I absolutely love going to the Ayrshire coast and walking on the beaches and tasting the delicious food in the many wonderful restaurants. My favourite chain is the Buzzworks group who own Scott’s which have a restaurant in the Troon Marina and also the Largs Marina, as well as a gastro pub in Kilmarnock called The Longhouse – see the links for my reviews. The food is always amazing, so trying out Lido was inevitable one sunny Sunday in Troon!
The glorious day out began with a stroll along Troon Beach. I’m always happiest near the sea!

Lido shares my love of herbs! I really like the use of herbs rather than flowers on the tables as there was a nice sweet basil fragrance. We took a seat with our beverages and browsed the menu, which was no easy task, let me tell you.

 
King Prawn Tempura

The prawns for the tempura were big meaty ones – they were amazing. The crispy prawns were served with a sweet chilli and a soy dip. They were simplistic but delicious.s

Lemon Crumbed Crabcakes

Obviously their title explains that they are lemon-crusted, but these were so citrussy – they were absolutely gorgeous! The crab cakes were tiny little balls of intense flavour, served with a spring onion and dill puree, some Thousand Island sauce and a nice little house salad. I’m greedy and these are very moreish, so I was left wanting more. If the mains weren’t as generous and filling then I would have moaned about small starters, but no, I won’t moan.

Blackened Salmon Fillet  

This was an epic smörgåsbord of absolute goodness. The wooden tray arrived with several delicious components to mix and match. The salmon was blackened with a smoky cajun rub and served with a burnt lemon and some pak choi. It was served with cous cous (which I’m sure had mint through it which was absolutely divine), crunchy slaw, mint & cucumber raita, piri piri sauces & a generous portion of chunky sweet potato wedges. As regular readers will know, I am a huge fan of mixing and matching different foods and seeing which flavour combinations work best. Having such a variety of foods, and having them all split into their own separate areas and containers made this even more fun. The food is laid out in a way that you have to decide how you want to assemble it on your fork. Every single part of this dish was perfect, but for me the combination of the cous cous and the slaw was just to die for with the cool minty flavour that came from them. I can’t recommend this more. We even took the left over wedges away – too much to eat, but too good to leave!

Lido’s Catalan Style Fish Stew

Oh my word. The fish of the day was seabass which is one of my favourites, and the gorgeous seabass fillet was perched upon this wonderfully decadent stew. The smell that drifted across the table as soon as it was placed was incredible. The rich tomato sauce was flavoured with saffron and fino sherry, and within it were chunks of tomato, courgette and salmon with some token mussels and king prawns. It was like a rich, fish-based minestrone soup. I cannot express in words how beautiful it is – it is served simply with some lovely bread and a spoon – all you’ll need to enjoy this!
As it was a nice day, we took our drinks outside to sit in their little beer garden. It was a triple-fun experience: sunshine and wine, cute dogs to pet, and my boyfriend could smoke the hand made cigar he bought at the bar which he was far too excited about! As expected, Lido was amazing. I’d expect nothing less than perfection from this line of restaurants and they never let me down!

We then decided to eat dessert on the beach!

Perfection!

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Lido Restaurant
11-17 West Portland Street
Troon
KA10 6AB

01292 310 088

http://www.lido-troon.co.uk

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