The Priory Hotel

The food and service were brilliant. The room, though, felt shabby for £135 a night. It was clean, and the shower was spotless and lovely, but the bed looked as if someone had had a great night on it: bits had been ripped out of the headboard where they’d gripped it. The bedside light didn’t work, and a drawer handle fell off. I reported both, and they wrote them down in a book. The owner should take a proper look around and ask whether they’d want to stay there for that price.

We were really impressed by the range of choices on the menu, and the meal was delicious. The ambience was lovely too. Ruby gave us excellent service once again. This place is a real asset to Beauly.

For a restaurant recommended by a local, this was an underwhelming meal, especially at £12.50 for the pizza. I had the thin-crust vegetarian option. The base was like a baked crisp cookie, nothing like a Neapolitan-style crust. The cheese tasted flat, and I could barely taste the pineapple. I almost never need to add pepper to pizza, but I did here. There was only a homeopathic dose of oregano.

We booked through our travel company and stayed for two nights. The building and room looked a bit dated and weren’t really to our taste, but everything was clean and tidy and we had what we needed. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant both nights and really enjoyed it. We ordered steak each time because it was so good. The hotel and restaurant staff were friendly throughout. At breakfast, we could order what we wanted instead of having a buffet, which was a first for us.