Duffus Inn in Moray

We visited for lunch to see how things were under the new operator with a view to booking dinner for 4 visitors arriving the following weekend. The welcome was pleasant and service was effective and very cheery. The soup was tasty if small and a bit tepid. The follow on baked potatoes however were well undercooked and the cheese and bean “filling” of one was a thin smear of ochre coloured paste with no visible bean content. Dismal Needless to say, we have booked elsewhere.

A very poor quality meal indeed, the starter of baked Camembert was nice but the onion chutney was hot pink onions in a thin dressing. The mains were horrible, my partner’s beef burger was clearly of the frozen variety while my 5 bean burger had been pulverised into a paste, then fried, but was soggy and unable to be picked up in the bun and didn’t taste good. A very expensive lesson learned, we will not return. The waiter was lovely though.

Sadly first impressions of the duffus inn under new management continued for the duration of our visit. To begin with, they had no recollection of our booking (despite this being a birthday celebration). After waiting an hour for our food to arrive, we finally asked a waitress for an update. The food arrived shortly thereafter - either burnt, cold or, in some instances- both! We immediately returned the seafood risotto because it was cold (not a good mixture from a food safety perspective). The risotto returned warm but sadly the skin was still on the salmon and the risotto flavourless so that was the end of that. The gents had sirloin steaks which were also cold, tough and the waitress was not sure which was which in terms of cooking. The fish was overcooked with dry batter and the chicken burger was burnt and so dried out it was inedible. The macaroni was a success but sadly a very small portion. We enquired of the waitress if there was an issue as the food was cold or burnt. She agreed to talk to someone and come back to us - she never returned. We went to complain and were met by the troop of waiting staff and the manager in what could, at best, be described as an inexperienced manner but it came across as rude and frankly lacking respect for the customer. The manager, having no authority to compliment the meal, called his boss and then continued to laugh in our faces whilst on the call. Appalling behaviour doesn't come close. We have enjoyed many meals at the Duffus Inn but sadly the new version is lacking in all aspects of enjoyable dining. Another couple had complained whilst we were there and I suspect, judging by our visit, the young manager will have plenty of opportunity to work on his complaints management in the near future! Save yourself the dissatisfaction (and the steep bill) and support one of the other fantastic eateries in moray.

I never write reviews but the food at this restaurant was so bad that I have to say something about it. The steak was obviously frozen and fried before totally defrosted and the seafood pasta was the worst I’ve ever tasted.