For more than 15 years, Ondine was one of the restaurants that helped define Edinburgh’s modern food scene. Now chef Roy Brett is rebuilding its story on the Fife coast.
Ondine Oyster & Grill has found a striking new home at Seaton House in St Andrews, the five-star hotel which opened following the redevelopment of the former Scores Hotel.
The property sits overlooking West Sands and beside the Old Course, with Ondine occupying a dining room where the sea and coastline have replaced the scaffolding which increasingly dominated the outlook from Brett’s former Edinburgh restaurant.
The move has also allowed Brett to expand what Ondine can be. His cooking remains rooted in the stories of Scottish seafood, fishermen and producers, but the St Andrews restaurant has developed its own identity rather than simply reproducing the Edinburgh original.
That has continued with Ondine & Friends, a series of events bringing chefs who have crossed paths with Brett during his career to cook alongside him in St Andrews.
When Brett talks about Ondine, he repeatedly comes back to relationships: with chefs, fishermen, suppliers, employees and the customers who followed the restaurant for years in Edinburgh and are now making the journey to St Andrews.
In this interview, he talks about starting again in St Andrews, developing young chefs from Fife and Dundee and why he remains determined to bring Ondine back to the capital.
Roy, the idea of inviting chefs up here for Ondine & Friends – is it partly about telling the story of your career?
I think it’s a bit of both, really. Ondine has always been a place that chefs came to when we were in Edinburgh, and we always had relationships.
When you get to a certain age and you’ve worked in different kitchens, you make friendships along the journey.
The idea really is to bring a little bit of London up to St Andrews, to taste different food. Like tonight, we’ve got two fantastic chefs. It’s a treat for us in the kitchen and I think it’s a treat for the guests.
Moving from Edinburgh to St Andrews, how has that changed what Ondine is?
It’s changed a lot. I’m from Edinburgh and I spent 15 years building up a clientele, and then unfortunately the building gets closed down in front of my eyes and I have to move out.
This was never the idea of coming up here because Edinburgh had closed. We were always going to come up here, so it wasn’t a case of close one, open another.
You can see it tonight. There are a lot of regulars from Ondine coming. At the last event, 30 of the 50 guests were from Ondine, so we’re still getting really well supported.
Were you eating scallops when you were four? What was your first experience of seafood?
No. It was probably from the local chipper. I didn’t grow up eating seafood.
So where did you find the joy in seafood?
For me, it’s such a fresh moment. It’s there and then it’s gone.
I enjoy cooking meat, but fish has this excitement about it. There’s the catch, there’s the excitement from the supplier telling us what they’ve got and then what we can do with it in the kitchen.
It’s also really unforgiving because once it’s ready, it’s ready. We have to be nice and fast and get it out.
Does knowing how much work and risk goes into catching the seafood make it a privilege to work with?
Absolutely. We’re cooking food, but we can do these guys a real disservice by overcooking it or making a mess of it.
These guys go and risk their lives. There’s a massive difference in the trades, so we’ve got the utmost respect for the fishermen.
You know both Edinburgh and St Andrews well. What does St Andrews mean to you?
That’s a really good question, because I don’t feel it’s like Edinburgh. I think it’s really, really different.
I didn’t really appreciate how much the R&A and golf dominate the city, and then you’ve also got the university.
So you’ve got this mix of a university in full flow, with students from all over the world, and golfers coming from all over for their ultimate round of golf.
In between that, you’ve got to accommodate the guests.
Coming back into a hotel environment has been a different challenge as well. You’re learning all the time, and you should always be listening – listening to the customer.
What have you got planned for us this evening?
Tonight we’ve got Ross Sneddon, executive pastry chef for Rocco Forte, and Andrew Sawyer, executive chef at Brown’s Hotel. They’ve created a menu based around seafood.
Andrew has worked with the very best – Nathan Outlaw, Gordon Ramsay – and now he’s executive chef at Brown’s.
He’s a wonderful chef and he’s got a deft touch. We’ve got a crudo of scallops tonight and he’s also doing steamed turbot.
These are guys I’ve got the utmost respect for. We’re friends first and foremost, so when we say it’s Ondine & Friends, it is a genuine friendship.
They were doing a big event at Brown’s a couple of days ago with Angela Hartnett and some really famous chefs, and then they’ve come up here the following day to do this.
They’ve worked 12-hour days cooking the food. It’s fantastic.
Have you had Bill Murray in yet?
I believe he has been in, yes, but not this time around. I haven’t seen him.
If you could only have one fish or seafood ingredient in your kitchen, what would it be?
Lemon sole. That’s me.
And how would you cook it?
The way we’re doing it just now.
We rest it for two days in the fridge, just allowing the excess water to come out of it from the icing and everything else.
Then simply grill it and serve it with some lemon, a little bit of parsley and brown butter.
Should we take more pride in the standard of Scottish seafood and the way it’s regarded around the world? Other countries seem better at shouting about our produce than we are sometimes.
I think we should be really proud of it, but none of us like shouting about things.
So I agree with you on both counts there.
Some of the UK’s leading chefs continue to join Roy Brett in St Andrews for a series of collaborative dinners celebrating seafood and seasonal produce.
Ondine & Friends will run at Ondine Oyster & Grill, within the five-star Seaton House hotel until December. The programme will bring chefs who Brett has met and worked with throughout his career to the Fife coast, with each event featuring a specially created menu.
The series will conclude on 2 December when chef and food writer Mark Hix joins seafood restaurateur Mitch Tonks.
Hix, who was Brett’s boss and mentor during the early stages of his career, is known for his modern approach to food. Tonks is the chef-owner of The Seahorse in Dartmouth and the Rockfish restaurant group.
Hix and Tonks developed the idea for Tonnix, a range of wines intended to be paired with seafood, during a visit to Quinta de la Rosa in Portugal’s Douro Valley in 2009.
Their St Andrews menu will feature signature dishes from Hix, Tonks and Brett, paired with wines from the Tonnix collection. Dinner will cost £65 per person.
Hotel packages will also be available for each event, including accommodation at Seaton House and breakfast.
Ondine Oyster & Grill opened at the restored hotel in 2025, bringing Brett’s seafood-led cooking to St Andrews.
The restaurant builds on the original Ondine in Edinburgh, which opened in 2009, with a menu featuring native oysters, shellfish, sustainably sourced fish, meat and seasonal vegetables.
Seaton House opened in March 2025 beside the first tee of the Old Course. The 42-bedroom hotel also includes the stylish Bow Butts Bar.
Ondine Oyster & Grill, Seaton House, 76 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9BB.