The Clachnaharry Inn, Clachnaharry

We had just finished a boating holiday on the Caledonian Canal and were looking for a nice final meal. Found the details for this place in the brochures left on the boat and as it was close, decided to give it a try. I should have been on my guard when I noticed that they had spelled Beauly wrong (they like it better as Beaully) and I wish I had followed my instincts. Two of our party had the mussels in wine sauce. The sauce was runny and sharp, no bread or anything else accompanied the meal and there was only a maximum of 13 small (very small) mussels in the bowl � 20+ shells though! This naturally enough left them still extremely hungry and very, very disappointed at paying nearly �8 (62 pence a mussel) whilst having to leave the inedible sauce in the bowl. I had what was described as a steak and kidney pudding. It was so small (although the plate was enormous) that it was hard to imagine how both steak and kidney could manage to fit inside the minute pudding. When cut into, I found that the dilemma had been solved by simply not bothering with the kidney. For that matter the �chef� had not bothered with the taste either as it was totally bland although the pastry was claggy and soggy to complement the filling. For some bizarre reason the �chef� thought that the addition of 3 potato crisps on the top of the pudding would somehow enhance it � it didn�t! This dish was accompanied by 2 baby onions and a baby carrot. A side dish of �potato� that resembled (and tasted) like baby food was also provided to keep in the spirit of things I suppose. All this for a bargain price of almost �11. We complained of course and to his credit the landlord knocked �14 off our total bill -which coincidentally was just enough to buy the chips etc. from a good chip shop in town that we needed because we all left the place absolutely famished! This is a pub that should try sticking to being a pub. All it needs to do is serve good pub food. If it wants a Michelin star (which it will never get with the quality of its current food) then it should stop trying to be a real ale pub and have a decent re-fit. This place was truly dreadful and the worst value for money that I have encountered in a long time. Unless you like pretentious food or want to somehow pretend that you are a taster in Masterchef then do yourself a favour � have a nice pint then go and buy yourself some fish and chips.

8 May 2010 18:48