The Braided Fig: Summer Street, Aberdeen

I’VE been to dinner in many places that are gimmicked up to the eyeballs to hide terrible cooking.

Whether it’s dodgy faux-American junk plastering the walls, or painful fake Irish accents and silly shamrocks aplenty I’ve seen it all.

So I was hoping the Braided Fig’s huge tree growing in the middle of its contemporary, well-kept bar wasn’t a way of distracting from its mistakes.

My fears were put to rest with a delicious beefburger (£8.95) with extra chilli (£1.20). The whopping, freshly-made burger was moist, meaty and piled high with a cuminy chilli.

My girlfriend’s Portobello mushroom burger (£7.95) was equally huge – three flat and thankfully not watery mushrooms topped with a huge slab of good quality goats’ cheese.

But one of the stand-out points – and yes, I know it’s silly – were the crispy, homemade skin-on chips. Utterly perfect. Heck, even the well-dressed salad was a delight.

My bravery in having a dessert (a rare occurrence for me) was rewarded with a large, rich chocolate brownie sundae (£5.50). Although they’re upfront about it (and more than justified), a 10% tip bunged on the end of the bill annoyed me slightly. But we left happy the tree is not just a gimmick, content that there’s no shame for these fig leaves to hide.