Café 52, The Green, Aberdeen, Scotland

We asked some of Hubby's friends for good restaurant recommendations in Aberdeen and Café 52 at The Green was recommended. In the past, we have walked past this cafe many times (to go to one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Bistro Verde just opposite the road) but never ate here as we had the impression it was more of a place for drinks but after our visit, we came to the conclusion that this place has great food and is suitable for all ages. It's a pity we didn't discover this place sooner.

The café itself is quite small, but they do have outdoor seating to accommodate more diners. The decor is simple but quirky, it looks like a really nice cosy place to sit down, eat, or hang out with your friends.

Fresh mussels

Inside the restaurant

Kopparberg Premium Apple cider (£4.50) 

They have a different menu for lunch and dinner, and lunch items start from as low as £2.90 for side dishes or £3.90 for a soup or £5.90 for many of the other items or £7.90 for the specials. We were pretty hungry since we had a light breakfast, and we ordered quite a few items to share.

Food blogging is not really popular in Aberdeen, so we got a few looks when we started taking photos of our food, but it's ok since we're tourist (and I'm Asian so it's completely acceptable hehe!).

I always order the cullen skink (£3.90) if I see it on the menu in Scotland. Cullen skink is a thick Scottish soup brimming with seafood goodness such as smoked haddock, potatoes and onion and is served with bread. I had a few during this trip, and the cullen skink at Café 52 is definitely the best one we've had. The soup was not too heavy and there was a generous amount of haddock.

Hubby ordered the tartlet of smoked salmon, peppers and organic chives (£5.90), presented atop a bed of salad leaves. The tart had a lovely buttery crust which Hubby liked a lot.

I saw the word "crayfish tails" on the menu and ordered it without hesitation. It actually comes with potato salad AND bacon as a side (£2.90) - this was really good and we easily finished this. Hubby has asked me to try to recreate this for him at home.

Potato salad with crayfish tails and bacon

Before we walked into the restaurant, I was studying the lunch menu outside and I spotted mussels on the menu. However it turns out that the menu was not current, so I ordered a beef burger (£5.90) instead, served with beef tomato, onions and Dijon mayonnaise. Baby C ended up eating more than half of this burger, which I was more than happy to share with her - which parent wouldn't enjoy watching their kids eat heartily?

I was still thinking about mussels when we finished the burger, so I asked Hubby to ask the chef nicely if he happens to have any fresh mussels in the kitchen. Turns out there is, as they do serve mussels at dinner time and I could order it if I paid the dinner price. I asked how big the portion was (afterall we have eaten loads already) and was told it was "not that big". Our eyes opened wide when this was brought to us (and so did the tables next to us), but at the end of the day, we still managed to finish the whole plate! Hehe! The Scottish mussels (£12.90) are simply cooked with white wine, fresh basil and garlic cream sauce - so fresh and succulent.

The desserts arrived at the same time as the mussels, so the kids got to enjoy them first while the parents devoured the mussels. We had a chocolate and hazelnut brownie served warm with vanilla ice cream (£3.50) as well as a brandied Clootie dumpling with Chantilly cream (£3.50). I had no idea what a clootie dumpling was but Hubby got very excited when he saw this on the menu, as his grandmother used to make this for him during New Year dinners. She would even hide a penny coin in the dumpling for them to find. I am so glad Hubby ordered this as it was absolutely delicious - lovely, moist, and not too sweet. So good that we ordered another one to share. We could hear the ladies sitting at the next table commenting about the "healthy appetite" that we have.

Chocolate and hazelnut brownie

Clootie dumpling, something I hope to be able to make for Hubby one day

Visiting Union Square to walk off the lunch and get some food souvenirs from Marks & Spencer ;)

Opening times: Monday to Saturday: 12 noon to 12 midnight; Sunday: 12 noon to 6.00pm.


Service: Good.

Price: Even with the huge amount of food that we had, the total bill came up to £52.30, which is very reasonable for the quality of food that we got.

Location: Café 52, 52 The Green, Aberdeen, AB11 6PE, Scotland,

Tel: +44 (0)1224 590094

GPS Coordinates: 57.145961,-2.099527


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