At the end of my last post I mentioned that we were soon to be visiting the Pine Trees Hotel in Pitlochry for Lorna’s birthday. This post has been somewhat delayed by a spell in hospital for me, and subsequent recovery at home. I’m certainly on the mend, but not yet quite up to full speed. My trusty ghost writer is assisting me as usual, by posting this on my behalf.

On 31 January, Lorna and I drove the 45 minutes or so north to Pitlochry, to meet my other daughter, Flora, for lunch at the Pine Trees Hotel. It was my first visit to the hotel, which was reached by a lengthy private driveway flanked by pine trees. Although it was a dull, cold day, the building had a welcoming appearance from the outside.

We were warmly welcomed and led to a table set for three, which had a green velvet sofa on one side and a chair on the other. I sat on the chair while my two daughters took up their places on the low sofa (Lorna was behind the camera in the picture below).

After perusing the interesting menu, both Flora and I opted for battered haddock with chips, minted peas and caper mayonnaise. The batter was light and crisp, and the fish fresh and perfectly cooked.

Lorna went for a vegetarian dish of pumpkin and sage ravioli with harissa, kale, candy beetroot and amaretti crumbs. She was impressed by the range of flavours and textures incorporated into the dish, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Following our very satisfactory savouries, we all three chose the same dessert: warm pear frangipane with caramelised apple, and bramble sorbet.

It was a nice pudding, but we didn’t detect the pear, and the tart was slightly dry. It seemed to be crying out for a small jug of pouring cream. The bramble sorbet and blobs of caramelised apple, however, were excellent, and perhaps a more generous serving of those accompaniments would have made up for the missing cream.

We spent all our time in the restaurant itself, but were interested to note some soft seating areas that looked as if they’d be pleasant places to sit with a drink.

When we came to pay for the meal we noticed that one of the desserts and two of the drinks had been missed off the bill. When we brought this to the attention of the waiter, he explained that they had deliberately reduced the bill since we were celebrating a birthday. We were surprised and delighted by this, and it rounded off a happy occasion very nicely. We departed with the happy thought of a return visit some time in the future.