Situated in what was once Boath House’s breakfast parlour, the Dining Room will be led by Philip Mcenaney and Katie Austin, who both previously cooked at Adam Byatt’s Trinity in London’s Clapham, and have a heavily seasonal food focus with ingredients cultivated from the hotel’s walled garden, which stretches some 35 acres, and sourced from local farms and suppliers.
The restaurant will serve a two or three course ‘Artist menu’, named in honour of the hotel's artist residency program, alongside an eight-course ‘Experience’ tasting menu.
Launch dishes include locally caught trout poached in burnt bay leaf oil and served with a sauce made from the bones, wine, vinegar and cream; beetroot with rose; and Scotch pancake from Maclean's local bakery that’s toasted and dipped in cocoa butter and white chocolate.
“Opening the Dining Room at Boath House is a thrilling moment for us,” says Mcenaney.
“Relocating to the heart of the Highlands has been a long-held dream, and now we have the chance to celebrate the art of food in a setting as inspiring as the ingredients we use.”
Boath House was acquired by Cabin Studio, which also owns popular London restaurant Sessions Arts Club, in April 2022 with the Dining Room restaurant originally scheduled to launch later that year. However, it was subsequently delayed.
The hotel’s more casual Garden Café, which serves a menu of wood-fired pizzas and sharing plates, relaunched last year.
Speaking to Restaurant in the summer of 2022, Cabin Studio founder Jonny Gent spoke of the challenges of getting Boath House’s two restaurant spaces ‘right’.
“The hardest thing has been working out how we make the restaurants accessible to a broader audience, while remaining true to our ethos and aesthetic,” he said at the time.
Billed as ‘a sanctuary for creatives’, Boath House features nine ensuite rooms within its Grade A listed Georgian mansion. The hotel’s grounds also house the four-bedroom Boath Lodge; two one-bed cabins (The Writing Studio and The Painting Studio); and a soon-to-launch Musicians Studio complete with an analogue studio setup.
Sessions Arts Club launched in London's Clerkenwell in 2021 under the leadership of chef Florence Knight and has been a marked critical success, attracting rave reviews from critics including Grace Dent and Marina O’Loughlin and featuring on the National Restaurant Awards top 100 list.
Late last year, Knight announced she would be leaving the restaurant, with a new head chef expected to be announced in the near future.
