Gleneagles, Restaurant Andrew Fairlie: 2 Michelin stars, its head chef, the menus and the price

The restaurant keeps a door of its own: its site describes an opulent, evening-only room, run like a salon behind a discreet private entrance of its own inside the hotel, and the MICHELIN Guide adds dark wood walls, clever lighting and colourful food-themed art. It is the hotel’s and it is run apart from it: the restaurant calls itself an independent entity hidden inside Gleneagles, with Kate Fairlie as its director and Stephen McLaughlin as head chef, and since August 2026 Xavier Brette as general manager and John Preston as restaurant manager, both back after earlier years on its floor.

It opened in 2001 and was awarded 2 stars in 2006, the first restaurant in Scotland to hold them, says Gleneagles; the restaurant now calls itself Scotland’s longest-standing 2-star table. Andrew Fairlie won the Roux Scholarship in its inaugural year and went on to cook for Michel Guérard at Les Prés d’Eugénie, whose motto, simple food brilliantly done, is still printed on the home page. He died on 22 January 2019; McLaughlin, who had joined his brigade at 17 and stayed 26 years at his side, took over the kitchen that year, say the legacy and evolution pages. 2026 is the restaurant’s 25th year, marked with events made with friends and partners in the trade.

There are 4 menus. The dégustation on the site in mid-October runs to 7 courses: a steamed crab claw with crab sabayon and caviar, salt-baked beetroot with butternut squash and autumn truffle, halibut with parsnip and vanilla purée, hand-rolled agnolotti of partridge mousse with truffle and Madeira jus, then the home-smoked Scottish lobster with warm lime and herb butter, a herb-crusted loin of lamb with its slow-cooked shoulder, and a Jersey milk parfait with brambles and cassis sorbet.

The à la carte is built in 4 stages, starter, intermediate, main and dessert. Among the starters are a caramelised veal sweetbread with Bordelaise sauce and a wild mushroom and black truffle ravioli in cep velouté; the intermediate course offers a roast hand-dived king scallop with shallot and red wine butter; the mains include Borders roe deer with a game bonbon and sauce poivrade, John Dory with a squid bolognese, and spiced monkfish with surf clams and Champagne sauce. The lobster carries a market supplement, and British and continental cheeses £10 more; the pear soufflé with crumble topping is the first of the desserts.

Vegetarians have a carte and a dégustation of their own. The vegetarian tasting menu goes from spiced butternut squash with buttermilk and herb oil through pattypan squash with celeriac remoulade, agnolotti of whipped crowdie, a Roscoff onion with beluga lentils and red wine sauce, and a celeriac and potato pavé with cauliflower and coconut velouté, to a mandarin parfait. The gift shop says it features the best produce of the secret garden, a Victorian walled garden of 3 acres where the head grower, Jo Campbell, raises vegetables, salads, edible flowers and herbs, working round the Scottish weather with cloches and fleece.

The drinks list leans on Champagne, and on Krug above all: Grande Cuvée by the glass at £60, vintages back to 1988 by the bottle, and Clos d’Ambonnay 1995 at £4,250. Glasses of 125ml start at £10, for a South African Sauvignon Blanc or an Australian Grenache, and end at £175 for a Vega-Sicilia ‘Unico’ 2004, with Château d’Yquem 2007 at £150; the cellar’s summit is a Montrachet Grand Cru of 1998 from the Comtes Lafon, £6,500. The cocktails, £15 to £21, include a Scottish Lassie made with Cardhu whisky, and 5 alcohol-free cocktails cost £12 each.

The MICHELIN inspectors write of cooking with a French heart and a Scottish soul, of superb produce, much of it from the kitchen garden, and of exemplary classical technique seen most in the sauces, from a punchy Bordelaise to a glossy lamb jus; the service, they find, balances formality with friendliness. In the 2026 Guide, announced on 9 February, it is one of 2 restaurants in Scotland with 2 stars, beside The Glenturret Lalique in Crieff.

21 of the 2,000 Google reviews of the hotel collected on 15 October 2026 name the restaurant. A guest in May 2022 trusted the chef with the tasting menu and remembered full silver service; in October 2019 one found the restaurant truly magical, and an anniversary couple that September were made a special dessert. A German guest in September 2023 singled out a charming sommelière. A guest in October 2021 was disappointed with the food and found it below their earlier visits.

The Glenturret Lalique, in Crieff, is Scotland’s other 2-star restaurant: Mark Donald’s tasting menu is served Wednesday to Saturday from £220 a guest, and diners must be 12 or older.

Killiecrankie House, new to the stars in 2026, serves one set tasting menu inspired by Japan and Scotland at dinner from Thursday to Saturday, up to 20 small servings over 3 to 3.5 hours, at £165 or £185 as its 2026/2027 price list gives it, plus a discretionary 12.5%.

1887 at The Torridon, also new to the stars in 2026, cooks with produce from the hotel’s farm and kitchen garden on Upper Loch Torridon, opens for dinner Wednesday to Sunday all year, prints a sample menu at £150 and takes diners from 12.