Dollar Restaurant Guide

“Food, service and ambience are all excellent”, as one might expect of this grand resort hotel’s traditional dining venue, which focuses on spectacular Scottish seafood and roast meat, leaving more adventurous interpretations to Restaurant Andrew Fairlie (its neighbour along the corridor). Even some diehard fans, though, complain that “the price has gone up and up over the years”.

“A brilliant annual treat!” that’s “worth the enormous drive to get there!” – this stunning venue regularly tops our annual diners’ survey as the UK’s best venue, and was once again applauded unanimously in reports this year for its “exceptional cuisine”. The flagship for the world-renowned golf resort, it’s a cosseting, dark-walled space whose elegant decor helps offset its windowless position within the heart of the hotel. “Unique flavours are beautifully presented” by chef Stephen McLaughlin who worked with Andrew Fairlie for 26 years before the latter passed away in 2019; and GM Dale Dewsbury presides over an “amazing” front of house team. As well as the ‘Degustation’ menu “it offers a three-course à la carte for £125 per person, which is a nice find in these days of taster-only options”. Top Menu Tip – “the signature home smoked lobster is a great dish”.

“Beautifully prepared, super tasting food from local producers” is on the menu at this “small restaurant on Auchterarder’s high street”, which makes a “great choice for dinner out one night” for guests holidaying at the nearby Gleneagles hotel (J&F are “former employees”). “I just wish this was on our local high street – we’d be there every week!”.

2021 Review: A bright Indian street food design is laid on strong at this large yearling, serving a variety of boldly flavoured bites. One or two encouraging early reports of “amazing flavours” win it an inclusion, but too few reports for a rating as yet.

2023 Review: “The best steaks we have ever eaten!” – the Davidson family’s roadside inn near Linlithgow has built its renown over four decades in operation, for the quality of its meat; and there’s also a selection of prime-quality burgers. Reflecting their heritage, South African wines are the backbone of what’s a high-quality list to bolster the generally red-blooded vibe.

2022 Review: Chef-patron Fabrice Bouteloup combines his classical French training with “lots of local produce” to create excellent meals at the “very good” restaurant with rooms he opened with his wife Alison in 2007.

No reports as yet on this spring 2023 newcomer – the latest opening in the expanding empire of MasterChef: The Professionals 2018 finalist Dean Banks. But The Scotsman’s Gaby Soutar is a fan – in her February 2023 review she noted that the “foraging theme only seems to extend as far as the branding” with a menu that only “features the prerequisite pub classics, like fish ’n’ chips, Sunday roast, pies” along with some “fancier bits”. But she concluded that “Scotland has another excellent country pub”.

Handy for Stirling Castle and the train station, this well-established venture has won an embarrassment of accolades over the years, including ‘Restaurant of the Year – Scotland’ at the country’s 2022 Food Awards. Reporters love its “retro menu of good old-fashioned cooking” (haggis with mash, chicken supreme), “though the layout and ambience make it feel a little more like a café than a really good eatery, which is what it is”.