The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant Review

Situated in the grounds of the Glenturret Distillery near the Scottish town of Creiff, The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant is a venue I'd been looking forward to visiting for quite some time. After first receiving guide recognition in 2021, 2024 saw the award of both two Michelin stars and five AA rosettes, meaning the restaurant can (with some justification) now lay claim to being the very best restaurant in Scotland. I therefore arrived with some fairly high expectations as I rocked up for dinner with my wife, on a warm August Thursday.

The booking process had been relatively painless; I lodged a booking request via the website around seven months in advance (before the date we wanted was open for online bookings) and a team member followed up a short time later to confirm and request the full menu payment up front, which isn't unusual for top restaurants nowadays. I'd actually been for a distillery tour here a few years ago, and there's still a sizeable car park on site for the distillery which we made use of; the restaurant is just a short walk away.

We were greeted warmly enough on arrival and made our way through the extensive lounge and bar area to the main dining space. It's a luxurious but comparatively understated room (apart from the impressive Lalique light fixtures); around the edge of the room were several spacious round tables whilst in the middle of the room was a singular, much smaller table, the kind of space a restaurant would normally use as a serving stand for water and so on. Guess where they decided to seat us?

This irked me quite a lot to be honest; to have one table that's so inferior to the rest is disappointing for a restaurant of this level. If I'd booked last minute and begged them to squeeze us in, I could kind of understand, but having booked so far in advance (before online bookings even opened), I'm pretty confident in saying we weren't the last to book for dinner that evening. For me, it just showed a real and immediate apathy to us as paying customers and an assumption we wouldn't notice. If the restaurant wants to deliver more covers, they should really restructure the room and take space from the vast bar and lounge area, not just insert one much smaller table.

We weren't offered either a drinks list or a wine list when seated before being asked what we'd like pre dinner to drink (presumably because the table was too small to support them). However, I do know the lists are available on the website so I can say the wine list is impressive, there's an expectedly large whisky list, and the main drinks list is substantial too, including a good range of non-alcoholic options. Our waiter recommend the signature 'TurretfizZ' non-alcoholic cocktail for my wife which she did enjoy, whilst I just had a Henrick's and tonic, which was perfectly delivered.

For drinks with the meal, there are two wine flight options; I opted for the 'Prestige Worldwide' pairing which is the cheaper of the two. My wife selected the non-alcoholic 'Nolo' pairing; it's always a positive to see a non-alcoholic pairing option available.

Dinner began with a series of four nibbles; first up was a lingonberry and liver combination in a delicate cocoa basket, which was a very pleasant mouthful. The line caught mackerel that followed though was disappointing; the fish itself was nice, but the accompanying sauce dollop was massively overpowering and just annihilated any other flavour on the dish completely. It also didn't eat well; for me that one needs a complete rethink. The final two snack courses were much better though; a squid based soft tart was very enjoyable and finally the restaurant's signature take on a 'tattie scone' (bao bun style) with beef, black truffle and caviar, was delicious.

Bread was delivered next; a malted barley sourdough covered in a beer reduction and served with two types of butter, as well as some honey and oil on the side. The bread was good; it wasn't the most stand out bread I've ever had as a star level restaurant, but it was perfectly tasty. They do serve a good amount of bread here versus what you'd normally see on a tasting menu, so you can dip back in during the meal if you choose too.

The first two dishes listed on the tasting menu were served at the same time (I'll never understand why restaurants list one dish as two); on the plate was a delicate mini taco wrapped langoustine tartare with buttermilk and caviar, accompanied by the signature langoustine shaped 'bisque-it' on the side, made from the remaining left over langoustine elements, including the shell. This was a really high quality dish; it looked great visually and all the elements were delicious; I'd happily eat this again any time.

The seam bream that came next wasn't quite as spectacular but still enjoyable; the fish was stuffed with a tasty mousse including Morteau sausage and accompanied by a creamy sauce featuring pike roe. The fish cooking for a dish like this has to be very precise, and it was pretty well executed, albeit not quite as memorable as the previous dish.

The next dish took a long time to arrive (I'll talk more about the pacing later) and was listed on the menu as 'Lobster Toddy'. However there was a lot more to the dish than the menu gave away, it was in fact a three part lobster dish. On the main plate was the barbequed tail which was cooked well and very tasty, but my favourite element of this dish was the knuckle sandwich on the side which was absolutely delicious. The toddy itself packed a real punch; I enjoyed it, my wife wasn't so keen, but it did taste like there was a still a fair whack of alcohol in there which might have put her off (given she wasn't drinking).

The next dish was another well established one on the menu, the 'Foievioli'; a single raviolo served on a long spoon, packed full of flavoursome elements including fois gras, an albufera sauce and topped with truffle. Whilst the flavour burst was very pleasant, my overriding thought on the night and memory from this dish was that the pasta was undeniably undercooked (so was my wife's). To be served undercooked pasta at this level of restaurant was unexpected to say the least, particularly for a dish the kitchen must have delivered thousands of times since opening. I can try and be nice and speculate perhaps something wasn't quite working correctly in the kitchen, but in reality it just felt like complacency to me.

