The menu reads like a culinary tour of the Scottish isles. From Hand Dived Isle of Rona Scallop with Smoked Seaweed Butter to Sound of Raasay Crab Mousse.
And for £115 per person you could be taken on a flavour festival courtesy of rising Scots culinary star Calum Montgomery.
Now less than five years since opening, the small restaurant on the Isle of Skye has been voted the best in Scotland, beating some of the country’s best known and most celebrated establishments.
Edinbane Lodge took the title of Restaurant of the Year at the Scottish Excellence Awards, presented at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa in Edinburgh last night.
Read more: Glasgow's Michelin star chef Lorna McNee earns talent of the year award
The result was another triumph for 33-year-old Chef-Patron Calum Montgomery, who was born and raised on Skye. Edinbane was a 16th-Century derelict hunting lodge until he and his family bought it in 2017 and transformed it the following year into a restaurant with four-bedroom accommodation.
It is one of only six restaurants in Scotland to hold four AA Rosettes for culinary excellence. Edinbane seats just 32 diners and customers are told their table is theirs for the evening or lunchtime service.
Judges said: “Calum and his team were above exceptional in all aspects of the criteria including benchmarking, innovation, sustainability and ethics. With a very strong list of finalists, all those who were short-listed made the final call very difficult, such was the calibre of applicants. “
Montgomery was also a finalist in the Chef of the Year category of the Excellence Awards, described as ‘the ultimate accolade for businesses and individuals working in Scottish hospitality.'
Read more: Ex-Dyson designer reveals gran's hack inspired development of eco vase
In 2019 Edinbane was named Newcomer Restaurant of the Year in the Catering Scotland Awards (CIS), predecessor of the Excellence Awards.
Entrepreneurial chef Dean Banks was shortlisted in the Chef of the Year, the Restaurant Newcomer category for Dulse in Edinburgh (for which he was Highly Commended) and in the Restaurant of the Year Award for HAAR in St Andrews. In 2021 he launched Dean Banks at The Pompadour in the Waldorf Astoria at Edinburgh’s Caledonian Hotel, and the chef recently opened The Forager, a gastropub in Dollar, Clackmannanshire.
Other finalists for Restaurant of the Year were Aizle in Edinburgh, Station Road at the Lovat Hotel in Fort Augustus and UNALOME by Graeme Cheevers in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Street.
Chef of the Year went to Paul Wedgwood, 48, whose eponymous restaurant on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile recently celebrated its 16th anniversary. A passionate forager, he works with schoolchildren in the capital and East Lothian to teach them cooking skills and reduce food waste.
Other finalists included Derek Johnstone, first winner of Masterchef: The Professionals in 2008, who launched the Rabbit Restaurant and its sister bar, The Seal, at the Marine Hotel at Troon last Summer.
Craig Steedman, of catering business Gather & Gather triumphed in the Banqueting and Events category. Judges said he was “a stand out winner. "
They added: "We were so impressed with Craig's obvious passion for the industry and for local food and ingredients. He has worked in such an incredible variety of businesses from workplace events to cooking for the late Queen's last garden party yet remains modest and appreciative of his team.”
Mingary Castle in Ardnamurchan, housed in a 13th century castle and run by Jessica Thompson and her partner Colin Nicholson, took the Best Restaurant Newcomer trophy.
Rufflets Hotel in St Andrews, built in 1924 as a private home for the widow of a jute trader, captured the Independent Hotel of the Year title ahead of Banchory Lodge on the River Dee in Aberdeenshire and the five-star Glenapp Castle, which describes itself as an international destination for luxury customers.
Glenapp’s newly launched Azalea restaurant was also in the running in this category but lost out to Mingary Castle.
Owned by the same family since 1952, Rufflets is run by grandsons of two of the original founders, their mother Ann Murray-Smith, and Marco Truffeli, the Italian-British hotelier who partnered with them in 2020.
The Group Hotel of the Year Award was won by the 174-bedroom Radisson Red Hotel in Glasgow, which has been stepping up its events and entertainment programmes, partnering with local radio stations and artists performing at the nearby Ovo Hydro. It was joint winner with Glenapp Castle in the same category in the 2020-21 Excellence Award.
"We’ve worked very hard to create a unique identity, including our own brands," said general manager Graham Chalmers.
"We haven’t gone with the crowd. The aim is always to give our guests memorable moments."
Runner-up was the 22-bed Duisdale Hotel on Skye’s Sleat Peninsula - part of Anne Gracie Gunn’s Sonas Collection. Duisdale received a Highly Recommended rating, with Highland Coast Hotels’ Royal Marine Hotel at Brora also a finalist.
There was consolation for Sonas when Group General Manager Andreas Maszczyk took the Employee of the Year Award.
A highlight of the event was presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Ken McCulloch, founder of the Malmaison and Dakota hotel chains.
The 14 experts on the Awards Advisory Board included award-winning lecturer and author Gary Maclean, Lovat Loch Ness owner and sustainability specialist Caroline Gregory and Andrew Fairlie protégé and Great British Menu-winning Michelin-Starred chef, Lorna McNee. It was chaired by Andrea Nicholas, Chief Executive of Green Tourism.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here