilled Puddledub farm buffalo steak, or Dundee gin and marmalade cured Perthshire smoked salmon. It’s also hoping to cultivate an after-work drinks scene by offering cocktails, wine, beer and light bites. There’s also a smaller coffee bar on the V&A’s ground floor. vam.ac.uk

Gallery 48

This charming small modern-art gallery is also home to a popular tapas restaurant (open daily for lunch and dinner). Dundee has always had an artistic angle, being well served by galleries, and, with the new V&A, this aspect of it should flourish further. You can get straight to the heart of the cultural scene at Gallery 48, a lovely mix of forward-thinking art, workshops and great food. On the menu you’ll find tapas favourites such as white anchovies and Spanish tortilla, plus specialities like Ventresca tuna belly, olive tapenade and artichoke, or salted cod fritters with house aioli. All can be accompanied by a wide choice of Spanish wines, or an impressive selection of local gins. gallery48.co.uk

Tail End

Everyone loves a classy fish-and-chip joint, where you can enjoy a sit-down supper complete with a mug of tea, bottle of beer or even a cocktail. This one comes with excellent pedigree, as it’s run by Arbroath-based fish merchant G&A Spink (which carefully sources all catches from MSC-registered boats fishing in the North Sea, landed on the east coast). Specials are adapted to the catch, and menu dishes (other than delicious soft-fleshed haddock and chips with homemade tartar sauce) include scallops with haggis, carrot puree and garlic butter, and red Thai seafood curry with coconut rice. The restaurant is in an attractive, purpose-renovated 54-seat cellar-space, completed as a labour of love by the owners. thetailend.co.uk

Draffens

This 1920s speakeasy-style bar is supposed to be a secret, sort of. For those not in the know, the unmarked door is down an alley called Couttie’s Wynd (between 36 and 38 Nethergate) in the city centre, from where you’ll hear live jazz wafting up from the basement of the long-closed Draffens department store. It serves great cocktails in a stylised Twenties jazz bar, which together with the secret-club vibe make this a fun place to while away the night until the early hours. Draffens

The best food and drink shops in Dundee

The Cheesery

For all your Scottish, British and international cheese needs, head to this specialist cheese shop. All the European classics are available, from top-quality parmesan to tomme de savoie but if you’re looking for something more local, ask for the St Andrews Farmhouse Anster (a creamy, crumbly farmhouse cheese made just south, in Fife, using milk from a single herd of Holstein Friesian cows) or the Gruth Dhu (Black Crowdie), a soft cow’s milk cheese made up in Tain). thecheesery.co.uk

Ogilvy Vodka

Head 10 miles north of Dundee and you’ll find Ogilvy Vodka, Scotland’s first potato vodka distillery run by husband-and-wife team Graeme and Caroline Jarron. The distillery has been producing vodka since 2014 as a way to make the most of misshapen spuds, and now you can explore it via a field-to-bottle experience.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at potato farming (from the way fields are ploughed to how the potatoes are minced) before a walk-through of the cooking, fermenting and distilling process. The 85-minute tour ends with a tasting and, if you fancy stocking up on more, the shop sells all the bottles, from classic to bramble and rhubarb. ogilvyspirits.com

Where to stay in Dundee

Hotel Indigo

Hotel Indigo is housed in a renovated former jute mill with a landmark bell tower and retains industrial touches such as original wooden floors and exposed brickwork. It has also added nods to local history from The Beano to the video game industry.

Daisy Tasker (the hotel’s restaurant with Masterchef semi-finalist Stewart Macaulay at its helm), named after a 14-year old weaver who organised social activities for the jute mill works, is worth a visit, with a daily-changing menu serving dishes inspired by Dundee.

Expect a contemporary spin on Scottish classics including Schiehallion battered haddock with chips and peas pickled, hake with beetroot and potato purée, and to finish, marmalade set cream and Dundee sticky pudding served with toffee sauce and clotted cream ice cream.

Doubles from £79, check availability at ihg.com or booking.com

The Newport

The Newport restaurant has four smart double-room suites; ask for one of the ones that overlook the water for the best views.

thenewportrestaurant.co.uk

There are also several central chain hotels near the waterfront and V&A, including SleeperZ (sleeperz.com) and Malmaison (malmaison.com).

By Sophie Pither