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”).

This “lovely hotel” a few minutes’ drive from Balmoral was opened in 2019 by King Charles III (back then merely the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland), and was one of the first properties in Swiss art dealership Hauser + Wirth’s fast-growing hospitality wing, Artfarm. Its restaurant, named after the river that flows past, specialises in “smoky food”, with prime Scottish produce cooked over wood fire, but also serves “weird old-fashioned puddings like baked Alaska”. The dining room walls are decorated by an abstract mural created in situ by Argentinian artist-in-residence Guillermo Kuitca. Other notable art is scattered through the property – but “a lot which was there originally has moved on, gone and not replaced. The Louise Bourgeois spider from the yard. Gone!”

A new venture from ArtFarm, the hospitality and development company behind The Fife Arms in Braemar; opened in late April 2023 and already visited by HM The King and Queen. Expect stylish interiors and local seasonal fare. There's also a fishmonger attached.