The Ben Bhraggie Hotel

Nice place fine and quiet staff good aswell

Quiet hotel, friendly staff

Des is a fantastic and welcoming host. Superb!!!

Lovely little hotel. Fantasic food.

You can get a good sesh on in there, dunno about the rooms lak

Duur voor wat je krijgt, wel een van de weinige in de buurt

Hi H, Des here, the owner of The Ben Bhraggie Hotel. I have tried contacting you through TripAdvisor and am glad to have discovered your contribution here. It has provided important information.

I do regret that your experience was fairly disastrous and it would have been hoped that your experience would have been favourable.

The hotel isn’t marketed as a country cottage type rustic affair. It isnt marketed at all, but described as "a cosy informal place to stop, with good value home-made cooking". We take pride on our home-made cooking (not microwaved food) and our hospitality.

I apologise for the young girl that was helping out (there were two and both are local girls with 100% golspie accents). It shocks me that they have used terms I have never heard before. However, they were young, relatively inexperienced and wanting to help out during their school holidays.

As for the curry (beef and vegetable)...no curry powder is used, nor any flours, so as to provide gluten free. The colour in the curry is the colour of Garam Masala, which is a bit greeny-brown. Admittedly a bit runny, but very, very tasty. We vary our curries. The current (Chicken) is very thick, very tasty and is yellowy-red in colour.

I would place a bet on the fact that the lump was probably one of the vegetables as it is impossible it was curry powder, or even Garam Masala. Please do not think I want to belittle your judgement in any way.

You didn't enjoy your meal and I really wish you had said so while you were here. If you had done so, we would have been able to rectify. However, perhaps the reason you didn’t was on account of the young waitress. Could you do me a favour and give me the dates you were here? There are other facts I would need to check out that would be helpful for me to know, i.e more information means I can keep a look out to make sure that the same does not re-occur, as we really do pride ourselves on food and hospitality.

The description of the Beef and Vegetable Pie is written up as served with either chips or potatoes and vegetables. We should really describe it as vegetable of the day. Good point!

Re: Ordnance: Means military equipment. How was your meal presentation? The pastry lids should be soft inside and crispy on the outside. Was it served in a Pie Dish or on a plate?

Re: Water, it isn’t on the menu, but if you had requested it, the least you should expect is that you will find a few blocks of ice in your glass of water. And if she or whoever forgot, which doesn’t get them brownie points, I would have snapped, I asked for ice. My family tend to get cross when they don’t get what they ask for, I tend to make a bit of a joke out of it. Whichever approach, at least, you would have had ice eventually.

By the by, had noted your other reviews, and seems that you manage to travel around (which is a normal activity while on holiday) and all your reviews are between the 8th and 13th August 2011. I would like to compliment you on your writing style. I really enjoyed them all.

If there is anytime you are in the area, please drop in and say hello, and I will personally treat you to a meal of your choice. Just email me and let me know your preferences! My treat! Regards

Desiree

While I've never stayed here - we stay at the Kincraig when we spend summer in the Highlands - I have, unfortunately, eaten here. We were passing through the area en route to a family business appointment, and stopped because we hadn't eaten there before. The dining room itself is rather cramped and simplistic, but, as the hotel markets itself as a country-cottage-type rustic affair, I didn't mind.

When the food arrived, my reaction was one of vague distrust. Not only was my curry an ominous yellow-green colour, it had a lump of undissolved curry powder[!] in it. My water, despite the menu's claims otherwise, was sans ice. My brother's pie looked like some sort of ordnance, and billed as being accompanied by "vegetables", which turned out to be only carrots, and "mashed potatoes", which were boiled. The differentiation between mashed and boiled potatoes seemed to pass straight over the solitary waitress's foundation-caked head, as she merely made a quizzical expression and claimed that "yous guys asked for these". Needless to say, "usses guys" didn't tip her.

Despite this, I made some attempt to eat the curious products. I soon discovered that there was little there to eat, as most of my plate seemed to be nothing but watery sauce, with about three pieces of actual meat in there - and, if there had been any, it might have been difficult to eat, as my cutlery was blunt. When I indicated to the waitress that there was little meat in my curry, she mumbled incomprehensibly in that curious, implacable, paradoxical London Estuary-tinted Scottish accent that seems to be reserved just for waitresses in bad restaurants, though I'd be willing to bet that there was another "yous guys" in there. We didn't stay for pudding.

A warning to future visitors [if the rest of the review wasn't enough of a warning]: as I left, I passed the kitchen to get a comb that I'd left in the bathroom, and spotted someone taking another customer's curry out of a microwave. I don't appreciate being sold microwaved food.

To the owner: I'm unsure whether you need to report people taking doggy bags as terrorists here, as this stuff could probably find good use in an improvised chemical bomb.