The Boar's Head Review

Sat in the small town of Auchtermuchty in the county of Fife in Scotland, The Boar's Head is a well regarded gastropub that was first awarded an AA rosette in 2023, before a second AA rosette arrived in 2025. Despite the previous head chef leaving a few weeks before our visit, with those credentials I was nonetheless looking forward to some high class pub cooking as I visited for lunch with my wife, her parents and our two children, on a mild August Saturday.

The pub doesn't have any dedicated parking, but there is a sort of small public car park right in front of the venue, which we were handily able to grab a space in. Externally the place looks a little bit tired in truth (it's tough to withstand the Scottish weather) but internally the venue is perfectly pleasant and what you'd expect from a high end gastropub.

The welcome on arrival was warm enough, and we were given the choice to either site in the bar area (which had a few people in) or the rear dining area (which was empty). As we had the kids and fancied a nice relaxing lunch, we opted for the dining area, and I think that was the right choice. This too was a nice room with plenty of quirky wall decoration.

On offer at lunch is a full carte menu (which we ate from), a shorter set price two-choices-per-course lunch menu, and a two course children's menu too. Drinks wise, there's a decent-for-a-pub wine list and a sizeable cocktail list too, including a really good range of non-alcoholic options. We had a couple of Hedrick's and tonics during our meal plus various soft drinks, and a non-alcoholic gin and tonic.

Lunch began for me with the Perthshire wood pigeon, served with salt baked beetroot. This wasn't a particularly elegant dish; wood pigeon is easy to overcook and this was borderline for me, but the flavours were pleasant enough. I have to say other starters around the table were enjoyed a lot more; my wife loved her mackerel dish served with potato salad and a creme fraiche, whilst my father-in-law very much enjoyed his scallop with a lobster bisque too.

The tempura cauliflower with a romesco carrot puree was another decent starter which my mother-in-law enjoyed, whilst the kids both had a portion of the homemade sourdough with whipped butter, which was fine.

For mains, both myself and my father-in-law went for the venison, served with petit pois a la francaise, smoked pancetta and a single slice of oyster mushroom. This was a tasty main course, the meat cookery was sound and it was a high quality dish. My daughter and mother-in-law both went for the ratatouille; this unfortunately wasn't brilliant, it was a sizeable portion but a pretty uninspired dish which lacked flavour. My wife did enjoy her guinea fowl main course though and my young son was perfectly happy with just a side of chips.

After some decent savoury courses, we (of course) pushed on and ordered dessert, but these were not at the same standard as what had come before. My creme brulee with homemade shortbread was OK but far from the best creme brulee I've had, and the strawberry and jasmine mascarpone mousse wasn't enjoyed by my wife and daughter either. My father-in-law and son both had ice cream (sourced from maker Luvians rather than made on site) which was fine. It's fair to say none of the desserts were at the level we'd hoped, and it feels like pastry is a skill that's lacking in the kitchen here.

And with that, our lunch came to an end. Collecting the bill was no issue, there's no automatically included service charge but there is the option to leave a tip on the card machine (which we did). Overall the cooking was decent; some of the savoury dishes were really good, some were not so great, and the standard of desserts across the board needs improving.

The service was fine though and we were well looked after by our waitress throughout our meal. Overall, although the food wasn't perhaps as good as I'd been hoping, we did enjoy our visit and I'd be happy to eat here again in future.