06/05/2026
💚KILLIECRANKIE HOUSE💚
I rarely get out these days, so it was a real treat to visit the other week. Run by husband-and-wife team, Tom in the kitchen, Matilda front of house and somm.
Set on the edge of the Highlands, just outside Pitlochry, their food blends seasonal, local ingredients with subtle Japanese influences (Matilda’s heritage), most evident in the intricate presentation and seasoning.
It’s exquisite and exciting. Big, loud flavours (just how they like them) sit alongside the most delicate, all sonorously clear.
I don’t like to talk in superlatives, but the salmon may be the best thing I’ve EVER eaten. Our faces were pictures, Tom told us with amusement when he came out to talk to everyone later. With an open kitchen, ’You can see us,’ he said, ‘but people forget we can see you too’.
We had:
✨Mushroom Panisse – looking like it was about to take flight from its perch of wild garlic emulsion on wings of shaved Catalan black truffle. Deep and intense.🍄🟫🌱
✨Chewy Beetroot Tartlet – appliquéd with tiny overlapping stars of red and yellow beetroot, dehydrated then rehydrated in their own blueberry vinegar. As beautiful to eat as it looked.❤️💛
✨Dripping Fried Porridge – their play on porridge in a drawer – oats cooked in beef broth, fall-apart slow-cooked oxtail, fried in beef dripping, grated St Andrew’s cheddar, pickled walnut sauce – majestic – the poshest chip in brown sauce you’ll ever eat!🍟🤎
✨Oat Tofu – oat silken tofu, rose, doubanjiang from chillies grown in their own garden, Sichuan pepper, sesame – ethereal yet punchy at the same time.🤍🧡
✨Confit Loch Duart Salmon – as soft as butter, on a plum and mikan (satsuma) beurre blanc, a jammy umeboshi hidden underneath, shiso powder on top. Served with a milk bun to soak up all the sauce, so rich it practically oozed between your fingers. Oh. My. Word. Conversation-stopping, face-picturing good.😮❤️🔥
✨Apple – Granny Smith + Pink Lady, ginger (the little flowers on top of the apple balls), apple sorbet, crystallised apple leaf, on a pool of dill. An exercise in clarity.🍏💚
Really special.😋
