The Four Seasons Hotel

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

This review is taken from the current (2012) edition.

St Fillans’ Four Seasons Hotel by Loch Earn combines the Meall Reamhar fine dining restaurant and the Tarken Room bistro for lighter lunches and suppers with blackboard specials. The charming décor, inspired by owner Andrew Low’s travels, is a mish-mash of styles, from the Chinese Room (with opium bed) to a Highland bathroom. Andrew’s personality shows in the gourmand menu and wine list too, and in the atmosphere, which is incredibly relaxing and friendly to families and dogs. Professional, friendly staff guide diners to a log fire for aperitifs and amuses bouches, advise wines for the next four courses, and lead you to your table which is already set with canapés and the hotel’s own sparkling mineral water. The signature starter of Scrabster sea scallops, curried puy lentils, cauliflower veloute and baby herbs is outstanding: giant, delicate and seared like a steak, with a salty taste of the sea. After a refreshing elderflower sorbet, the main course of meltingly tender slow braised beef skirt, buttery soft calves’ liver, wild mushroom and lentil cassoulet and the earthy, warmth of truffle mashed potato makes an extremely pleasant contrast and will leave you beaming with happiness – even before the dessert, coffee and petits fours, and bargain out-of-city prices.

• High point: You'll be talking about the scallops for months to come
• Low point: The home-cured beetroot and orange smoked salmon, orange and thyme jelly, watercress salad and shot of borshka didn’t harmonise