Kailyard by Nick Nairn — Restaurant in Scotland

Nick Nairn is a Scottish celebrity chef. He became the youngest Scottish chef to win a Michelin star in the early 1990s, and after that he must have given up or he was having a bad day when I was there. We had really high expectations for our dinner being foodies ourselves and to be really honest I’ve never been so let down, first of all the waiter put us at a table in direct sunlight, my wife couldn’t see across the table it was so bright, the back of my neck was burning to be honest the waiter should have known better but when all the waiters are part time young workers with no experience and no maitre d' around to run and organize the hall that’s what you get. At the table another disappointment the chairs are old, faded and haven’t been cleaned in years the varnish was peeling off the top of the table, now being a Michelin star chef menu restaurant you would surely expect a waiter to explain the whole menu and the specials you’d also expect a wine sommelier to come over offer a drink and wine explanation that didn’t happen. The food, my wife ordered a smoked salmon and prawn dish and I ordered the roasted beets, now my dish was ok just lacking flavor my wife’s dish was placed on top of her napkin the waiter just sort of dumped it there so unprofessional and the dish looked like something from the 1960’s and 70’s a very old fashioned looking prawn cocktail that you would make at home with enough cocktail sauce to drown the whole prawn population I was seriously surprised not something I would expect to see from a Michelin star chef, the main dish, 1 cod and 1 chicken dish, now these looked great very modern plating, nice contrast but that’s as far as it went the fish had no seasoning just a really salted skin the couscous was salty with no other flavors coming out, the chicken was cooked perfectly but all I could taste was a little bit of liver from the haggis filling and salt no other flavors at all. The desserts again looked good, modern plating and to be honest tasted good. Overall the place looked old unclean and worn out the waiters like robots with no hospitality skills and a kitchen that doesn’t really care about the customer food experience a really disappointing experience from a Michelin starred chef...

My family and I visited 'The Kailyard' in the middle of a cross-country move that was not going to plan and nothing could have improved our spirits more! What lays in store is a truly excellent dining experience and one which just leaves you wanting to come back for more.

Before we even touch upon the beautifully balanced food, the service is really superb. On a whole, the staff are welcoming, friendly and will treat you like royalty. A special thanks to Lauren who was our waitress for the evening and who never left us wanting for anything.

As would be expected, they have a comprehensive drinks menu and I can definitely recommend the Malbec.

For starters I went with a Salmon and Prawn cocktail - a dish which seems to be seeing a resurgence in Scotland in reasont years. A beautifully balanced dish, with the perfect ratio of seafood to salad. The prawns we're fresh, the smoked salmon was delicious and with the crunch of the iceberg lettuce it's just a wonderful combination! Not sure why they ever fell out of fashion.

This was followed up by incredibly tender pheasant, served with apples, chestnuts, potatoes and gravy. These flavours paired wonderfully together and you can't put a price on the smile it brought to everyone's face as they took their first bite. The buttery chestnuts and lightly crunchy apple worked so well with the pheasant - it was just perfect. One of the best dishes I've ever had!

If you can find room for desert, you won't be disappointed by the apple and bramble crumble. The crumble is delightfully oaty, and not overly sweet. The filling again just brought a big smile to my lips. A personal favourite of mine, but just cooked to perfection. The apples were not crunchy, but perfectly firm and the brambles were deliciously sweet. It's served with custard, but it's really not required. I prefer my custard slightly thicker, but I can't fault it on taste. All in all, a really great dish.

As a meal together, you can't really ask for better. Expect to have a great experience, enjoy some lovely food and all for a reasonable price! I can't express how good value 'The Kailyard' is for the experience you will receive....

We ate here this evening whilst staying in the hotel. When we went to book a table in the restaurant (they don’t take walk-ins even for hotel guests) we were informed that there were no tables for another two hours. As we are frequent travellers and had only booked the hotel a few hours earlier I decided to book, what a mistake I made; even during the process of creating the booking the gentleman walked away to fix a card machine for a colleague. With a one year old baby this was less than ideal but we happily went back at 8pm. We were then made to stand in a queue for another 10 minutes before we were seated. They had forgotten the requested highchair so we reminded the gentleman and he said he’d go and get it. Another 20 minutes later our very helpful waitress arrived to take our drinks order and apologised profusely when we pointed out the missing highchair. Generally the service across the restaurant was poor with a clear lack of management or communication. I’d assume something went really wrong with their service this evening as I don’t remember seeing such poor service for many years. The food was ok when it arrived and the waitress seemed to work hard to make up for the problems we had seen early on. Overall service was 1/5 but through no fault of our hard working waitress. Food quality 3/5 average for a Doubletree. Value for money 1/5 they were charging £32.95 for a steak and £4.50 for a Coke! Almost tourist trap prices, and that’s from somebody who stays in Hilton brand properties several times per month. I’ll review the hotel separately upon checkout and I’ll update Flyertalk also but the poor F&B service has unfortunately let the...