The Drouthy Cobbler — Restaurant in Scotland

Lovely atmosphere, but the service let us down After reading several reviews of this restaurant, we felt it was a must-try since we were visiting Elgin for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to expectations :(

We arrived to a lovely and cozy setting that gave us a good feeling right away – it looked promising. We had booked a table through their website about 1.5 hours earlier, just to be sure we’d get a spot.

When we got to the door, we could tell they were busy – which was fair enough, as it was a warm day and lots of people were out enjoying the weather. We waited for a bit and were then greeted by a sweet but slightly bussy waitress who asked for our reservation. After giving her the name, she hesitated a moment and then asked us to wait 2 minutes. That was totally fine – although it did seem like they hadn’t noticed our booking had come through.

Eventually we were seated, got our menus, and placed our order. The waiter was friendly, but everything felt a bit rushed. Our wine arrived – it was on the warm side, but tasted fine.

We had ordered their large sharing platter – the Chateaubriand experience for two – with glazed carrots and two types of sauce. The food was tasty and well-prepared, though I must say I rarely get served Chateaubriand with that much tendons. It was edible, but not quite what I’d expect from a Chateau Briand.

From there, service took a real dive. We sat and chatted for a while, but no one checked in to see if we were okay or needed anything. It took quite a while before another server came by to clear the plates and ask if we wanted dessert. We said yes and asked for the menu – which we got – but then… nothing. No one came back. In the end, we simply got up, paid, and left.

It was a real shame, especially because while we were sitting there, an American couple came in and were seated right next to us – and they received noticeably more attentive service than we did.

All in all, not a place I’m likely...

After reading all the rave reviews on here, my friend and I were looking forward to our dinner. The restaurant itself was hard to find because it was down a close and wasn't well signposted. It had a few tables outside, complete with heaters. Inside was narrow and small but very busy so we thought we'd come to the right place. But .... We'd not long sat down when a waitress arrived with menus. She was called away to the table opposite where a lady had complained that she had ordered drinks and they still hadn't arrived although she could see them on the bar counter. A few minutes later our order was taken as two other guests arrived, closely followed by a lone gent. Their orders were taken. Our drinks arrived, but the food took ages. The other two tables who had arrived after us had bith been served their meals, all were fish and chips, and ours hadn't. One was a fish and chips, the other, bangers and mash. These were ordered after some of the comments we saw. Eventually our good came and neither of us saw what was so fantastic about the dishes. We ordered deserts, and they too, took ages, we estimate about 40 minutes. At this time, different people had sat at the table opposite us and had the same issue with their drinks as the people at that table had had previously. The pub is beautiful and quaint, the staff very friendly and helpful but the service is extremely slow and really...

Where to begin? We were looking for a Sunday Roast Beef Dinner in Elgin and came across The Drouthy Cobbler and reserved a table. From the minute we arrived we loved the atmosphere! We had an excellent seat at the back of the restaurant. The service was excellent and we enjoyed some drinks. We ordered the Roast Beef Dinner for Two and it was absolutely divine! Coming from Western Canada with Scottish and English grandparents, my bar for a good roast beef dinner is quite high. The meal at The Drouthy Cobbler far exceeded our expectations. Every single part of the dish was cooked perfectly and the seasoning on the food was well balanced to compliment the meal but allowed the roast, yorkshire pudding and vegetables to remain the star of the show. The gravy was also perfectly done. I would recommend anyone wanting a home-cooked meal better than Grandma or mum could do to stop by and try it out. The drinks and dessert were also amazing and they had the most amazing playlist going over the sound system the entire time....