Hotel Hit Squad: It's worth enduring the Scottish weather to sample Tom Kitchin’s near perfect food at The Bonnie Badger
Oh Scotland, if only your weather was better I would put my name down for a Scottish passport if and when the time comes. I do love you so.
On my recent visit to The Bonnie Badger – opened in Gullane by Edinburgh-based chef Tom Kitchin just under a year ago – I experienced all the weather. That is very often the case on this stretch of the east coast. Packing for my frequent sojourns north of the border involves a mix-and-match jamboree of shorts, sunglasses, scarf and voluminous Issey Miyake rainwear.
It was a fine afternoon when I arrived at the Bonnie Badger, 50 miles (80km) east of Edinburgh. I basked in sunshine in the garden with a glass of complimentary champagne and a plate of (similarly gratis) fancy confectionery – a basking that lasted four and a half minutes, before apocalyptic skies gathered and Wagnerian rain fell.
As one, the drinkers in the yard made for the Garden Room. Smokers huddling for shelter just outside made the air inside toxic, so I headed to the bar for a game of pool.
• The refurbished Burgh Island Hotel unashamedly plays on its Art Deco heritage – and guests love it
Half an hour later the sun had returned, and, emboldened by chardonnay, I set out on what was a glorious walk to the beach. I met a bouncy, sand-covered dog called Lola. Life was good. Then, as if conjured by CGI, the sky turned black and the heavens opened again, and stayed open. It was the Rapture of downpours. I was still using a hairdryer on my underwear five minutes before dinner.
And dinner is the point of this place. The Bonnie Badger is a near-perfect restaurant with rooms, close enough to the city to get to, but far enough away to warrant an overnight stay. You must go. And take an umbrella.
Head chef Matthew Budge is doing cracking comfort food under the auspices of boss Kitchin, who has been responsible for some of the most enjoyable food I have ever eaten at his Edinburgh fine-dining flagship The Kitchin. He also oversees Castle Terrace – where I’ve had great food but find the ambience odd – and The Scran & Scallie, my default gastropub in the city before two or three poor meals saw me fall out of love with it.
• After sampling Jason Atherton’s hefty grills, you'll need the impressive gym at The Biltmore Mayfair
If you aren’t driving, Kitchin’s restaurant with rooms involves a 20-minute train ride from Edinburgh to Longniddry, followed by a short drive. Longniddry, however, is the kind of place that has one local taxi driver who has – as I discovered – been fully booked up days in advance. I can never face messing around with local buses, and that 15-minute drive was also apparently a two-hour walk, so I called The Bonnie Badger and asked if they could invent Uber, or something.
A member of staff immediately came to pick me up. I greeted him like a long-missed sibling. On wheels. He was typical of the team at the hotel – everyone seems beyond thrilled to be working there and to see you. Scottish hospitality is frequently the inverse of its grumbling, begrudging sibling down south.
My attic room at The Bonnie Badger was small but comfortable. I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time in it, but I fell in love with one particular design detail – what looked like brickwork was actually a wallpaper print of trees. I also liked the little illuminated button in the bathroom mirror that activated the lighting – so practical for 2am calls of nature. I didn’t like the Wi-Fi, however, which insisted on a log-in via Sky Sports. Tacky. But the point of The Bonnie Badger isn’t its cottages or suites, it’s the menu.
Dinner is served in The Stables. The original, 18th-century beams of this former inn have been polished up and offset with huge, halo-shaped lights. The interiors are stylish enough for a special occasion, but not intimidating.
You could say the same about the food. I had a starter portion of the local girolles and broad bean pearl barley risotto – sublimely autumnal, and almost impossible to better. My steak pie came with a pristine shiny crust, bolted-through with a bone full of marrow. Again, perfectly lush.
Dessert was a gooseberry panna cotta with red gooseberry sorbet, mixing rich with fresh. Pretty much everything I ate was sourced within a few miles of the beach where I had, just hours before, been drenched.
And you can feel the love from the kitchen for the produce they are handling. Nothing is tortured, nothing is deconstructed. Dinner here is just…lovely. As indeed is breakfast, which continues the “from nature to plate” ethos, with eggs, bacon and sausages from nearby East Fortune Farm, served on handmade pottery by Scottish potter Clare Dawdry.
• The Bulgari Hotel London has upped its game with a new restaurant based on a New York favourite
Portions would suit the gourmandiest gourmand, and they certainly defeated me. But there was pleasure in the defeat. Every black cloud in Scotland comes with many silver linings. And sometimes a round of toast.
Rooms from £195 with breakfast. There are no accessible rooms.
Read the full hotel review: The Bonnie Badger