Ballater Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “A great representation of modern Scottish cooking: when they say locally sourced ingredients they literally mean within yards of the building…”. This “scenic country house” sits on the MacRobert Estate in the Scottish Highland; its Library dining room (open weekends only) serves chef David Butler’s six-course tasting menu that’s “creative and full of flavour”. At other times (including afternoon tea) you can eat in their more brasserie-style conservatory, overlooking the gardens. (“The hotel overall is a charity and all the profits from it go back into the MacRobert Trusts”).

Limited feedback this year on this grand hotel near Balmoral (opened by HRH Charles III back in 2019) – one of the first properties in Hauser + Wirth’s ArtFarm portfolio. Such reports as we have say it can be “outstanding”, and The Scotsman’s Rosalind Erskine branded it “bonkers but beautiful” in an August 2023 review. It’s by no means a cheap experience, though, with the simple, if high-quality main dishes typically in the £35-£40 price range… and that’s before the chips (only £5, but mash or veg are closer to a tenner).

“Newly opened but with great potential” – this April 2023 newcomer threw open its doors just before our annual diners’ poll concluded and elicited just this single comment. But it had already been visited by HM The King and Queen thanks to its sustainability credentials (it supports the Ocean Recovery Project). On the former site of the Rothesay Rooms, it’s now part of ArtFarm’s expanding portfolio – “an impressive and immersive place that you won’t forget in a hurry, and the same goes for the food”, according to The Scotsman’s Rosalind Erskine in her May 2023 review, where she enjoyed “fresh seafood in stylish surroundings” (which becomes more understandable when you find out that “at the helm of this new venture is Jasmine and Marcus Sherry, who worked at the Fife Arms in Braemar” up the road). Rosalind’s choices were “light, fresh, local and unfussy”.