Name: Andrew Fairlie, Gleneagles Hotel
Item: Andrew Fairlie, Gleneagles Hotel
Rating: 5
Author: Harden's editor

Harden's survey result

2022
2021
2020
2019

Summary

Price*

£131

£££££

Food

5

Exceptional

Service

4

Very Good

Ambience

4

Very Good

* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

Andrew Fairlie died of brain cancer in 2019 at the age of 55, so it is a tribute to the dedication of his long-time lieutenants, head chef Stephen McLaughlin and general manager Dale Desbury, that guests are still bowled over by their meals at his restaurant in this grand resort, famous for both golf and geopolitics. The late chef’s fingerprints are still everywhere, from his signature dish of local lobster home-smoked on whisky-barrel chips (a fixture on the menu), to the vegetables grown in the kitchen garden he established. “5 out of 5 says it all, doesn’t it?”. A refurbishment of the restaurant is planned in early 2022.

Summary

Price*

£156

£££££

Food

5

Exceptional

Service

4

Very Good

Ambience

4

Very Good

* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Andrew is no longer with us… but the tasting menu is still perfect!!”. Head chef Stephen McLaughlin and general manager Dale Desbury have given their now-departed boss the best send-off they could by maintaining the “truly amazing food of the highest order and faultless service at this beautiful restaurant, whose incredibly good ‘Degustation’ menu is an excellent exhibition of skill and creativity” (eight courses for £155). The Michelin man agrees and in October 2019, maintained this famous (if windowless) chamber as Scotland’s only two star. (For afternoon tea, “there’s a lovely new venue in the Glendevon Room – where the G8 summit meeting was held many years ago – beautiful views across to the Ochil Hills. Expensive but delicious!”)

Summary

Price*

£156

£££££

Food

5

Exceptional

Service

4

Very Good

Ambience

4

Very Good

* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Andrew is no longer with us… but the tasting menu is still perfect!!”. Head chef Stephen McLaughlin and general manager Dale Desbury have given their now-departed boss the best send-off they could by maintaining the “truly amazing food of the highest order and faultless service at this beautiful restaurant, whose incredibly good ‘Degustation’ menu is an excellent exhibition of skill and creativity” (eight courses for £155). The Michelin man agrees and in October 2019, maintained this famous (if windowless) chamber as Scotland’s only two star. (For afternoon tea, “there’s a lovely new venue in the Glendevon Room – where the G8 summit meeting was held many years ago – beautiful views across to the Ochil Hills. Expensive but delicious!”)

Summary

Price*

£148

£££££

Food

4

Very Good

Service

4

Very Good

Ambience

3

Good

* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“You are enveloped in a cocoon of luxurious decadence on arrival at this intimate room, which exudes the glamour of a previous era” – a “darkly lit, quiet space which is very romantic” (but to some tastes a tad “gloomy”). On most accounts, “the tasting menu is an ultimate culinary experience that shouldn’t be missed, with each course more sublime than the last; and with superb wine pairings (which allows the sommelier to present a mini course in viniculture)”. Service is generally found to be “engaged and enthused” and “very friendly”. Unsurprisingly some reporters challenge the extent to which it’s good value, or judge the performance to be good rather than great, but for most visitors “despite the incredible expense, for a truly memorable evening I can’t think of a better place to splash out”. STOP PRESS. Sad news in early November 2018 – Andrew Fairlie is to step down as he is suffering from terminal cancer. He will hand over to head chef Stevie McLaughlin, general manager Dale Dewsbury and his business partner Gregor Mathieson on February 1.

For 31 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).