St Andrews has arguably one of the highest turnover rates when it comes to restaurants. They rarely last through my 4-year degree so it's surprising to see that Ziggy's, the oldest restaurant in St Andrews, has been around for 31 years.
It's an American 60’s rock themed restaurant that is essentially a Hard Rock Cafe. Imagine your typical Hard Rock Cafe: imagine the decor with the signed records and the concert posters, the menu with the burgers and sundaes, and the atmosphere and the music and the waiters -- yup that's it, that's Ziggy's, just smaller, and well, perhaps as an independent business it also has a nice personal touch. Just like Hard Rock Cafe, you're there for the experience. The food's not mind-blowingly spectacular in any way, it's decent and you get what you pay for, with £6.95 for a two-course set lunch, and around £15-20 if ordering a-la-carte.
We began with bruschettas with tomatoes and olives, and garlic prawns and toast. Both were good, just the portions needed to be halved, and the breads more toasted.
With the menu written by Uncle Sam himself, the burger choices were plentiful. We chose the "cheddar, bacon, smoked hickory sauce". Being in Europe, the plate came as a shocker. Everything barely fit on the plate: the meat patty was the size of my face, there was half a kilo of bright yellow cheese slathered on top of it, and the sauce came in a gravy boat that took up a quarter of the plate (it's worth noting that the dish was under the "gourmet burger" section...). To my surprise, however, the burger, though slightly greasy, was in fact delicious. The dubious cheese was actually a nice strong smoky cheddar; the patty tasted of proper sausage meat; the bun itself was soft and toasty, and the relishes, greens and bacon all complemented each other well. It was a good unpretentious burger that left you feeling content and indulged -- although I have a bottomless pit as a stomach and I could not even finish it. It was a shame that the sauce was not quite smoky enough, and just overly sweet.
Steak had to be ordered in such a restaurant. The sirloin was good in that I asked for medium-rare and got medium-rare which doesn't always happen, so kudos for that. It came with a side of baked potato, corn on the cob, onion rings and sauce. Despite the ridiculous portion yet again, everything was good. The steak was decent, the corn was decent, the onion rings were decent and the the baked potato was actually perfect. Crispy skin on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside with a generous knob of butter. The Mexican chili sauce was sadly too sweet.
The dessert list consisted of sundaes and brownies and the usual American comfort foods. What's exciting is that instead of a normal dessert of the day, they do cheesecake of the day. Suggesting a daily change of cheesecakes, however, implies that cheesecakes are the restaurant's specialty, but it came as a bit of a disappointment. While it had a lovely crisp base, it did not have the rich dense American cream cheese top, instead it tasted of gelatin and double cream with a hint of cream cheese. Nonetheless, we cleaned the plate.
The food at Ziggy’s is not spectacular, but it doesn’t advertise itself as a restaurant with spectacular food. In a town with 3 Italian restaurants, 3 Chinese restaurants, 3 Indian restaurants and 50 Scottish pubs, it's nice to have something different. It is a lovely, unassuming restaurant that leaves you fulfilled and satisfied at the end.
Ziggy's
6 Murray Place, St Andrews, KY16 9AP
01334 473686
http://www.ziggysrestaurant.co.uk
Lunch: 12:30 - 14:30
Dinner: Sun-Thu: 17:00 - 22:30
Fri-Sat: 17:00 - 23:00
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