Monachyle Mhor

The 2012 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the 2011 edition.

The mercurial Lewis family have been ticking all the boxes long before the boxes themselves became fashionable offering a boutique hotel hideaway in an 18th-century rural farmhouse and steadings, farming their own land and cultivating a proper kitchen garden that infuses their landmark restaurant with produce as fresh as it can be. This is backed up by a careful choice of butchers and fish suppliers. Award winning head chef Tom Lewis brings out the best in his ingredients with white asparagus, summer truffle, Balquhidder chanterelles and Hollandaise sauce to start followed by the likes of Tamworth Pork fillet and belly, kohlrabi choucroute and wild mushrooms. Desserts don’t slouch with a trio of chocolate mousse (orange, coffee and white cardamom chocolate) worth the hair-raising car journey alone. The décor is as cosy and satisfying with a hulk of old stone walls and windows that open out towards remote Loch Voil. Sunday lunches are great value, but for the full experience a lingering dinner and a night hidden away in Balquhidder in one of the suites around the back beckons.