Undiscovered Scotland

 

The quality of the food on offer at the Taychreggan Hotel is excellent. The hotel has been awarded 2 AA Rosettes for its dining every year for many years. You can read our hotel review for Taychreggan here.

The Taychreggan Hotel offers guests a number of dining options. Afternoon tea is available every afternoon in the public areas of the hotel: we'd recommend the comfortable lounges or the bright and airy Orangerie. The choices on offer range from a simple tea and shortbread to the rather more substantial full tea, comprising a sandwich, a scone with cream and jam, and tea. In the late afternoon, children's high tea is served in the bar. Meanwhile, a room service menu is available at all times, and packed lunches can be arranged.

Dinner is enjoyed in the dining room on the ground floor of the hotel's new wing. This can be divided into two separate areas to allow private dining to take place at one end. On entering the restaurant your attention is immediately drawn to the line of full length arched windows along one side, giving magnificent views out over Loch Awe.

The five course table d'hote dinner menu changes daily. Within it guests are offered a choice between two starters, two mains and two sweets or the option of cheese. Any detailed discussion can only be a snapshot of one particular day's menu, but after a superb appetiser of smoked duck with roasted plums, our starter choice was between pan fried fillet of rainbow trout, or a warm salad of goats cheese and Stornoway black pudding. Both were very good. The lemon sorbet which followed was a perfect palate cleanser.

The main course choice was between roasted breast of corn fed chicken with haggis boudain, and an oven baked fillet of seabass with seared scallops. Each fully lived up to the expectations raised by what had gone before, and portion sizes were good. It as particularly nice to be able to compare and contrast the trout starter with the seabass main course. On the night we stayed, the sweet choice was between carrot pudding with Guinness ice cream and a Cointreau toffee sauce, and vanilla pannacotta with a forest berry compote: and both were thoroughly enjoyable in very contrasting ways. Dinner is rounded off with coffee and petit fours served in the lounge.

Breakfast is also served in the dining room, though room service and early alternatives can be arranged. The starter course is from a self service buffet, and besides all the usual choices includes fresh fruit and an excellent home made fruit compote. Tea and coffee are served at your table, as is warm toast made from home made bread: which can be enjoyed with the home made preserves set out on the table.

Main course options range from all the components of a traditional fried breakfast to smoked haddock or salmon, or cold honey roast ham with cheese and pineapple. The cold ham turned out to be an excellent choice, nicely presented and an ideal way to be set up for the day. You can read our hotel review for Taychreggan here.