The Inn At Lathones - Fife

This is my second time visiting this restaurant and I absolutely adore it. The beautiful countryside setting near St. Andrews is perfect. I love everything about this place - the location, the friendly staff, the high-quality food, and the cozy interior. Tonight, I had a delightful conversation with Jennifer and all the staff here are fantastic, even though I didn't catch all of their names. My only major complaints are that I am only staying for one night and there are so many tempting dishes on the menu!

We had a wonderful meal tonight as first-time visitors. The restaurant is set in a beautiful location, within the original coach house from the 1600s. The food was delicious and very fresh. The waitstaff were friendly and genuine, making us eager to return.

Last minute decision to go out for dinner and the Inn is only 10 mins from home. Had heard great reviews of the place and decided to give it a try. Immediately thrilled with the restaurant setting so much quirky potential. The old barn would make an excellent setting if properly styled. There was obviously the start to something. Loved the fire place and lighting at the log stores. Very interesting and well styled. The other areas would do well to match that simple standard. The tables themselves were a bit fussy with white table clothes and settings. I can see the potential to be a high end restaurant and the aspiration to be one in some of the setting/styling choices but there are a few considerations to be undertaken (the bookcase of wine isn’t nearly as interesting as the wine cellar as you come in, the paint work is patchy, the radiators old fashioned, a huge cobweb hung above our table etc). As for the menu. I was disappointed not to see a seasonal menu and a daily specials board. We are in an amazing place for produce and would have expected to see local and seasonal produce on the menu. The menu choice was therefore quite limited (pub grub rather than restaurant choices). No fresh fish options!! All breaded or battered! Come on, we are in Fife! The menu itself wasn’t very high end, modern or fresh. There are some very good examples of modern stylish menu deliveries available but the menus themselves were cheap laminated sheets in an old menu folder. The dining experience these days is more than the food in front of you. It is the dining experience (of which the food and drink is a part but not the sum). The food. Unfortunately the food choice was fairly limited and not that exciting. We opted for two different starters; lemon sole goujons (with a shop bought tartar sauce) and truffle pasta. Seasoning wasn’t quite right and the salad with the goujons way over dressed with a shop bought French dressing. The pasta was rich and needed an oil (wild garlic would have been nice) to cut through the richness which became a creamy pulp in the mouth. For main we had chicken parmigiana and a sirloin steak. Again seasoning for both dishes was way off. The chicken meat itself was under seasoned and the tomato sauce (which tasted like a tin of tomatoes/purée) was missing any seasoning at all. No herbs, garlic or anything. The sauce seemed like it was just a tin of tomatoes poured onto the chicken. We took most of that away to feed to the dog at home. The fries that came with the chicken were far too salty to be enjoyed. The steak was tasty but inconsistently cooked. I ordered a blue steak and most of it was cooked medium rare. The steak was seasoned well. I’d actually order that again. The sides were overly salty garlic mushrooms, grilled tomato and overly salty fried onions. The balance of seasoning was terrible. The truffle dauphinois potatoes were actually delicious. Dessert could have been spectacular but again where was the seasonality we opted to share tarte tatin but again we were disappointed. The tarte (although small) was delicious however all the shop bought caramel sauce and so called raspberry coulis destroyed it. The caramel far too artificial and sweet and the raspberry way too bitter. A home made coulis would have been delicious. We had coffee and two g&ts before leaving. For our meal 2 starters, 2 mains (one steak) and one dessert, two g&ts and a coffee our bill came to around £85. Service was good, settings could be amazing but the food let it all down. The chef either isn’t tasting or has no taste buds. The menu limited and not seasonal, fresh or inventive and for the cost vs quality it wasn’t really good value.

The food, the food well you won't be disappointed. Starters of muscles, garlic mushrooms and baked Camembert were thoroughly enjoyed following by the most amazing locally caught haddock and chips. The portion did not warrant a starter. The breakfast menu was extensive not like we have seen in a while and all meals were excellently presented and tasted wonderful. The waiting staff were attentive and friendly and we wanted for nothing.

My husband I decided last minute to pop in for food, we were not disappointed. We hadn’t booked but the staff could not have been more accommodating sat us at a table in the beautiful stables restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious the service was impeccable, I cannot commend the staff enough. We were made to feel so welcome nothing was too much trouble. We live locally will definitely now be regular visitors.