Silver Darling

Phenomenal meal here. The atmosphere and ambiance are top notch. The pan fried scallops were delicious, and the venison with herb spätzle was very good. Finish with the cheese board!

Wonderful place to take in some of the seaside sights in Aberdeen, and enjoy excellent gourmet seafood. The restaurant is located on the second floor of an old building right at the entrance of the harbor, so you get spectacular views from anywhere in the restaurant. Besides, the chef has a really gourmet touch. All of the ingredients are really fresh, and the combination of flavors is outstanding. I highly recommend this place. Just be careful with your times, they close very early for lunch… 1:30pm. I got there at 1:40 and the cooks had already left.

This is a great little restaurant in one of the prettiest parts of Aberdeen. Excellent views especially at sunset with a wonderful view over the harbour. The food is excellent even if portions are on the small side, the presentation and quality is wonderful. It would be perfect for business, romantic and small family dinners.

Situated in the surreal charming old fishing village, the atmosphere and views are lovely. It is as if time has stopped, old fishermen houses and fishing net sheds, 1.70 meter doors (5.5 ft for the imperials), tiny white windows and courtyards facing the sea. All this lovely stuff is surrounded by silos and rusty old oil pipeline drums and offshore equipment, but you can obscure that if you keep your focus on the houses.
I came here in the evening, and I thought this restaurant was lovely and somewhat romantic with a nice touch of class.
Very nice wines to choose from and I wanted to eat everything on the menu, because it sounded amazing and defiantly smelt like it too…
Some may say it is a crime to order meat in a seafood restaurant especially in Scotland. I am guilty as charged. I was hungry and in Aberdeen, and they were serving an Aberdeen Angus fillet steak with stuffed portobello mushroom and potatoes in French soft cheese. I mean come on… Throw me a bone here.
I said to myself, if they are offering this in the middle of an already short sea food menu, it had to be good.
And Oh boy that was one of the better steaks I have had. Juicy and soft, cooked to perfection, the red sauce was nice and the portobello was fantastic. I also managed to steal some of my girlfriend’s sea bream, which was very tasty especially with the tapenade it came with!
Yes it was abit pricy, but I won’t forget that steak. It was a nice elegant evening, nice atmosphere, very nice food, wine and good service.
Next time I promise I will behave and order seafood.
In the mean time, enjoy!

Food was good, service great, view amazing. I had the pleasure of being here on a sunny day so really got a nice view of the harbour and North Sea.
The food:
— they brought out a complimentary appetizer after I’d already ordered. I thought they might based on other interviews. Nice touch. The three little bites were all good. Trying to remember but I think it was a little fried blood sausage croquette, tuna, and a ceviche.
— my actual starter was ok. I had the am seafood croquettes and they were cooked to perfection, not oily. They just needed more of the avocado sauce as the croquettes themselves were kind of bland. that was highlighted because they were coupled with a chopped cucumber salad and cucumbers in my opinion have very little flavor, too.
–my main was delicious. Steamed rock turbot, cooked to perfection and finished with just a little buttery crust on one side. It was really good and glad they made up for the blandness of the croquettes with this.
Overall a very good restaurant. Highly recommend.

The Silver Darling is located on Pocra Quay with one glass wall facing the North Sea and the other facing the mouth of the River Dee/​shipping canal into Aberdeen Harbor and the Nigg Bay Golf course. Either way you have a spectacular view.
We came for lunch on a blustery April day. The tide has just started going out and a pair of porpoises was fishing in the shipping canal. For our lunch, we went straight to the mains and had the «Deep fried haddock in beer batter with homemade chips, roast cherry vine tomatoes, mushy peas & wasabi mayonnaise» and the «Fillet of cod poached in red wine infusion with tender cabbage, smoked pancetta, celeriac potato mousseline & old grain mustard sauce». The server recommended to pair the cod with the «Picpoul de Pinet– Coteaux du Languedoc Domain de lauriers 2011 «and indeed this matched quite well.
Well, the cod was perfectly poached in the red wine, the smoked pancetta added some rich notes along with the cabbage. This was great little dish. The haddock had a tasty crispy crust to got with the very fresh haddock and the wasabi mayonnaise was excellent with the fish and the chips. The mushy peas were a nice break from peas overcooked peas –these still had a little texture and a bright, fresh pea note in the taste.
The Silver Darling (here is the website so you can see the interiors and views:
) is clearly aspiring for excellence. Unfortunately, our visit had one major flaw. The servers, confused by which order was supposed to go to what table, set part of our order down in front of another set of guests. Then, after a minute or so realizing their error, the picked the order back and proceeded to just set the same dish in front of us. Well, I don’t view this as an adequate level of service from this level of restaurant. They really need to work on their staff training, particularly how to handle rather fundamental mistakes such as this. Hopefully, this was an isolated error in judgment.
Summary:
Excellent Food
Stunning, Unique Location
Service — well, I’ll will update my opinion on this if I return. For now, I will just leave the simple report of the problem for your own information as you select where to dine. Certainly, this lapse is why they are not currently getting five stars from me.

