Where to Eat in St Andrews Beyond the Golf Hotels

Search for restaurants in St Andrews and the big golf-resort dining rooms tend to dominate the results, which is fair enough, since several of them are genuinely good. But the town's own eating scene, the places filled with students, locals and visitors who are not staying at a five-star resort, is worth knowing too, and it covers a wider range of prices and moods than the golf-hotel dining rooms alone.

For a proper sit-down meal with a view, The Seafood Ristorante on Bruce Embankment is the obvious choice: a glass-walled dining room built out over the beach behind the R&A, with a seasonal, seafood-led menu from executive chef Davy Aspin and views over St Andrews Bay from almost every table. Book ahead through the restaurant's own site rather than turning up, especially in the evening. On South Street, The Adamson takes a different approach, a long, high-ceilinged restaurant and cocktail bar with a modern British menu that stays busy well into the evening, popular with graduating students' families as much as with visitors passing through.

If you want something with more noise and a lower price point, Forgan's on Market Street, set inside a former agricultural works, runs a big menu of Scottish comfort food alongside live music and themed dining nights, and it handles group bookings well. For fish and chips specifically, Tailend Restaurant & Fish Bar on Market Street is the name locals mention first, with both a sit-in restaurant and a takeaway counter side by side.

Outside the town centre proper, Balgove Larder's Steak Barn, on the Strathtyrum estate a short drive or taxi from the old town, is worth the trip on its own merits: a barn restaurant attached to a working farm shop, grilling steaks and other cuts from its own butchery over an open fire. It is walk-in only, with no reservations taken except during the University's graduation weeks, so aim to arrive outside the Saturday lunch rush if you would rather not queue. The farm shop itself, selling the estate's own meat alongside other Scottish produce, is worth a browse even if you are not staying long enough to cook anything.

For something lighter, Northpoint Café on North Street handles breakfast and brunch well and carries a small piece of celebrity history, since it is where Prince William and Kate Middleton were photographed together as students before their relationship became public; away from that story it is simply a solid neighbourhood café. The Cottage Kitchen, tucked down Logies Lane off Market Street, is smaller and more locally known, a genuine favourite for weekend brunch that can fill up fast because of it.

No food guide to St Andrews would be honest without mentioning Jannettas, the gelateria on South Street that has been in the same family, now in its fifth generation, since roughly 1908. It occupies the same building the business started in, and the gelato and sorbet are made on site using methods passed down through five generations rather than bought in. It is as close to a required stop as any single food business in the town. For a more grown-up treat, Luvians Bottle Shop on Market Street specialises in Scotch whisky and other spirits from a Fife family business dating back to 1951, with an adjoining café serving the family's own homemade ice cream alongside the bottles.

None of this is to say skip the resort dining rooms altogether, several are genuinely excellent and worth the price for a special occasion. But if your whole trip is spent inside a hotel restaurant, you will miss most of what St Andrews itself actually eats and drinks.