Mac & Wild founders Andy Waugh and Calum Mackinnon will take over the 110-cover restaurant at the Falls of Shin visitor centre in June, a site previously owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The restaurant will serve meat, sourced and butchered by Waugh’s family’s butchery business, in signature dishes such as venison burgers; haggis pops; venison roast dinners and deep-fried mars bar sundaes.
New Scottish-inspired dishes on the menu at Falls of Shin will use ingredients sourced from local farmers and fishermen in dishes including beef, venison or pork flatbreads; venison and pork sausage rolls; and homemade salads and soups.
Waugh says that the “seasons will dictate” the menu at the new restaurant, which will “continually pickle, ferment, dehydrate and cure ingredients to make the most of the best produce while it is in season”.
A breakfast menu will include egg and avocado dishes; Scottish oats; a ‘full Scottish’ breakfast with bacon, tattie scones, venison sausages, black pudding, mushrooms and Lorne sausage, eggs, bone marrow and beans.
Produce will be available for customers to buy to take home, and a programme of masterclasses on topics such as foraging; whisky; sheep-shearing; and haggis-making will run through the year.
Mac & Wild has been a champion of Scottish exports since it started out as a street food stall in 2011, specialising in game meat, which it used in its ‘Veni Moo’ burger, which won UK’s Best Burger in 2016.
The group currently operates a permanent site in London’s Fitzrovia and a pop-up-turned –permanent restaurant in Devonshire Square near Liverpool Street.
“We are delighted to welcome local lad Andy Waugh along with Calum Mackinnon and their award-winning Mac & Wild team to Falls of Shin,” says Pete Campbell, chairperson of the local Sutherland Development Trust.
“We were very impressed with the brand they have established and the traceability they showcase around their food and drink offering.”