The last of the savoury courses was given quite a big build up by the waiting staff and consisted of a piece of Berrichon lamb, a burnt cucumber type of tapenade and a random extra plate featuring two pieces of charcuterie. It was thanks to the added charcuterie that I knew as soon as this dish was served that something wasn't right; whoever devised this dish clearly isn't comfortable with the main elements on the plate, so felt the need to add something tasty on the side that didn't need any cooking.

I would have been very happy to have been proven wrong, but unfortunately I was absolutely right, as this dish was a bit of a disaster. Firstly the lamb cooking was poor; it was chewy and not seared well. If you serve a piece of lamb that small (as per many tasting menus), the cooking has to be faultless, and this was miles away from that. But what just destroyed the dish was the burnt cucumber and bullhorn pepper accompaniment; it was just massively overpowering and I can't believe anyone in the kitchen actually tasted it before it was sent out. Ironically, the charcuterie on the side was the tastiest element (by far) and I relayed that to our waitress (she looked a tad surprised). This really felt like an underdeveloped dish that's been rushed out, which at this level of restaurant (and at these prices) is unforgivable really; for me it needs a total rethink.

After a disappointing end to the savoury courses, I was hoping for a major improvement from the pastry section to cheer me up, and I have to say the desserts were much closer to the level I'd been hoping for.

First up was a little pre-dessert bowl really, consisting of raspberry, melilot and wild rose, which was a fresh and perfectly tasty, you can't really ask for much more from a pre-dessert. The final course of the meal was a Maracaibo chocolate mille-feuille, with a green coffee and coconut sorbet, a splodge of yuzu gel and a whisky (Glenturret of course) caramel sauce served in a little bottle on the side. This was a top class dessert which I really enjoyed; all the elements were visually precise and more importantly delicious, the only thing I'd maybe consider tweaking was the yuzu gel (yuzu just feels a little bit boring nowadays) but I'd happily devour this dessert again any time. Kudos to the pastry team.

Petit fours are included in the menu price, and we opted to take these and coffee (a couple of perfectly decent Blue Mountain cappuccinos) in the lounge area; I was keen to get away from our little table and the lounge area is much more comfortable. I always appreciate when a restaurant looks to deliver a good p4 experience and that was definitely the case here; there was a great selection of interesting chocolates and the like, and the delivery was fun with our waitresses twisting the special presentation box more than once to reveal additional goodies.

We were then able to collect our bill (complete with 12.5% service charge) and bring a largely enjoyable, but ultimately quite frustrating meal, to an end. The first thing I'd say is there was definitely some excellent cooking on show here for many of the dishes, but there was also some worrying complacency on show from the kitchen, and some underdeveloped ideas that for me shouldn't be near the final menu served to paying customers.

The wine flight was OK; nearly all the wines were poured at the table and the delivery was fine, but it did feel a little bit uninspired. Certain wines like the Bucephale Xinomavro Ktima Ligas served with that (disastrous) lamb main course would really have benefited from being decanted first for me, but it was poured straight from the bottle.

The non-alcoholic pairing was given a big build up (and it's always appreciated when restaurants put something together for this) but was actually one of the worst non-alcoholic flights my wife has had; a lot of the drinks didn't appear to have been tasted by anyone; they just weren't nice to drink. There was also a lack of synergy with the wine pairing; our waiter described the final non-alcoholic paired drink which accompanied the mille-feuille dessert as trying to mirror the Sauternes wine the restaurant has developed; fine in principle as Sauternes is of course traditionally a dessert wine, but the actual Sauternes wine was served far earlier to me with the 'Foievioli' course, it didn't really make any sense.

The menu pacing too was an issue, and this is always something that separates good restaurants from great in my experience. At one point during the savoury courses I was sat looking at a glass of white wine getting warm for over fifteen minutes after it had been poured, waiting for my food to be delivered. The pacing of the savoury courses in particular wasn't good; some of the gaps were just far too long. Service in general was fine, not outstanding, but all the staff were pleasant enough.

Given the award progression over the last couple of years, I came here with expectations of finding a restaurant that was really looking to push forwards and evolve and maybe even grab Scotland's first ever third star. But what I found in reality was tourist targeted theatre; the place has no soul, it's just a money grab. I think nowhere was that more apparent than with the naming of the more expensive wine pairing option, named (and I'm deadly serious here), the 'Rare and Baller' pairing. Honestly, who the heck involved with the restaurant thought a 'Baller' pairing was the right name for a top UK restaurant? I guess it's a targeted play for our US cousins, but that one line really epitomises for me everything that's wrong here.

Overall, as I've already said, there's definitely some genuine top class cooking here and that should be rightly commended. But there were also undeniable issues with some of the food, and given all the other frustrations during our dinner across various areas, and the huge cost (versus other Scottish restaurants), this isn't an experience I'm ever likely to repeat.