The Station Hotel

As usual I was working away and we chose the Station Hotel, despite its price bracket as there were not (as far as I could find) any other suitable hotels in the immediate area. Can’t fault the hotel or its accommodation itself, it’s clearly top notch. Modern fixtures and fittings are of a high standard and it was spotlessly clean in every single way. Coffee machine was difficult to operate on the first morning (a member of staff helped me) and on the second morning, it wouldn’t switch on at all. Could’ve been me, but as I’ve had similar coffee machines for the last 15 years, I doubt it. I was also surprised that at over £200 PP per night, there were no Scottish shortbread or biscuits in the room, or bottled water, which to me seemed to be a bit mean. We had breakfast booked for both nights, but I only went on the 2nd morning. My breakfast was seriously overcooked. Haggis was bone dry, bacon was burned and I needed to really ‘saw’ at the Scottish Scone to cut it. Even then it was inedible. It seemed to me that there were insufficient amounts of serving staff to deal with the guests. The lady who served me (god bless her) was jogging from the kitchen to the breakfast area! I also found out that my colleague received a ‘free dram’ on arrival at his room. I didn’t, not that matters much but you’d think each room/guest would be treated the same and that the service would be consistent. Can’t fault the staff whatsoever. Across the board pleasant, attentive and helpful. Some minor issues, that wouldn’t take a lot of effort to address.

We went for dinner on 16th July and received a very frosty reception and did not feel welcome at all. We enquired about dinner as non residents at 6pm and were told this was not possible until 8pm as the restaurant was busy however there were only 2 other tables present. We persuaded them on the basis of just ordering soup which we had in the nearly empty bistro. We were refused menus and had to ask for the bread that came with the small soup. We then went to the empty bar for a drink and received the same welcome. The waitress rolled her eyes, for the second time, at my friend when she was paying for the drinks. The whole atmosphere was very tense and I couldn’t wait to leave. I’ve never felt this awkward in a place before.

Had the most beautiful afternoon tea yesterday as part of the whisky festival events . Absolutely perfect in every way Beautiful food and perfect service Ann was just a diamond , what a lovely lady . A fabulous team of staff Will be back soon most definitely

Still and stove experience with Carys was very good. Great food, pretty good whisky pairings and excellent company. Good service, clean environment. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thanks to Carys; her patience, knowledge, enthusiasm and banter were just perfect.

We had a very poor experience in the restaurant. The choice on the menu was not the best, but we ordered the duck and the burger. We waited 45 minutes for our food to come. There were only two other tables in, so it wasn’t extremely busy. When the food came, both dishes were not very warm. The portion of my duck was tiny, and for the price of the dish, I don’t believe to be worth it at all. It didn’t taste very nice and the flavour combinations did not seem to work, I did not enjoy the confit leg and the duck was quite tough. The cabbage was the best part! My partners burger wasn’t anything special, better portion size, but he said the meat was dry and again, not very hot. We did mention this to our server and she kindly took money off the bill, however we definitely will not be back. Really disappointing as this hotel is meant to be 4 stars with a 2 AA rosette restaurant. We really looked forward to our meal too, but this was a very poor experience.

We had a lovely meal at station hotel on a quiet Monday evening. Beautiful menu and the scallops one of the best we’ve ever had. The buffalo shoulder was melt in the mouth along with garlic mash, what’s not to love? Staff were friendly and we were so excited to order Clootie Dumping for dessert. Now here’s where it gets interesting. What we got was sticky toffee pudding with a few raisins. In no way did this in any way resemble clootie dumpling. It was ok, bit dry. We then asked the lovely waitress about our disappointment. She agreed it’s not like granny used to make. This item needs to be renamed on the menu so your Scottish customers don’t leave disappointed like we did. Would we go back, absolutely! Just pick a different pudding!