Restaurant Review: Smugglers Bar & Bistro, Tillicoultry

Family-friendly dining in Clackmannanshire

Smugglers Bar & Bistro is located on Tillicoultry High street across from the bus terminus and car park at Murray Square.  It used to be the Red Lion pub, and now is a much needed restaurant. So, what is dinner at the Smugglers Bar & Bistro like?

Interior

Inside, as you can see from the photo above, it is clean, tidy and new looking with freshly painted walls.  There is thankfully a good amount of space between tables and not crammed with tables like some places.

Menu

Food Menu

Christmas Menu

Drinks Menu

What we ate and drank

To drink we had a bottle of ‘I heart rosé’ between the three of us, as it was Friday evening and 23 degrees outside, with some iced water to keep us hydrated.

To eat, we had a combo platter for the table, drink hoch comprised of a single large haggis bon bon, potato wedges, skinny fries, chicken pakora, mozzarella sticks, garlic mushrooms, onion rings and garlic bread.  Alongside dips of BBQ sauce, pakora sauce and mayo.

There’s a wide range of snack items from the available starters but it could probably have done without the chips as these cooled quickly and even us carb lovers only wanted one type of potato on our plate, which was cleaned off, mostly by the greedy gannet Mark!  Special mentions for the wedges, pakora and garlic mushrooms.

The main courses arrived soon after and were…

Steak pie with a choice of chips, potatoes or mash, opting for boiled potatoes but no veggies as my mum doesn’t eat her greens! The tatties were perfectly cooked and the pie had a healthy amount of meat under the tasty puff pastry.

Then we had the Black and blue burger for Mark – a six ounce burger topped with black pudding and blue cheese, and served with chips and coleslaw.

A thick burger patty and large slice of black pudding, which was moist and not overcooked. While the blue cheese could be tasted but wasn’t too strong.

Macaroni and cheese for me, well it would have been rude not to. Here we had a cheesy cream sauce with pasta topped with mixed cheese.  Served with either chips or garlic bread and salad garnish, I went with garlic bread.

OK mac and cheese, a creamy sauce indeed but…not cheesy enough for me, more cheese in the sauce and less on the top please! Garlic bread could’ve been in the grill a little bit longer for me too but it was a good portion for the price.

We were stuffed so didn’t even attempt dessert!

Verdict

Friendly and welcoming local restaurant serving comforting classics.  Tilly is lacking in places to eat out, the only other place for an evening meal currently is The Bridge Inn, so it was good to see somewhere busy with lots of families in dining. Smugglers is somewhere to relax in, with a range of home style cooking.

Toilets were spotless.

Disabled access

Double door entry.  All one level.  Seperate disabled toilet.

Parking

Parking available across the road in Murray Square.

Where

Smugglers Bar & Bistro, 148 High St, Tillicoultry FK13 6DU

Book a table

Telephone 01259661321