We celebrated a good friend’s birthday at this restaurant that came highly recommended. The food was exceptionally fresh and tasty and they specialized in seafood. I was very satisfied with the service and the food offering. They started with an appetizer worthy amuse bouche of fresh crab meat croquette and tender Scottish smoked salmon with a shot of a lobster bisque. Really very generous and very telling of what the rest of the meal will be. We had the grilled shrimp appetizer, which bowled the whole table over. I wish I had order more. It was smoky and sweet, which is always very hard to get with low quality shrimp. I had the halibut fillet that made me realize what I have been missing my whole life when it comes to what halibut should taste like. It was great and I could not have asked for a better entrée except maybe for dessert, which was a flight of crème brûlée. It was textbook perfect and very satisfying. The rest of the table shared in a very nicely plated cheese plate. It was delicious and really showcased tastes of Scottish dairy. The other nifty thing about this charming restaurant that is perched like a lighthouse at the end of the bay is it is close to the beach and we had a wonderful stroll after wards. The sea was wild and the waters churned with abandon, which elevates the food experience unlike anything else.
This restaurant is so good that it is almost worth going to Aberdeen just to go to this restaurant. Almost… maybe? This restaurant is truly darling and it desreves a big hug each time you go.

We went whilst on holidays in Scotland. We only stayed briefly in Aberdeen, but a Scottish friend recommended it. The experience was delighful.
The food was spectacular: I had a seafood mélange with some very tasty different fish and shellfish… I’ll try and post a picture because it looked as good as it tasted. The danger of «mixed seafood» is that the individual flavours blend into one indistinguishable tatse, but this was not the case. Each morsel sang its own song. Was a Chateauneuf du Pape the right wine to pair with it? Probably not, but I’m a believer that a great red will match with anything.
The setting was very charming, in an old converted shipyard building, with a cute little lighthouse next door. Large boats pass by just outside the 360 degree windows, and when the sun is setting you couldn’t ask for a better view.
A post-​dinner stroll through the area reveals the old fishing village of Fittie which eventually grew to make the city of Aberdeen. As a Canadian, it reminded me very much of Atlantic Canada. It was warm, welcoming, and beautiful.
All in all, a top notch dining experience and a wonderful evening out.

When dining out with friends, it is sometimes difficult to shine the harsh light of objectivity onto the warm glow of camaraderie. Nevertheless, we must try.
As the stars indicate, Silver Darling is A-​OK. The restaurant is nautical as expected and up a set of circular stairs with views of the harbor on three sides. In the summer when it doesn’t get dark until after 11PM, I am sure the views are spectacular all evening long. During the time of short days when it full dark comes at half past 6, not so much.
The service was fine with a main wait person and two or three others attendant. The food was fine. Specifics:
The courtesy offering of sashimi tuna, squid and a small serving of pumpkin compote all served together on a small plate was a welcome beginning. The pumpkin was the standout — perhaps of the entire evening. It was served in a shot glass and I wondered if anyone would notice if I attempted to stick my tongue in it?
For the starter I chose the scallops. Nice, well browned on each side but not too overcooked. And for my main I chose the Sea Bream prepared with a green curry. It was ok, but fell down a little for me as I found the curry sauce a little oily, and I do not favor the skin-​on as I think it does not add to the dish in any way — meaning flavor or texture. Desert was the cheesecake customized with some strawberry gelatin on top as opposed to the more traditional sauce.
Slightly pricey, but so is everything in Aberdeen. One word of caution, the fine print of the menu adds 10% service charge to the bill — even for a small party. This is slightly unusual in the UK where VAT the service charge is not automatic (as in France for example).
An enjoyable evening with present company the major highlight — as it should be.

Fantastic food and beautifully presented. Didier Dejeon is a quality chef.

Absolut perfekt, alles, Lage, Aussicht, Weinkarte, das Menue zum Sterben gut. Haette nicht gedacht, dass man in Schottland so gut Essen kann.
Der Sauternes ist allerdings alle, das war ich, mit den 4 kleinen Cremes brulees

This is not Ethiopian, if anything it is French inspired! Superb restaurant with glass all round, so you can watch the ships go in and out of Aberdeen Harbour.
The food here is not about quantity (so if you have an American-​sized appetite you might be better sticking with your double whopper Mc-​thingy), but if you like quality, not quantity with a strong bias towards fish, this will suit you.

Silver darling is an amazing restaurant. The food is of excellent quality. It i pricey but worth it. Lunch menu is good value and is actually a very good option as it allows you to take in the beautiful sea views.
The oysters was fantastic and the wine menu is great.
Parking is easy but if you leave the car along the sea front it allows for a lovely walk to work off the lunch!

It’s nouvelle cuisine, so be sure and order all 3 courses or you’ll be hungry! But these guys really know how to cook fish. Silver service and great views, easy parking right outside.

Very good seafood restaurant. Have only had the lunch menu but I thought it was fantastic. The location is stunning and you get friendly french service. The specials are usually worth going for.

If you like fresh sea food then you will love the Silver Darling restaurant in Aberdeen. This restaurant in right on the harbour front in Aberdeen so it’s very accessible and great if you are just out shopping or having a meal before you go out. The restaurant itself is known throughout Aberdeen for its fine food and great service. The restaurant is quite large and seats a lot of people. I know the restaurant has some great reviews and it is always listed n the local paper so if you are in the area have a look. The building itself is quite unique looking, it is not too old but looks like a small castle from the front, it’s a nice break for the normal restaurant in the city centre. This is idea for family meals, again if you are going on a weekend evening I would recommend calling ahead and booking a table as it is very popular.