I must have passed the sign for the Carnegie Lodge Hotel dozens of times over the years, and each time thought, I wonder what that place is like?
Although the hotel is situated on the outskirts of Tain and just a very short drive from the main A9 road, you can’t see the hotel from the road, so I’d no idea what it looked like or indeed if it offered meals to non-residents, etc.
But twice in the last few weeks, friends had independently told me that they’d enjoyed a good lunch and dinner in the hotel, which is privately owned by husband and wife team Derek and Heather Wynne. Personal recommendations, along with reviews in the P&J, of course, are always worth bearing in mind, so the next time we thought about where to go for dinner, the bistro restaurant at the Carnegie Lodge sprang to mind.
Well signposted from the A9, the road leads you up a hill, through a housing scheme, which made me think at first I’d taken a wrong turning. But there, at the end of the road, was the large ranch-like building, one which enjoys lovely open views across the countryside and the Dornoch Firth.
Having been warmly welcomed by a friendly member of staff, we were shown to our table in the restaurant, which has lovely big windows so you can enjoy the views while you dine. There’s also a lovely outdoor decked area where, on fine days, you can presumably eat outside too.
With a nice tartan carpet and white walls, the room had a fairly traditional feel but it could perhaps have benefited from some nice local art work on the walls to give it more style, as, when darkness fell and the views disappeared, the room slightly lacked any ambience.
With a cheery smile, our waitress rattled off the list of specials available that evening. As well as a chicken special, there were four choices of roast beef, pork, lamb and chicken – plus an enormous selection of starters and mains to choose from.
Dazzled by the selection on offer, we ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a G&T to sip while we made our decision. My gin was served in a large glass stamped with a Famous Grouse logo which I thought was odd, but odder still, the gin had been drowned in flat, fizzless tonic.
An apology from our waitress quickly followed and the mistake rectified, but this, along with the absence of an offer to hang up jackets, I found a little surprising as the service was, in general, pretty efficient.
We spent some time dithering over the menu as there really was an awfully big selection to choose from, and what didn’t help was seeing lovely plates of food being delivered to other diners. Each time a plate went by, I changed my mind!
Eventually, I selected the seafood medley for my starter, while my partner plumped for a dish of deep-fried Camembert cheese served with a fruity sauce. Both dishes were first-class.
My seafood selection was enormous with a huge pile of plump, pink bay prawns, a nice piece of pickled Orkney herring and a few slices of smoked salmon, plus a crisp salad and pot of prawn cocktail sauce. The herring was deliciously sweet and soft, while the prawns had plenty of fresh flavour to them.
The Camembert was also spot-on. It can be a difficult thing to deep-fry cheese. Don’t cook it long enough and cheese is hard, leave it in too long and you end up with a squishy mess. These were perfectly cooked, with the cheese just the right texture to ooze out gently on to the plate before being mopped up.
If we thought making a selection from the starters was difficult, then the main course was even harder. My partner doesn’t eat meat but enjoys fish and vegetarian dishes and was delighted to find he had plenty of options to choose from. It was a close tie between the vegetable and goat cheese nut roast, mushroom and capsicum stroganoff, but it was the mushroom Wellington,which won him over.
It was a good choice. A non-meat version of the traditional beef wellington, the flaky pastry was golden and deliciously buttery and just melted in the mouth, while the mushroom filling was pretty tasty. Having asked the waitress to help me decide between the beef and merlot pie and the chicken gran Marc (chicken poached in a cream and brandy sauce), she said both were good, but her personal choice would be the pie.
And a good choice it was too. Again the pastry was light, golden and crispy yet full of buttery flavours. And underneath it, a very generous portion of beautifully cooked stewing steak, with a very moreish gravy that had just a hint of warming red wine.
Both dishes came with potatoes, cauliflower and red cabbage and both were simply presented without fancy garnishes. Sometimes it’s nice to eat in a restaurant where they make a huge effort and present dishes that almost look too good to eat, but it’s also nice to go eat in a pub, bistro or restaurant where the focus is serving generous portions of good traditional pub-style grub.
Because the starter and main courses were both pretty large portions, we decided not to have a sweet although, again, there was a nice big selection to choose from. Instead, we ended the meal with a couple of coffees which we drank while watching the lights of Dornoch twinkling away merrily in the distance.
The Lodge is popular with locals and tourists alike and although the restaurant was fairly quiet on the evening we were there, it is often very busy, which shows that they are clearly doing something right and certainly, for a good value meal they will leave you feeling deliciously full and satisfied. It is a pretty good choice.