St Andrews voted UK’s best seaside town for food and drink

St Andrews, known as the home of golf and for its 15th-century university, has added another feather to its cap after it was voted the best seaside town in the UK for food and drink.
A survey carried out by the consumer association Which? has picked the east Scotland town ahead of Lyme Regis in Dorset, Whitby in Yorkshire and Brighton on the south coast of England.
The survey, which asked 5,000 people for their views on the best and worst seaside locations, took into account preferences on beaches to tourist attractions, as well as the best places to eat.
Although Bamburgh in Northumberland took the overall top spot, with particular praise for the Norman fort Bamburgh Castle, St Andrews was named the best seaside town for dining out. It was also named the best seaside town in Scotland.
Which? said that the two-mile beach in St Andrews was highly rated, adding that tourists “loved wandering the town’s cobbled streets and alleyways to discover ice-cream parlours, bistros and artisanal food, as well as specialist knitwear and second-hand bookshops”.
At the other end of the spectrum, Bangor in Wales was named the UK’s worst seaside town, followed by Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset.
North Berwick in East Lothian was highly rated for food and drink, coming second in Scotland. In March, it was named this year’s Sunday Times best place to live in the UK. On the overall list, Ayr on the southwest coast was the lowest ranked Scottish seaside town.
Dean Banks, the owner of Haar and Dune, two St Andrews restaurants, and a finalist in the 2018 season of Masterchef: The Professionals, said that the area deserved the accolade because it was “a beautiful town with a rich history”.
“For food and drink, it offers a variety of fantastic restaurants and bars that use the best local ingredients,” he said. “There is definitely something for everyone when it comes to the food scene here.” Aside from his own restaurants, Banks recommended the Balgove Larder and Jannettas Gelateria.
In February, 11 Scottish restaurants kept their Michelin star awards in this year’s update of the culinary guide. The guide included the Peat Inn in St Andrews, owned by the chef Geoffrey Smeddle, which holds one Michelin star.
This year St Andrews became home to the country’s first dog-friendly chippy when Cromars Fish & Chips created a dedicated menu for dogs including £2 beef sausages and free dog biscuits. Wendy Napthine-Frame, its owner, said she had created the menu because St Andrews was blessed with “wonderful beaches and countryside, offering perfect walks for dogs and their owners”.
Alongside golf, the fine dining scene may be one of the reasons that American tourists are flooding into the town, with its university attracting more students from the United States than any other higher education institution in Britain.
Last month, Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods received planning permission to convert an old cinema in the town centre to a sports bar, with sports simulators, duckpin bowling and darts. When the bar was first proposed, an online petition opposing the development attracted more than 10,000 signatures.
All this attention also has its downsides, however. In May, it was revealed that St Andrews is also Scotland’s most expensive seaside location. A study by the Bank of Scotland found the average house price in the town was just over £423,000, rising nearly 60 per cent in a decade.
One famous street in the historic town is also Scotland’s most expensive. Properties on Golf Place, which leads to the Old Course, the oldest golf course in the world, cost about £2 million on average. Last August, a two-bedroom flat overlooking the Old Course went on the market for £2.3 million.