Scotland's best restaurants with rooms: here are a few favourites to visit in 2023

These are our preferred food-focused destinations
Boath HouseBoath House
Boath House

There’s no better feeling than going out for dinner and knowing that you don’t have to get the bus home afterwards.

For that reason, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite restaurants with rooms. All of them pay just as much care and attention to the shut eye as they do to the rib eye.

BOATH HOUSE

The Dipping LuggerThe Dipping Lugger
The Dipping Lugger
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last year, the team behind London restaurant, Sessions Arts Club, took over this hotel. There’s one impending restaurant in the main house and another that’s opened in the garden, as well as a little store. Choose from a room in the house, lodge, studio or, coming soon, a cabin, all of which are furnished with period and modern furnishings, for an artist’s retreat feel. The current Garden Cafe menu looks spectacular, with langoustine garganelli and fennel, or pan-fried cod, chard and beurre blanc, among other things.

Auldearn, Nairn (01667 454 896, www.boath-house.com)

THE PEAT INN

There are plenty of new contenders, but this Michelin-starred venue, which opened back in 2006, is arguably the original and best. Choose from the tasting menu or a la carte, with chef patron Geoffrey Smeddle’s creations including paupiettes of lemon sole, poached leeks, potato beignets, black truffle, trevisana, sea trout keta and leek veloute.

Cocktail bar at Killiecrankie House Pic: Alexander BaxterCocktail bar at Killiecrankie House Pic: Alexander Baxter
Cocktail bar at Killiecrankie House Pic: Alexander Baxter

near St Andrews, Fife, (01334 840206, www.thepeatinn.co.uk)

THE TAYBANK

Dunkeld has become quite a foodie destination over the last few years, with the opening of Flora Shedden’s lovely bakery, Aran, and Redwood Wines. There’s also this hotel, where rooms are, as they say, ‘serene’, and the food downstairs is way more than an afterthought. They're serving a wintery menu of scallops, creamed leeks, bacon jam and fennel, and Kinnaird Estate duck, heirloom carrots, beetroot, hazelnuts and sprouted broccoli. There’s also a four acre garden, where they grow much of the produce.

Tay Terrace, Dunkeld (01350 677123, www.thetaybank.co.uk)

Taybank restaurant Pics: Richard GastonTaybank restaurant Pics: Richard Gaston
Taybank restaurant Pics: Richard Gaston

There are just eight rooms in this former railway hotel, which is just beside the River Tay, and each has crispy white bed linen and a tasteful splash of colour on the walls. Guests could go visit Pitlochry or Aberfeldy for lunch or dinner, but it’d be hard to pass up the food (and cocktails, in The Tully bar) that’s being served right here. Winter dishes might include Peterhead monkfish, samphire and chicken butter sauce or pork belly, nasturtium and Inverlussa mussels.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Grandtully, Strathspey (01887 447 000, www.ballintaggart.com)

The couple who own this ‘fine dining restaurant with rooms’, Tom Tsappis and Matilda Ruffle, took on the 19th century building in 2020 and have completely refurbished it. The interior decor consists of jewel-like shades, and there are just five bedrooms with four-poster beds. They’ve also installed a restaurant with a 15-course tasting menu that includes fantastical dishes, including their take on lamb Scotch broth, with Perthshire lamb loin, confit lamb shoulders, potato terrine, turnip puree, sea kale and cuckoo flowers. They’re currently shut for winter, but when they reopen in February, they’ll also be offering a new shorter lunchtime tasting menu on Saturdays only.

Perthshire (01796 473 213, www.killiecrankiehouse.com)

INVER

You can’t make a list of restaurants with rooms without including this venue, which has a Michelin Green Star for its eco-credentials. A night’s stay includes an evening restaurant reservation for the tasting menu, and accommodation consists of luxury en-suite shepherd’s huts or bothies that overlook Loch Fyne. You can roll into your cabin, after an evening in the restaurant, where chef patron, Pam Brunton, might be serving up lunches of Argyll venison, celeriac and chanterelles, and plum sorbet, bitter almond and brown sugar schnapps. They’re currently closed for a winter break until March 16, though room bookings are open now.

Cairndow, (01369 860537, www.inverrestaurant.co.uk)

This 18-month old place, situated on the shores of Loch Broom, was awarded three AA rosettes a few months ago. It’s hard to know what to expect from the menu in the 18 cover restaurant, as head chef David Smith likes to surprise guests, with a list that might just feature one word, like Cod or Langoustine.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

4 West Shore Street, Ullapool, (01854 613344, www.thedippinglugger.co.uk)

EDINBANE LODGE

Skye has plenty of choice when it comes to excellent restaurants with rooms, but this place is at its peak right now, thanks to chef owner Calum Montgomery. They’ve been running A Taste of Skye menu, which features ten courses, starting with oyster beignets and Edinbane scurvygrass and concluding with locally foraged meadowsweet with almonds.

Old Dunvegan Road, Edinbane (01470 582217, www.edinbanelodge.co.uk)

GREYWALLS

If you love the country house feel, this is the place to go. Expect plump cushions, roaring fires and rich food, courtesy of their Chez Roux restaurant. They’ve recently launched a Weekend Road Winter Menu, available Friday to Sunday. It’s four courses and there’s a main of porchetta on Friday, roast chicken with lemon and thyme on Saturday and roast sirloin on Sunday, with all the trimmings.

Muirfield, Gullane (01620 842 144, www.greywalls.co.uk)

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.