Send to a friend

Print

del.icio.us this

Digg this

Royal Mail Hotel

Dunkeld, population barely 450, seems at first an unlikely site for culinary pilgrimage, its sole, unprepossessing hotel even more so. The restaurant dining room, adjoining a pub bistro and public bar beyond that, promises little. But you don’t need to venture far into the succession of 10 perfectly formed dishes to get a sense of the depth of Mugaritz-trained chef Dan Hunter’s art – the exactitude of the sardine pieces in a fragrant smoked-tuna consommé, say, or the elegance of a salad of tiny vegetables and borage and rocket blooms. Magic ripples through the dishes that follow, whether in the lift tender kingfish gets from its delicate saffron-tinged sauce, or the shards of honeycomb studding fine chocolate ice-cream with a wedge of hazelnut cake. Factor in a stellar cellar that’s the equal of any in the land, and you’re looking at a compelling reason to hit the road.