The Scullery at Forbes of Kingennie — Restaurant in Scotland

This has always been a good local place for food, but I have never reviewed it.

The bar is the only (indoor) place that dogs are allowed - unlike other top-notch establishments such a Gaucho's where they are treated like royalty. I can find no separate listing for the bar as a separate entity, so this will have to combine with The Scullery.

It's always prudent to book here, as it gets very busy. We booked for two (and the two little dogs) at short notice for a Sunday dinner and I think it was probably a squeeze to fit us in.

Although there was no table service, and one of us had to go and order at the bar, we automatically got a tab. The drinks and the starters, and the mains were brought to the table, and we got a check back, and we got offered dessert. So, really, all that was missing from 'full table service' was that apparently nobody could come and take the initial order. Rather odd.

Between us, we chose the Pâté, and the soup for starters, and the beef roast with Yorkshire pudding and the steak and ale pie with mashed potato for mains. The portions are generous, and the soup today was a barley broth, served with a roll and butter.

The veg was the same with both mains, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, and was cooked perfectly in a very light honey glaze which didn't detract from the flavour, but also didn't require any additional seasoning.

The beef roast was cooked well, but there wasn't nearly enough gravy to go with a Yorkshire pudding.

Now the steak and ale pie. Perhaps with my North Yorkshire roots, I am too critical of pies. Unless a kitchen can be sure of demand, no-one these days bakes a large pie and serves helpings, the trend is for 'individual' pies - which makes perfect sense. The flaky-pastry topping on steak pies, whether individual or tray-baked, cooks on top of the pie and takes in the flavour from the steam, which makes it slightly soft and tasty. Making pies is time-consuming, and an art in itself. This steak and ale 'pie' was actually pie filling, topped with a flaky-pastry lid, which had been baked separately. There's nothing wrong with that, and I can understand perfectly why it's done that way, but it doesn't make the pie delicious, because the flaky-pastry doesn't actually taste of anything, it's just a brittle dome which smashes into pieces and has to be mashed into the filling. So, for me anyway, it was tasty enough, but didn't really warrant being called a 'pie'. At least the little dogs got some errant flakes of pastry which shot away while is was trying to cut it up!

A starter and main filled us up, we couldn't have eaten dessert.

The main issue toady was the table and the seating. We were shown to one of the tables near the back corner of the bar. To be fair, there really weren't any others. This corner has a nice high window that looks out towards the trees and the lake, but in order to see it, the tables there are high, with tall seats, Tall and very uncomfortable seats, which you literally have to climb into and then sit with your feet on the front stretcher, and keep your knees together to avoid the narrow legs digging into the outside of your calves. It was okay for ten minutes, but you can't move the seat once you've sat in it, so best of luck climbing in and out - which is really up and down! When I reached down to my side my hand was still an arm's length away from the ground, so the little dogs just had to stay twisted around the chair legs. After a hour we hobbled back to the car, pretty much crippled.

All in all, food good, service good, dining arrangements could have been better, but going at a quieter time would have helped as we'd have been able to ask for a different table. If you're young you might be comfortable, but if you're old with two small dogs, don't go trying to climb table 25, it's harder than...

I HATE giving two star reviews and very rarely do it, but feel I’d be lying to give my experience at The Scullery anything more. It was an absolute shambles from start to finish.

The restaurant is set in an absolutely beautiful setting, amongst the broader Forbes of Kingennie resort. There’s ample parking very close to the front door which is convenient.

We were quickly seated at a table (great) that clearly hadn’t been cleaned, the waitress acknowledged this as she picked up some debris from the previous diners, but didn’t come back to actually clean the table. The view over the lake from our table was absolutely stunning however.

First up was drinks: I had a pint of lager which was fine. My girlfriend had a soda water and lime. It arrived clearly not stirred with all the lime at the bottom. No bother, not wanting to be a problem she asked for a straw so she could stir it. “Is a paper straw ok?” Of course, any straw will do. Unfortunately it never arrived. List of mistakes is building and we’re starting to get annoyed.

We ordered from the lunch menu - I had the bangers and mash which are described as “flavour of the week sausages”. When I asked what the current flavour was, the server clearly had no idea and just responded, “they’re just always pork?” which in fairness turned out to be true. What turned up was alright and nothing more. The sausages were good quality and tasted nice, although clearly hadn’t been done any justice in terms of how they were cooked. The gravy was watery and there was nowhere near enough of it. The peas and mash were flavourless.

Oh, also the chips I asked for never arrived. Bit of a theme emerging. Possibly would have said something but unlike every other restaurant that would ask it everything was ok or if I wanted anything else, the server was gone as fast as she could (my pint at this point was also pretty much finished).

My girlfriend got the steak frites and that want great either. They didn’t ask how she wanted her steak which is a bit of a red flag in itself. What arrived was overcooked, small, steak surrounded by a not very appealing looking bernaise sauce. £18 it cost!

Look, end of the day right, some things are forgivable and some things you choose to overlook. This place however, was mistakes all over the place start to finish, and not particularly good food. I try to be generous with my reviews where I can but they’ve given me no reason. It’s badged as a luxury spot and the website even says one of the best restaurants in Dundee. I need to be frank and honest in my review that it’s down there with my worst dining experiences.

I really hope I’ve caught them on a bad day and this isn’t the typical experience. To be fair, reading their other reviews it seems like I am...

Food and service was good. Their system went down so a work colleague was not able to pay using his iPhone and didn’t have a credit card with him. The young girl handling this at the till was asking for his bank details, sort code, account number etc.. this is not acceptable or advisable in this day and age with scams etc.. ! I returned from the ladies room, intervened and ended up paying myself by cash ., which was a complete embarrassment to us both. Imagine a cashless society!! The embarrassment in the middle of the restaurant with us both standing there looking for money to pay the bill was not a great experience to say the least. No management came to sort this out.. they left a young pass to try to do her best but she was not experienced enough to handle the situation and take us to the side privately to save the embarrassment due to THEIR system to working properly.

I also notice that management are commenting on reviews left of a positive nature (thanking them) but are not commenting on lower rated reviews or apologising to...