
06 Dec 2024
On 2nd July, just one week after opening, the AA has awarded Scottish chef and restaurateur Dean Banks’s HAAR Rooms a perfect score of 5 stars, an extraordinary feat in its opening week.
The rooms have opened above Dean’s St Andrew’s restaurant HAAR, which its own right is a two AA rosette restaurant with recommendations to be promoted to three rosettes according to this latest report.
“It’s absolutely incredible to have been awarded five AA stars within our first week of opening,” says Dean. “We’ve all worked incredibly hard to ensure HAAR Rooms reflects the quality and experience guests can expect at any Dean Banks space, and it feels incredible to be rewarded for those efforts.”
With the world-famous 150th Open Championship taking place at the home of golf St Andrews between the 10th-17th July, visitors to the area can, for the first time, enjoy the delights of HAAR Rooms as well as take the opportunity to dine at the restaurant.
With Scotland’s natural pantry being Chef Dean’s biggest influence, inspiration coming from the seasons and the sea, diners can enjoy dishes such as St Andrews Bay Smoked Lobster, Mirin and Dulse Butter or Loch Etive Trout, Brown Crab, Galangal Curry.
Diners can go for a five- or six-course tasting menu celebrating local ingredients with an inventively and beautifully curated international twist.
“I have always wanted to have HAAR in St Andrews,” explains Dean. “It’s where it was born and where it will always belong. The restaurant is named after the haar [a cold sea fog on the East coast of Scotland] rolling in over the sea.
“St Andrews is in my heart, it inspired HAAR and it is where I want to create the restaurant I always envisioned.”
A finalist in MasterChef: The Professional, as well as HAAR Restaurant and Rooms, Dean currently owns and operates the historic The Pompadour by Dean Banks at the Waldorf Astoria, The Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh. He opened a new restaurant this month called Dulse in Edinburgh, with a laid back feel, cocktail and wine bar downstairs and the upstairs restaurant serving a range of dishes from Scottish seafood, to classic dishes modernised with eastern fusion.
He also has a nation-wide luxury meal box delivery company, HAAR at Home, and his own gin and vodka brands, Lunan and Mond.