Merlin Restaurant in Stirling

A nice, laid back place which is excellent for winding down after a day of lake side adventures. Cordial service, good food, prices are very reasonable. We were very happy with the service and food.

Food and service were delightful!! We had the braised beef cheek which literally fell apart. The flavour was amazing! To follow we had a cheese selection and my other half had a chocolate pudding. He doesn’t even like chocolate but said it was unreal! Honestly from start to finish the service, mains, deserts and drinks were so nice. What a lovely evening we had. 100% recommend. Absolutely gorgeous food!

Popped in on Monday evening and ordered the Scottish menu,this was absolutely fantastic everything was cooked to perfection.well done

Told we needed reservations, but 3/4 of tables were empty. Wait staff a bit short, like they didn't want to be there. Food was average. Avoid the cheese and biscuits course.

Having been let down elsewhere, we landed here at about 2pm for lunch on a Sunday. In a relatively quiet village we were hoping more than expecting but having wandered through the hotel from the car park we found ourselves at reception and were welcomed to go in for lunch. I think it was probably the Merlin restaurant rather than the Ptarmigan bar. We couldn't understand why the place was empty but we had nothing to worry about. A 3-course set lunch menu had limited but sufficient choice. The food was served promptly, it was well presented, hot, perfectly prepared and plentiful. Soup, melon and prawns to start, roast beef and salmon followed by lemon tart and cheese. Despite the lack of atmosphere (the only reason it is not a 5) because we were the only ones present, I can only say that it was excellent - certainly worth finding and good value. Still can't understand why it was empty - it would be booked up for weeks back home.

We ate here as a last resort as all of the other pubs in Drymen were full. The ladybatvreception seemed more interested in her phone than assisting us to find our way to the pub or restaurant. The pub was also full so we tried the Merlin. It was a fixed menu with two courses for £18. We chose a lamb dinner and fruit crumble. The main took 45 minutes to serve and was a very basic lamb roast. The crumble looked as though it was leftovers scraped from someone elses bowl. For the price the food was very disappointing and I wouldnt recommend it.

There is a choice of two places to eat in Drymen. We chose the wrong one. The pub is OK but the restaurant has as much atmosphere at the moon. It is absolutely dismal. It has the feel of a canteen. The service was appalling, although there was only one other table being served. The service was so bad it could have serve as a classic example of how NOT to serve at table. We were shown to a table but it did not occur to anyone to bring us a menu or ask us if we wanted something to drink. I had to call over a waitress to order a bottle of wine. After a considerable wait she arrived with a bottle. Then, without bothering to show me the label, she poured out two glasses of wine and then, only then, did she ask me if I would like to taste it. So, she had been taught to ask a customer to taste the wine, but not that she was only supposed to pour a small amount into one glass and then await a response. We had to call her back and ask for a menu. I ordered soup of the day, which was quite nice, followed by venison, which was distinctly average. My wife had smoked mackerel for starters, which was fine, followed by poached salmon, which was unappetising. We shared the cheese board, which proved to be the best part of the meal. We washed it down with a bottle of Chardonnay. Total cost - £59.50 By this time we were the only people in the restaurant. Even so we could not get the bill. We could see our waitress in the kitchen, through the glass window, but she was too busy chatting to someone. Then she came out and left for home. All this time two members of staff we deep in discussion in one corner trying to figure out how to split the bill of the eight Canadians who had dined earlier. In the end I had to ask them to come over and sort out our bill. Dreadful!

Das Lokal an sich ist sehr alt, gemütlich und das Personal freundlich. Die Auswahl auf der Speisekarte war beschränkt - nur 3 Menues- aber das Essen war ok. Besuch nur mit Reservierung möglich!

My wife and I called in for a Bar Meal when we were in Drymen. My fish and chips and my wife`s scampi were very good. We both had sweets which were to die for. A future visit might just be required!!

We ate here our first night in Drymen and had the 'Taste of Scotland Menu'. This set-menu four course meal was quite delicious, and we enjoyed each part (the mussels were fantastic!). By the end we were beyond stuffed and felt like we needed to be rolled out. Our waiter was very helpful and attentive, and overall we enjoyed our night. The restaurant itself is a bit tired, with stained chairs and a room in need of redecorating. And even though I very much enjoyed the meal, I did think it was overpriced when compared to food in the rest of Scotland.

