Originally published by the Guardian, Saturday 12 June 2010

An inherent problem with reviewing in Scotland is that a flight delay can result in missing the very dinner I am supposed to experience. Would you Adam and Eve it? Our flight is late.

We shoot off (quite literally, until I get to grips with the hire car) towards Stirlingshire. It helps having a Scot navigating, and in less than an hour, D and I reach the village of Kippen.

“Food, log fires, rooms” it says outside in smart grey script on whitewashed stone. Just the commodities we need. D waits at the foot of a steep flight of stairs while I push open a door which says “Lounge Bar and Restaurant” to find a dimly lit, busy scene of diners and drinkers.

“We’ve just sent you an email,” says Brian Horsburgh, who bought the pub in 2007 with his partner Debby McGregor. He’s wearing an apron now but used to direct River City for BBC Scotland. Debby was a one-time restaurant manager of The Tron in Glasgow. Also in the kitchen is Tony Odorico from Mhor Fish in Callander. No, they wouldn’t have let us go hungry, he says, hauling our bags upstairs.

Just three rooms, and we have the “large twin”. No frills. Pale oak single beds separated by a modern floor lamp. A flatscreen telly on the wall, and windows with rooftop views towards Ben Ledi and the Trossachs. The shower room seems to have heating (or at least some nice warm pipes) beneath the tiles. A chest of drawers contains a tiny hairdryer, but there’s no bedside table, no kettle, tea or coffee, and nowhere to hang clothes except on the back of doors. Fine for us – we haven’t packed for a night at the opera.

Let’s get downstairs, we’re starving. “Pity the fires aren’t lit,” I say, keeping my cardigan on. “I know,” says D, “but it’s summer and these are hardy Scots.” “Why isn’t the fire lit?” I ask the nice waitress (whose name is Deborah). “Because it’s summer,” comes the reply.

The crowd at the bar swells even while we read through the menu. With more than 10 main courses, it’s longer than expected. “This takes me back a bit,” says D, tapping a wall of varnished board, “proper spit and sawdust.” I like the way tables aren’t laid – so anyone can sit at them, not just diners.

“Look – deep-fried ice-cream,” I say. “I’m not leaving Scotland without having had that.”

First comes asparagus and pea risotto, and a fantastically chunky terrine, then a fiery Moroccan lamb stew with homemade flatbread and bulgur (nice, but nothing ever beats my grandmother’s) and baked hake fillet on a warm salad of leeks and potato chunks with plenty of bite, and an olive tapenade. As for the deep-fried ice-cream – it’s been rolled in shredded coconut and cooked for a second, then parked on the sticky loveliness of butterscotch sauce. It’s my scoop of the year.

We sleep extremely well. “Memory foam,” says D in the morning. Breakfast is served in a whitewashed room of rough stone beside an imposing fireplace of Scottish oak. We ask Brian to do the honours and soon we’re sitting beside a blaze (and a shelf of well-thumbed cookery books), sipping tea and working through porridge, proper undyed smoked haddock, smoked salmon from Ritchies of Rothesay and bright yellow scrambled eggs. If only more pubs could be this way. Kippen’s Cross Keys is a bit of a find.

Main Street
01786 870293
kippencrosskeys.com

Twin room £60 per night B&B, doubles £70 or £80. Dinner about £25pp for three courses excluding drinks. EasyJet flies to Glasgow from Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Belfast and Bristol from £25.99. The nearest railway station is at Stirling Further information about the area at visitscotland.com/perfect.