Dunblane, Scottish Restaurant Guide

Opened in July 2023 (after our annual diners’ poll had concluded), veteran Scottish TV chef Nick Nairn and his wife Julia re-launched this Stirlingshire restaurant on the site of their previous venue, which was destroyed in a fire two years ago. The business is a modern, family brasserie that’s not particularly foodie in approach and this is reflected in early reviews. For Murray Chalmers in The Courier it is “…great. Not life-changing, not genre-defining and not likely to win awards for innovation, but it all worked so well”. The Herald’s Ron Mackenna found it “strangely inconsistent… but is Nick’s worth a try? Yeah. Definitely”.

“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”.

“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”.

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”.

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”.

Limited but very enthusiastic feedback on this two-year-old outpost of the Nairns’ empire, whose most notable feature is a vast outdoor space, but whose attractions also include a home shop run by the celebrity chef’s wife. ‘Paul’s Pizza’ is a mainstay of a menu of fairly straightforward brasserie-style fare (burger, chicken Milanese, venison meatballs, steak…). The Scotsman’s Gaby Soutar is also a fan – in her February 2023 review she dubbed it “a beautiful space” that’s “well worth a detour” and “hard to leave”.