The Drummond Hotel, St Fillans

In life there are events that are best forgotten and a recent meal I had at the Drummond Hotel at St Filllans is one such event. Unfortunately, I have committed to sharing my experience on Buddha Belly Eats and as such I am going to have to relive the nightmare of this catastrophic gastronomic experience.

My family and I have visited the Drummond Hotel on countless occasions during the last 5 years or so and in the past have been pleasantly surprised by the good quality of food served there. However, and I start to shake and quiver as I begin to reminisce, on my most recent visit it was a disaster. Six of my family and I visited the Drummond Hotel a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately I have report that it was crap. Apologies for the use of agricultural language but it’s hard to find another word that describes the disappoint felt by those that sampled the inept and disastrous culinary exploits of the Drummond Hotel.

The Drummond Hotel has recently been taken over by new management and I have to say the place has gone down hill. What was once a friendly place to eat and drink has lost its welcoming and warm atmosphere. The food and drink served have also gone down hill. In short, the meal was dire. It took to long to serve us. “Sorry sir we have a bus party in and the chef is very busy.” I felt like screaming “But we booked for this meal and you should not have taken the booking if you could not deliver a reasonable meal in a reasonable time.” The service was very poor.

The drink was also very poor. The beer was too cold (freezing!). When my pint arrived it did not have a head on it. It looked like a stagnant pond. I should have taken this as a sign of things to come. After a couple of attempts at ordering wine I was really pissed off. We ordered wine and the waiter came back to the table “Sorry I know we said we had that wine but we don’t.” This happened three times. I thought that it was a wind up. It got to the stage of us asking what wine do you have since the wine list is no longer relevant? Poor guy, he was badly let down by the management.

The soup was passable. The haggis was covered in some sauce with a skin on it that turned my stomach. But my dear father-in-law ate half of it. However, he should have surrendered to the rubbery mush much earlier. But, he is too polite and he has lived through the WW II and is thankful for anything that’s not made from powdered milk! But this was just rank rotten.

The trout tasted too much like an orange and drew my sister-in-laws cheeks together. The gammon steak was tough and fatty. The steaks was under cooked. The chips were not bad though!

My 14 year old daughter's comment about the apple crumble “I’ve made better in my Home Economics class.” summed everything up. It was dry and tasteless. And, I did not get the ice cream being in one ceramic dish and the apple crumble being in another. It takes allsorts as they say.

I have tried to find something positive to say about the Drummond Hotel but I am struggling. Aaah yes, the view from the car park is magical. Loch Earn is a wonderful romantic setting that should be enjoyed by all. Unfortunately, the food and drink at the Drummond Hotel does not do the view justice. As Tim Lovejoy of Soccer AM says “It won’t last!” It is my view, for what its worth, that there is just no way that a business that offers such rubbish to its customers can last. Maybe the new owners will be one season disasters. But one things for sure, I won’t be back.


Contact Details:
The Drummond Hotel
St Fillans on Loch Earn
Perthshire
PH6 2NF
Telephone: 01764 685212