The Clubhouse - Fife

This restaurant could be incredible, it has spectacular views and the setting is bliss but firstly the young serving team need a bit of guidance , they try hard but are lacking someone experienced to take charge and lead . It shouldn’t be about what they don’t have and allergy advice must be clearer. More attention was given to the fire pit than any of the tables ! The food was so disappointing, overcooked, dripping with grease , unseasoned. We do not grudge paying for a good meal but we grudged paying the pricey check on this occasion as it simply wasn’t worth it. As a Scot , I am embarrassed when I see tourists to our country having to endure inexperienced service and poor food …… This restaurant should be magnificent…… but isn’t !!

We went for dinner and were asked immediately for our drink order the second we sat down. After ordering we waited for around 10 minutes (in a near empty restaurant) to find out that our order hadn’t been passed on and asked to reorder. Understandable though as the first waiter was young and everyone has to learn. We then have our food order taken, a chicken salad and a steak with 2 separate sides, to which the chicken salad came out without any chicken, and the sides did not come at all. After sending back the salad just for chicken to be put on top, I was told the salad was being remade unnecessarily as that meant my partner had to eat his steak while it was hot with no sides and me sat with nothing in front of me for a good 15 20 minutes. After I got my salad back (still no sides) I had finished it and were going to ask to forget about the side orders as there was no point, however couldn’t catch the eye of anyone as they appeared to be too busy trying to please the older guests at the other side of the room. After we were both finished our food the sides appeared (another 15 minutes later), with no apology from the waiter. We finished our food and tried to ask for the bill after trying to catch the eye of anyone working (which again proved very difficult). For so many things to go wrong with our food you would think the manageress that was going about would approach the table at least once, however she avoided our table like the plague, which very much made it seem like because we were younger we were put to the sidelines. Our full bill came including a £10 service charge with no offer of any sort of discount or even apology from any member of staff, just a snide attitude from the waiter when he saw that no tip was coming his way. After we had paid, there was not even a quick thank you from the waiter who had taken the payment, in the full knowledge of how our experience had gone. For the price we paid for the meal, what we received did not nearly match up. We did not complain at the time as had another booking we had to get to however would like to make it known how unhappy we were at the experience and the way we were treated by the restaurant.

Waited 40 minutes for first course with three waitresses asking us if everything was OK and no communication about any delay

Hard to know where to start. I think the only good thing is the view and to be honest you can go for a walk and see a nice view. We were 6 people including kids , 2 diners were coeliac (one of which has a nut allergy) and 2 elderly. Before booking the hotel and restaurants i talked through coeliac and strict gluten free diet requirements. Upon arriving at restaurant i made sure they were aware and asked for the meals for myself and my daughter to be check by chef to be coeliac safe. After one hour we have no food and can see parties who have arrived after us were eating their main courses. Our children were getting over hungry as it was getting closer to 9pm (and hour and a half after beating seated) After chasing several times and really getting no real answer we are served food nearly 2 hours after our arrival. The first round of starters arrived, but was served with nuts, which we had told the staff we could not have. When the second round of starters arrive, everyone is hungry and tucks in. Our 9 year old coeliac daughter had food in her mouth (which had been served as gluten free) when the staff came running over and asked to remove the plates, as they were not actually sure that they were coeliac safe. She was spitting the food back onto the plate, and wiping her tongue with a napkin. This led to my daughter become extremely distressed as she could end up extremely sick and ofc led us to complain. the whole meal was an absolute shambles took so long to serve the incorrect food, we lost all trust in the staff and everyone barely ate, never mind we had crying children from the stress of it all. This has ruined the start to what was supposed to be a lovely holiday to Fairmont. You book at 5star hotel and expect the price you pay to be matched by impeccable service, this is not the case, quite the opposite. I urge you to take you money elsewhere, there are far better places to go in Scotland. in my opinion this is style over content. May I add my husbands main course when it did arrived after 2 hours which was the crab was smaller than the starter !! And lets just say this price of it was shocking. The fish was salted to oblivion, and the medium steak was closer to rare. This sort of thing is easier to swallow when you’re not paying £30+ per main. At that price it should be flawless. As we were so unhappy and it had ruined the start to our holiday never mind nearly poisoned our daughter we were rightly so not charged, BUT this should never have happened in the first place. I am now holding my breath and hoping the rest of our break is ok and that I haven’t wasted all of our money and time on what was supposed to be a lovely family trip with the grandparents.

My friend and I came for brunch and we weren't disappointed. Staff were friendly and attentive. Food was amazing and we are already planning a return visit. To top it all off those amazing sea views!