Meldrum Arms – The Lower Restaurant – Oldmeldrum Aberdeenshire

It was a Friday, my wife and I had some friends staying with us for the weekend. Since neither of us could be bothered cooking for four we decided to go out for a meal. The Meldrum Arms had been recommended to us by a local, who claimed the food was good and the price reasonable. They should probably go in to hiding.

We arrived and waited; nobody was around. Finally a member of staff spotted us and shouted from the end of the restaurant inquiring as to whether we had a booking. My wife had gone earlier in the day to book a table. We need not have bothered as it became evident upon our arrival that tables are rarely in short supply in this restaurant. Whether that is due to the vast number of tables, or to other issues as yet undisclosed, I leave to the discretion of you the reader.

We were shown to our table next to a bay window that had a pleasant aspect to the road outside. Well it was pleasant in comparison to the décor inside the establishment. We took a look at our menus and wondered if we were in the right place. The décor said ‘pub grub’ the menu, without a sense of irony ‘a la carte’.

We placed our order. I went for the cream of vegetable soup initially. This started off very nicely until I started finding lumps of vegetable towards the bottom of the bowl. Had I been expecting a chunky vegetable soup this might have been acceptable. I was not, and it was not. The after taste of the soup lingered throughout my whole meal. This of course detracted from the rest of the meal. So they can’t do soup. Fair enough, I can’t either but then I’m not running a restaurant.

I should add at this point out that I had an urge to visit the little boys room, not something normally mentioned in a food review. However it does form part of the experience of eating out. The tiles are a lovely shade of brown; reminiscent of those mornings after a curry you’d rather forget. It was a reminder why we should be glad we’re now two decades removed from the 80’s. There was also a nice hole in the wall to investigate should you be so inclined. At least it was clean.

Anyway.

We ordered a nice bottle of red but were somewhat surprised when it arrived having already been opened. This should have been opened at our table. When serving wine in excess of £15 per bottle this strikes me as a sign that the restaurant may have ideas above its station.

On to the main course, we each went for the Char Grilled 8oz Scotch Fillet Steak accompanied with Sauté Mushrooms, Battered Onion Rings & Oven Roasted Vine Tomatoes that at £20.95 each were eye wateringly expensive. I’ve paid less in far more impressive establishments. However, I love my steak and am willing to pay extra for a good one. The steak itself was cooked to perfection. My request for a medium steak had been granted and I savoured the juicy flesh. The vine tomatoes weren’t quite to my liking. They looked quite unappealing and didn’t taste much better.

The menu states “All Dishes where appropriate are served with Fresh vegetables, Baby Boiled Potatoes or Hand Cut Rooster Chips”. What it doesn’t state is that the whole table has to share one bowl of chips. This is unacceptable when paying £21 for a meal.

When one is dining in an establishment for the first time you are very reliant on the knowledge of the waiting staff to guide you through the menu. When we inquired as to whether the Pepper Sauce Boat would be enough to share, we were quickly informed that it was “one per person”. We gave each other quizzical looks because at £3.50 per serving it seemed a little steep. We knew we’d been had the minute they arrived. When they said ‘Sauce Boats’ I wasn’t expecting three Titanics to be wedged on to our table. One would’ve been more than enough between us.

We ordered a second bottle of wine. Had they just slipped up last time? Evidently not, it arrived open once more.

For dessert I decided to go with the ‘Selection of Dairy Ice Creams’. I selected Chocolate. Or rather I would’ve until I discovered that the selection consisted of vanilla, vanilla or vanilla. They should try stocking up, it’s not as if they were really busy and they’d run out due to demand. I skipped dessert in the end but my companions went with the ‘Home made Sticky Toffee Pudding Coated with Toffee Sauce’. This went down a treat; conversation hit a brick wall as they devoured toffee heaven.

So at least the meal ended on a positive note. Err no.

When eating out with friends we usually just split the bill. I have never had a problem with this arrangement in my whole life. Until now that is. When it came time to settle up we were informed that it was not possible to split the bill, and that we had to pay with one card as it is ‘company policy’. It was suggested we could pay cash, but we didn’t have the £140 on us. The response to that was, “Well there’s a bank round the corner.” Yes you read that right. We should’ve taken him up on the offer and just not come back.

We asked to see the manager. The waiter stormed off in a huff. We waited and waited until eventually he returned and would you believe it all of a sudden we could pay with two cards.

So to summarise, the food is reasonable enough but there are real issues surrounding the prices and the quality of the serving staff. They really need to reassess what they are trying to achieve. If it’s exclusive dining then they need to refurbish the restaurant and hire trained staff that know how to treat customers. But in my humble opinion they should stop kidding themselves and stick to good quality pub grub at a reasonable price. That is something they could be more than capable of achieving.

Overall
3/10 (It would’ve been 1/10 but the steak and the toffee pudding earns them two marks).