Kinross Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “A seafood restaurant that never fails to please, with constantly changing menus that reflect what is available seasonally”. That’s the take on this small (24 covers) family-run fish restaurant and ‘seasonal hotel’ which sits on Hawkcraig point, with views of Edinburgh and the islands of the Forth. “The owners really do pull out all the stops to give a nice dining experience. Great for that special occasion!”

“What a find in Auchterarder, so close to Gleneagles”. “You can not fault the food, wine and service in this small and cosy, family run restaurant”. It’s a white-painted venue on the town’s main street whose straightforward menu is much more affordable than that down the road (with the likes of Hot Smoked Salmon, Chicken Supreme, Tenderloin of Venison and Eton Mess). For one of our diners, “it’s a go-to place when we are north of the border – if only it was closer to us in Cheshire!”

2022 Review: This “little piece of France” – down to the terrace under a red awning along the streetfront – has earned a strong local reputation over more than a decade as a haven of classic Gallic cuisine.

2024 Review: This wood-paneled “gem” occupying a seventeenth-century building, from the husband-and-wife team of chef Andrew Moss & FOH Karen Milne, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year – the “exceptional cooking and wine list are a joy”. We’ve rated it on relatively thin feedback – more reports please.

The “fabulous” traditional dining room of this famous resort hotel – less aspirational than its near-neighbour Restaurant Andrew Fairlie – is still going strong after just over a century. Its modern Scottish cooking is certainly “not the cheapest”, but inspired consistently supportive feedback in this year’s annual diners’ poll. Recommendations include for “the best breakfast anywhere” and slap-up Sunday lunch.

“Hidden deep in the Gleneagles Hotel”, this formidable dining room is considered by many to be Scotland’s flagship venue for fine dining. Named for the late Andrew Fairlie, who passed away in 2019, its renown has been successfully maintained by chef Stephen McLaughlin, who has worked here since the restaurant first opened in 2001. There are à la carte options here, priced from £145 per person for three courses, or there is a ‘Degustation’ menu at £195 per person for seven courses – of the latter, feedback says that “every course is incredible” and there’s also “particular praise for the sommelier” Frenk Trouw and his “outstanding” advice. GM of 23 years, Dale Dewsbury, retired in 2025, to be replaced by Californian James Ashton, who’s been at the hotel for ten years.

2024 Review: 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”.