After the excitement of the Commonwealth Games in 2014 – and all the new restaurants which were launched to coincide with the Games – 2015 seemed relatively quiet.

Speaking personally, this blogger is pleased that 2015 was the year in which Glasgow’s burger mania appeared to be on the wane. We have nothing against burgers but, for a while, it seemed as though every second Glasgow opening was a new burger joint.

We couldn’t help but feel all that energy could have been used a little more creatively.

Smoky menu

While it has burgers on the menu, we did like OX184, the Edinburgh craft beer and BBQ bar that opened on the Cowgate this Spring.

OX184 took the dude food ethos of the burger bars and put a new twist on it with a smoky menu of ribs, sausages, burgers and steaks cooked over an open, wood-fired grill.

We haven’t been in yet but the new Doghouse in Glasgow’s Merchant City seems to be doing something similar.

Anyway, 2015 doesn’t seem to have revealed any major new culinary trends among the restaurants of the Central Belt.

Glasgow had a mini-boom in Latin American restaurants with Brazilliant, Mango and CAU joining the well established Boteco do Brasil.

Sailing out to the Caribbean, the city also welcomed Sugar Dumplin’ and Fire in Babylon, two restaurants fuelled by jerk spicing.

Surprisingly, there weren’t more single item restaurants opening up.

Scotland’s dining scene takes much of its inspiration from London and restaurants specialising in just one or two main dishes have been popular down south for a couple of years.

Burger and Lobster, Bubbledogs and Chicken Shop all spring to mind.

We’re happy to be corrected but we think that Virginia in Glasgow’s Virginia Court is the only similar restaurant around these parts.

It sells free range rotisserie chicken as whole chickens, halves and quarters.

Most of the big name Scottish chefs seem to have had a year in which they have consolidated rather than expanded.

Tom Kitchin unveiled a rather fab refurb of his Leith restaurant at the start of the year, as did number one at Edinburgh’s Balmoral.

Apart from that, it has been relatively quiet on the Michelin star front.

Culinary showstoppers

For the people involved, every new opening is significant but there seem to have been few real showstoppers this year.

Three stand out exceptions are the Atlantic Brasserie in Glasgow, DINE and The Printing Press Bar and Kitchen, both in Edinburgh.

Atlantic is a swish new French restaurant from the same group as The Anchor Line.

DINE has Stuart Muir at the helm after the chef finished a long stint at The Forth Floor, the restaurant in Harvey Nicks.

The Printing Press in the George Hotel is the latest venture from Des McDonald, formerly of The Ivy and Caprice.

And on that note, we’re signing off. We hope all our readers have a very merry Christmas and we’ll be back on Monday.

Possibly with a post on indigestion remedies.