So much flavour and good portions, not too much just right, on nice hot plates too! Supreme of chicken is a winner

We stayed in Drymen a week and sampled most of the restaurants. The Merlin was the only one we made a point of returning to. They were two of the most delicious and best value meals I have had in a long while. The first visit we both had the four-course "Taste of Scotland" menu, including the best Cullen Skink I've ever had as a starter and a haggis/neaps/tatties tower as a second starter. Then I selected what was meant to be a six-ounce Filet steak as my main, but it as at least eight if not ten ounces, prepared to perfection. Then dessert was a a generous portion of delicious cheese cake. We could not have eaten it all but for the fact it was too delicious to leave behind! The second time we had the three course menu and it did not reduce our esteem for this establishment in the least. The restaurant is a quaint old Scottish room and the service was excellent. The hotel seems to cater to the older bus tour crowd, but that should not diminish your visit in the least.

The restaurant is a characterful, old place with much charm and the food matched! Plenty of local ingredients and dishes with nice twists. The portions were a good size: filling but not greedy oversized quantities that you get in some places, but not petite nouveau cuisine portions either. We ate from the set menu, at £20 for 3 courses and coffee, but I'd have liked to have combined both as they both had dishes that were very tempting. The service was very good - friendly yet professional - if a little slow, but possibly this was because there was a highland dancing event on in another area (inaudible from the restaurant) so staff were probably diverted there.

Went to have afternoon tea with a few friends, very disappointed at the very poor level of service, the serving waiter was doing his best but seemed over awed, the manager arrived to help frankly he should have stayed in the background, our group was made to feel unwanted and anxious. Trying to get the bill paid was a nightmare with the staff and the manager failing to work out the workings of the till. Our offer to simply leave the money for them to sort the till later was deemed unacceptable, we were forced to wait whilst the process was sorted out. Quite a poor experience, really concerned as this place is in the centre of the local tourist area. One wonders , given that very poor service was offered to locals, what tourists must think. Lovely location, great area just needs to upgrade manager and staff traing.

We had a wonderful evening meal here - the food was absolutely delicious - and I can highly recommend. It is easily as good as much of the fine dining in Glasgow and Edinburgh but for a fraction of the price. There are excellent 3 and 4 course menus available with a range of fresh local produce used (I had scallops, cullen skink and fillet of beef).The restaurant itself is full of character - wooden ceiling beams and view onto village square . In particular, the staff were extremely attentive, friendly and helpful and we will certainly return here when next in the area.

excellent food but unfortunate that its part of the winnock hotel,my main revies scores the hotel poorly but as stated if I was just to review the food and bar it would score highly, the steak was tremendous and if this food is consistant it is worth going to sample

Stopped here for a late lunch. Very quiet, staff pleasant and attentive. Menu limited but adequate. We both had steak pie which I don't think followed the definition of 'pie'. It was tasty enough but was a round pastie type of affair with nice enough steak pieces within but no gravy, more an up market sausage roll. Served with a small bowl of chips (adequate) and some attractively arranged veggies- more a garnish than a portion. The two mains and three soft drinks only came to £22 so not too disappointed but won't be rushing back.

My partner and I were recently enjoying a short break in drymen and wanted to find somewhere to eat on the 1st night, we liked the look of the menu displayed just outside the winnock hotels entrance so decided to dine there. When we sat down we were quite promptly approached by a waitress who asked what our room number was we told her we weren't staying there but had just come for a meal she looked horrified, stuttered then rushed away, a little while later another waitress came over asked if we wanted drinks and gave us a menu, when we took a look we realised it was a completely different menu to what we'd seen previously which didn't have much of an appetising selection and was more than twice the price, we already had our drinks so resolved to stay thinking the foods bound to be amazing at those prices, when it arrived we were a little aghast at the tiny portion,(I have seen much bigger childrens servings in restaurants)plus there was no apple sauce for my partners pork, and poor presentation then on tasting it was mediocre at best, very average and pretty bland. We left feeling angry at being totally ripped off and hungry, would of been better going to a wetherspoons the food would have been tastier, the service better and at least we would have left there full!!!!