Ten years after the Murrays opened it, the most obvious thing is how completely yet sympathetically it’s been updated. Significant amounts of tennis winnings have conspicuously been lavished on new décor, with Andy’s wife Kim leading the renovations. Darker colours for the woodwork and on trend busy wallpaper are just the start but the end result is that the whole place exudes an informal yet classy ambience.
As we arrive, it’s a sunny evening, so there’s a row of tables outside on the pristine lawn. Champagne and wine bottles poke out of ice buckets, a puppy gambols around on the grass, a peacock calls noisily; it’s a dreamily bucolic scene. We warm up for our meal with two cocktails in the bar – a margarita and an old-fashioned, both of them strangely underpowered, but the atmosphere is sufficiently enchanting that we’re not unduly bothered.
Besides, we’re here to cast an eye over their new menu, not their bar. Once part of the Roux empire which encompasses half a dozen of Scotland’s finest hotels, they have gone solo with Executive Head chef Darin Campbell now producing a bespoke menu from the open kitchen that serves The Glasshouse, the large heavily glazed extension which serves as their fine dining restaurant. As we run our eyes over a menu that has enormous breadth, the first thing we notice is that the bread is superb.
It’s a good omen. We start with a sushi roll of miso taramasalata, kimchi mayonnaise and crispy octopus (£15.50) which is small .
