Restaurant in Kildrummy, United Kingdom
Michelin-recognised cooking, country pub prices.
Kildrummy Inn holds back-to-back Michelin Plates (2024–2025) and a 4.8 Google rating, delivering well-executed Modern British cooking at a ££ price point in rural Aberdeenshire. Four bedrooms, cosy sitting rooms, and a terrace make it worth an overnight stay. Easy to book, best visited for lunch or early dinner rather than as a late-night destination.
Kildrummy Inn is the right call if you want a Michelin-recognised meal in rural Aberdeenshire without the formality or price tag of a destination restaurant. It suits couples looking for a quiet overnight stop, travellers passing through the Grampian countryside who want something better than pub food, and anyone who finds the idea of haggis, neaps and tatties done properly more appealing than a twelve-course tasting menu. If you are arriving in the area for the first time and wondering where to eat and sleep, this is a direct answer: book here.
The Kildrummy Inn has recently come through a renovation that shifted it into a different category from the average Scottish country pub. The result is a place that reads as a smartly refurbished inn rather than a heritage museum piece — cosy sitting rooms, four letting bedrooms, and a terrace that earns its keep when the Aberdeenshire weather permits. The atmosphere is composed rather than lively: low noise levels, warm interiors, and the kind of energy that settles rather than stimulates. If you are looking for a buzzing late-night bar scene, this is not it. The mood winds down early, and that is by design. For a long evening that finishes with a nightcap in a sitting room rather than a queue at the bar, Kildrummy delivers.
On the question of late hours specifically: Kildrummy Inn is better understood as an early-evening and dinner destination than a late-night one. The four bedrooms mean that staying guests can linger in the sitting rooms after dinner, which is the closest thing to a late-night offer here. Walk-in drinkers looking for a 10 PM pint should look elsewhere. But for guests who have booked a room, the after-dinner hours are genuinely comfortable , a sitting room rather than a noisy bar is a feature, not a limitation, when you are in the Aberdeenshire countryside.
Two consecutive Michelin Plates , awarded in 2024 and retained in 2025 , put Kildrummy Inn in a specific category: cooking that Michelin considers worth noting for quality without reaching starred territory. That is a useful calibration for first-timers. You are not coming here for the kind of technical precision you would find at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in Auchterarder or the sustained ambition of Ynyshir Hall in Machynlleth. What you are getting is well-executed Modern British cooking that balances contemporary choices against recognisable classics: rib-eye steak, fish and chips, chicken liver parfait. At a ££ price point, that balance is exactly right.
The lunchtime haggis, neaps and tatties is specifically cited by Michelin as a reason to visit, and it is worth treating that as a genuine steer. If you are planning a midday stop rather than a dinner reservation, the lunch menu gives you the most distinctively Scottish part of the offer in its leading form. For dinner, the menu moves between modern and traditional without forcing a choice between the two , useful for mixed groups where one person wants something classic and another wants something with more invention on the plate.
There is no tasting menu listed in the available data, which matters for how you plan the visit. Kildrummy Inn is an à la carte operation at this price level, and comparing it to multi-course destination restaurants would be the wrong frame. See it instead alongside Michelin Plate-level country inns , venues like Hand and Flowers in Marlow or hide and fox in Saltwood, where the pub or inn format meets a serious kitchen. In that company, a 4.8 on Google across 289 reviews is a strong signal of consistent execution rather than occasional brilliance.
Kildrummy is a small village in Aberdeenshire, roughly between Alford and Huntly. You will need a car to get here , this is not a venue you walk to from a city centre. That geographic reality shapes the visit: most people who eat here are either staying in one of the four bedrooms or are on a planned drive through the Grampian countryside. If you are coming from Aberdeen, build the trip around a lunch or early dinner rather than a late evening, given the drive back.
Booking difficulty is low. Unlike Michelin-starred venues where tables at L'Enclume in Cartmel or Moor Hall in Aughton require weeks of forward planning, Kildrummy Inn should be bookable with reasonable notice. That said, the four bedrooms fill quickly on weekends, particularly in summer when the terrace is at its leading. If an overnight stay is part of the plan, book ahead. For dinner only, the lead time is shorter.
The ££ price range makes this one of the more accessible Michelin-recognised experiences in Scotland. You are not committing to a three-figure spend per head. For context, a comparable evening at Gidleigh Park in Chagford or Waterside Inn in Bray would cost significantly more. Kildrummy's pricing reflects its pub-inn format , the kitchen quality punches above that bracket, but the bill does not.
Dress code information is not available in the data, but at a smartly renovated country inn at ££, smart-casual is a reliable default. You are not expected to arrive in a jacket, but turning up in walking gear directly from a muddy hillside is probably the wrong read of the room.
For more options in the area, see our full Kildrummy restaurants guide, our Kildrummy hotels guide, and our Kildrummy bars guide. If you are exploring Aberdeenshire more broadly, our Kildrummy experiences guide and wineries guide cover additional options in the region.
One-line summary: Michelin Plate inn, ££ pricing, easy to book, four bedrooms , arrive for lunch or early dinner, plan to stay the night.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kildrummy Inn | Modern British | There is a luxurious feel to this smartly renovated pub, where the cooking mixes the modern with the traditional. Among the well-executed dishes on the menu are some contemporary choices alongside recognisable classics like rib-eye steak, fish & chips and chicken liver parfait. Come at lunchtime to enjoy their classically served haggis, neaps and tatties, which is a real treat. Four bedrooms, cosy sitting rooms and an immaculate terrace complete the very pretty picture.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
How Kildrummy Inn stacks up against the competition.
The menu spans recognisable classics — rib-eye steak, fish and chips, chicken liver parfait — alongside more contemporary choices, which suggests reasonable flexibility. Contact the inn directly before booking if you have specific dietary requirements, as the ££ price range and pub format typically allow for substitutions more readily than fixed tasting menus.
Yes, with a caveat about setting expectations. This is a smartly renovated country pub with Michelin Plate recognition, cosy sitting rooms, four bedrooms, and an immaculate terrace — not a white-tablecloth destination restaurant. For a birthday or anniversary in rural Aberdeenshire where you want quality cooking without formality, it works well. If you need ceremony and theatre, look elsewhere.
At ££, the value case is strong. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) signal cooking that Michelin considers worth seeking out, and the price point sits well below what comparable recognition costs in Edinburgh or London. The combination of overnight rooms, a terrace, and Michelin-acknowledged food at pub pricing is the argument for booking.
You need a car — Kildrummy is a small village in Aberdeenshire between Alford and Huntly, with no practical public transport link. If you're coming at lunch, the haggis, neaps and tatties is specifically noted as a highlight. Four bedrooms are available if you want to stay over rather than drive back.
The database does not confirm a tasting menu format at Kildrummy Inn. The cooking is described as a mix of modern and traditional dishes, with classics like rib-eye, fish and chips, and chicken liver parfait — this points to a conventional à la carte or set menu rather than a multi-course tasting format. Check directly with the inn before assuming that format is available.
Book at least two to three weeks ahead, particularly if you want one of the four bedrooms or plan to visit at a weekend. Michelin Plate recognition in a venue with only four rooms and a rural location means capacity is tight. Lunchtime midweek may offer more flexibility, but this is not a walk-in venue.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
