The private dining room of this independently owned bar and restaurant in the centre of Aberdeen seats up to 20 diners. Button-backed grey velvet chairs, candles and full-length curtains create a sense of drama, but a corner position with two windows means the room is bright in the daytime, while light bounces off a silver-framed mirror and smoked glass table top – great for business meetings. A well-stocked private bar, meanwhile, makes The Spiritualist a good call for birthdays and anniversaries, hens and stags.
There are two set menus for £25 and £35. From the former you might start off with roast chicken and black pudding salad, grilled prawn crostini or a balsamic and red onion tart. Main courses include the likes of pan-roasted salmon with sautéed new potatoes, spinach, hazelnut and rocket pesto, roast pork belly with black pudding mash, seasonal greens and mustard gravy, a 6oz bavette steak with handcut chips, herb butter, onion rings and grilled tomato, or butternut squash risotto with wild mushrooms, tarragon and vegetarian parmesan. For pudding, there's vanilla pannacotta, spiced chocolate torte or a cheeseboard with Arran oatcakes.
Spend a tenner more for the £35 menu and you’ll get a step up in ingredients. The steak and chips is a 6oz sirloin, the veggie main course is a butternut and halloumi Wellington while the chocolate pud is a chocolate and whisky mousse. Elsewhere on the menu there are pan-fried scallops with celeriac purée and crispy bacon and chicken liver paté with toasted granary to start, gigot of lamb with broad beans and carrots and pan-fried seabass with sautéed new potatoes and spinach to follow, then lemon polenta cake with vanilla whipped cream to finish.
If you don’t want a proper sit-down meal, a buffet menu ranges from three canapés per person for £9 to 8 for £18.